KHUTAB III - 32. THE STYLE OF THE QUR’ĀN

32.  THE STYLE OF THE QUR’ĀN

Brothers in Islam.

There is an Arabic proverb saying, مَنْ أَحَبَّ شَيْئًا أَكْثَرَ مِنْ ذِكْرِهِ   meaning, “Whoever loves something he mentions (remembers) it very often. If you love Allah you will remember Him very often. Our Prophet taught us so many expressions reminding us of Allah, such as سُبْحَانَ اللهِ , الْحَمْدُ لِلهِ , اللهُ أَكْبَر   and we say if we admire somethingمَا شَاءَ اللهُ  تَبَارَكَ الله  and if we do not like something we ask Allah’s protection from it and say أَعُوْذُ بِالله ; if someone is sneezing he should say اْلحَمْدُ لِله   and the person who hears him should pray for him and say يَرْحَمُكَ الله   “may Allah bless you” and the sneezing person prays back and says يَهْدِيْكُُمُ الله  “may Allah guide you” and many other similar expressions.

As Muslims we believe that Allah talked to us through revelation to Prophet Muhammad, and is still talking to us and people in later generations until the Last Day when we read the Qur’ān. He says directly to people in general, including non-believers, by saying يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاس “O people,” to the people of the Book (Jews and Christians) at least twelve times, by saying يَا أَهْلَ اْلكِتَاب “O People of the Book”, to the believers, by saying, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوا  “O those who believe”; but He does not talk directly to those who have already rejected the truth of Islam after it has been delivered to them. He ordered the Prophet to talk to them, by saying قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا اْلكَافِرُوْن  “Say: O those who reject the truth, (namely, infidel)”. He talked directly to the non-believers only in the Hereafter, when it has become too late for them to accept Islam; Allah says,

  (التحريم , ٧) . يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَا تَعْتَذِرُوا الْيَوْمَ إِنَّمَا تُجْزَوْنَ مَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

(It will be said in the Hereafter) O you who disbelieve! Make no excuses this

 Day! You are being requited only for what you used to do. (Q. 66:7).

Every speaker, every writer, has his own style. As the Qur’ān is Allah’s words, then He must have His own style, beyond human style in its eloquence that even the poets in Arabia could not imitate. As the Qur’ān is to be recited by Muslims belonging to various languages and ethnic backgrounds, Allah chose words which are easy to pronounce. Some examples are as follows:

a. The wordآبَاء  (ābā’) meaning “fathers and forefathers” andأَجْدَاد   (ajdād) meaning “grand fathers, and ancestors”. Here Allah chose the word which is easy to pronounce, namely, آبَاء  (ābā’), such as the following verse:

 فَإِذَا قَضَيْتُمْ مَنَاسِكَكُمْ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَذِكْرِكُمْ آَبَاءَكُمْ أَوْ أَشَدَّ ذِكْرًا ... (البقرة : ٢٠٠)

So, when you have completed your manasik

 remember Allah as you remember your forefathers

 or with a far more remembrance… (Q. 2:200).

It means after performing your manāsik al-h.ajj (rituals of the pilgrimage), namely, ih.rām, t.awāf around the Ka‘bah and sa‘ī between Mt. Safā and Mt. Warwah, wuqūf (stopping) at ‘Arafāt, mabīt (staying the night) at Muzdalifah and Miná, ramy jamarāt (stoning of the pillars at Miná symbolising Satan), and slaughtering the sacrifices animal (hady), then Allah told us not just forget Him, but we should remember Him as we remember our forefathers. Here Allah used the word ābā’ instead of ajdād.

