Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Translation: LUGHAAT UL QURAN.
FOREWORD( First Edition)
Qur’an Karim is the last Book of God and the only complete way of life for the human
race. It is based on such eternal truths which are unaffected by the changes of time and
which are so universal that they provide guidance to human thought in every aspect of
human life and in every period of history .Obviously the language in which a Book of
this caliber is written must be comprehensive, universal, far reaching, lofty and profound,
and clear, pertinent, as well. A western thinker, frustrated by Christianity, in search of a
religion which can satisfy human intellect, has said that the religion he is searching for
must be in a language which should be very simple so that a commoner can benefit from
it and at the same time it should be so profound and meaningful so as to satisfy even an
intellectual of high caliber.
The language of the Qur’an Karim also meets these criteria .It seems that when Allah
selected the Arab nation for turning the Qur’an’s
revolutionary program into
practicality then centuries before the Qur’an’s revelation this nation was bestowed with
the responsibility of bringing its language gradually to a stage where it could be worthy
of the great truths of the Qur’an. When Hazrat Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) progeny were
divided into two branches, one branch (Bani Israsel) was bestowed with prophetism and
rulership and the other branch (Bani Ismail) was settled in the valley of Ghair Zi Zara
where (after Hazrat Ismail) there was no Prophet nor did they get any Kingdom.
But gradually this branch turned into a nation which grew up in the lap of mother nature
and became fit to be the addresse of the last Prophet. Simultaneously it developed its
language to such
excellence that it could, rightfully so, call itself Arab( or those with
an expressive language) and others Ajam(or mute).The word Arabic or Arbi means clear,
distinct. At this time I am not concerned with any research debate about
the origin of the
Arabic language and its evolutionary stages. The purpose is to state only that while bani
Israel were busy for centuries in building palaces of wonderment and excellence, and
became the heirs to the Dawoodi and Sulemani(David and Soloman’s) grandeur, their
brothers,
the bani Ismail, during this whole period, consciously or subconsciously, were
the architects of a language which has no equal in the whole world.
Linguists also believe that to find out at what mental level any nation is at any particular
time of history, its language must be studied to see how many of the
words reflect
concepts .In this connection r studies show that Indo-European
languages contained a
maximum of 121 root-concepts. And during the time that Sanskrit was a living language,
and the Sun and Fire were worshipped, there were only 37 words to describe the sun and
only 35 to describe Fire. Contrary to this, the Arabs had 80 words for Honey, for the
Snake 200, and 500 for the Lion, one thousand for the Sword, 5744 words for the Camel.
This gives an idea about the wideness of the Arabs’ concept and the comprehensiveness
of their language.
This was the language in which the Quran Karim was revealed:
Wa innahu latanzeelo rabbul alameen nazzala behi roohul ahmeen ala qalbeka letakoona minal munzareen
bill;esan arabiyya mubeen( 26: 192:195).