In another verse Allah said,

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُوا مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا أَلْفَيْنَا عَلَيْهِ آَبَاءَنَا

 أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آَبَاؤُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَهْتَدُونَ  (البقرة ,١٧٠)

When it is said to them: “Follow what Allah has sent down”, they

say: “Nay! We shall follow what we found our fathers following.” (Would they do that!) even though their fathers did not under-

stand anything nor were they guided? (Q. 2:170)

b. The words for news are خَبَر (khabar, pl. أَخْبَار akhbār), meaning, “news, information, report, rumour, message, story, affair,” originally used for what has happened, or happened in the past, andنَبَـأ  (naba’, pl.  أَنْبَاء anbā’), meaning: “news, tidings, information, announcement, report,” originally used for what will happen in the future. A person who knows what happened in the past, and later called an “expert, specialist” is calledخَبِيْر  (khabīr). Allah is الْخَبِيْر(al-Khabīr, the Knowing) knows what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. The term for “prophecy” is نُبُوْءَة (nubū’ah) and نُبُوَّة (nubuwwah which also means “prophethood”). The term نَبِِيّ (nabī, “a prophet”) was probably derived from نَبِيْء (nabī’), meaning “a person who knows what will happen in the future”, rather than from the verb نَبَى- يَنْبُو )nabá, yanbū), meaning “to be distant, to move away.”

     The word خَبَر (khabar) and its derivatives are used in the Qur’ān as follows: خُبْرًا  (khubran, Q. 17:68 and 91),   بِخَبَر (bikhabarin, Q. 27:7 and 28:29),  أَخْبَارَهَا(akhbārahā, Q. 99:4), whereas the term  خَبِيْر(khabīr, including الْخَبِيْر al-khabīr and خَبِيْرًا  khabīran) are mentioned about 37 times. In short,  خَبَر(khabar) as a noun is used 5 times, and the word   خَبِيْر khabīr) is used about 37 times. Total: about 42 times. It is never used as a verb, such as أََخْبَرَ (akhbara).

The use of the termنَبَـأَ  (naba’) and its derivatives in the Qur’ān is as follows: as a verb, at least 50 times; as a noun, (meaning “news, information, etc.) at least 33 times, meaning “a prophet” (or prophets), 32 times, and meaning “prophethood” five times. Total: 163 times.

It is easier to pronounce the word naba’ than the word khabar, especially for non-Arabs. Although the Dutch and the German have this kh sound, such as kilogram and achtung, the English, French, Italian, Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian) do not have it. We adopted the word khabar, but change it into kabar. Therefore, Allah wants to make it easy for us to read the Qur’ān, and gives the word easy to pronounce, namely, naba’ instead of khabar, especially as a verb. Among the examples of the use of naba’ and its derivatives as a verb in the Qur’ān are as follows:

  وَعَلَّمَ آَدَمَ الْأَسْمَاءَ كُلَّهَا ثُمَّ عَرَضَهُمْ عَلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ فَقَالَ أَنْبِئُونِي بِأَسْمَاءِ هَؤُلَاءِ

 إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ. قَالُوا سُبْحَانَكَ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَا إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ.

 قَالَ يَا آَدَمُ أَنْبِئْهُمْ بِأَسْمَائِهِمْ فَلَمَّا أَنْبَأَهُمْ بِأَسْمَائِهِمْ قَالَ أَلَمْ أَقُلْ لَكُمْ إِنِّي

 أَعْلَمُ غَيْبَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَأَعْلَمُ مَا تُبْدُونَ وَمَا

كُنْتُمْ تَكْتُمُونَ (البقرة : ٣١-٣٣)

And He taught Adam all the names (of everything), then He

  showed them to the angels and said, ‘Tell Me the name of these

  if you are truthful” They (angels) said: “Glorified are You, we

 have no knowledge except what you have taught us Verily, it is You,

 the All-Knower, the All-Wise.” He said, ‘O Adam! Inform them of

  their names,” and when he had informed them of their names, He

 said: “Did I not tell you that I know the Ghayb (Unseen) in the

heavens and the earth, and I know what you reveal and

what you have been concealing?” (Q. 2: 31- 33).

وَإِذْ أَسَرَّ النَّبِيُّ إِلَى بَعْضِ أَزْوَاجِهِ حَدِيثًا فَلَمَّا نَبَّأَتْ بِهِ وَأَظْهَرَهُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ عَرَّفَ بَعْضَهُ وَأَعْرَضَ

عَنْ بَعْضٍ فَلَمَّا نَبَّأَهَا بِهِ قَالَتْ مَنْ أَنْبَأَكَ هَذَا قَالَ نَبَّأَنِيَ الْعَلِيمُ الْخَبِيرُ. (التحريم : ٣)

And (remember) when the Prophet disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wives (Hafsah), then she told it (to another i.e., ‘A’ishah). And Allah made it known to him; he informed part thereof and left a part. Then when he told her (Hafsah) thereof, she said: ‘Who told you this?’ He said: The All-Knower, the Well-Acquainted (Allah) has told me. (Q. 66:3)

This verse is about the Prophet’s promise not to drink honey any more, as the honey given by his wife Zaynab bint Jah.sh, was falsely and probably out of jealousy claimed to have bad smell by his wife ‘Ā’ishah, who had told the other wife H.afs.ah to complain to him of the bad smell.. But Allah informed him about this scheme and asked them (‘Ā’ishah and H.afs.ah) to repent, or the Prophet might divorce them. 

c. There are two words for “marriage” in Arabic: زَوَاج (zawāj) and نِكَاح (nikāh).. The verb is زَوَّجَ (zawwaja) and  نَكَحَ(nakah.a), meaning, “to marry.”  As a verb, zawwaja (and its derivatives) is used 5 times only in the Qur’ān, whereas the verb nakah.a (and its derivatives) is used 17 times. As a noun the term zawāj is not used, but rather the term nikāh.. Examples in the Qur’ān are as follows:

وَلَا تَنْكِحُوا مَا نَكَحَ آَبَاؤُكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ إِنَّهُ

كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَمَقْتًا وَسَاءَ سَبِيلًا (النساء : ٢٢)

And marry not women whom your fathers married, except

 what has already passed; indeed it was shameful

 and most hateful, and an evil way. (Q.4:22)

وَلَا تَعْزِمُوا عُقْدَةَ النِّكَاحِ حَتَّى يَبْلُغَ الْكِتَابُ أَجَلَهُ ... (البقرة  : ٢٣٥)

… And do not consummate the marriage until

the term prescribed is fulfilled. (Q. 2:235).

It is easier to pronounce nakah.a than zawwaja, and to pronounce nikāh. than zawāj, and therefore the former is used in the Qur’ān. In the Egyptian slang, the first and the last letter of the term zawāj is inverted and becomes jawāz, and the letter j is pronounced g in “go” and “get”, and the word becomes gawāz.

          According to the Arab tradition before Islam, it was unacceptable that a man married the divorced wife of his adopted son. At that time once you adopted a son, he should be treated like a legitimate one, and his wife would be treated like a daughter-in-law, to whom marriage is prohibited. Allah wanted to change this tradition. Your adopted son is not your real son, but the son of his father. His wife is not your adopted daughter-in-law, and therefore you can marry her if she was divorced, because there is no blood-relationship with her. It was hard to accept by the Arabs at that time, and Allah chose the word which is also hard to pronounce. Allah said:

...  فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ مِنْهَا وَطَرًا زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا لِكَيْ لَا يَكُونَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ حَرَجٌ فِي أَزْوَاجِ

أَدْعِيَائِهِمْ إِذَا قَضَوْا مِنْهُنَّ وَطَرًا وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ مَفْعُولًا  (الأحزاب  : ٣٧)

…So when Zaid had accomplished his desire from her (i.e. divorce her), We gave her to you in marriage, so that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the believers in respect of (the marriage of) the wives of their adopted sons when the latter have no desire to keep them (i.e., they have divorced them). And Allah’ command must be fulfilled. (Q. 33:37)

Here Allah Himself gave Zaynab bint Jah.sh (the Prophet’s cousin and divorced wife of Zayd) in marriage to the Prophet. She was proud that the marriage took place in heaven, witnessed by Gabriel. No wonder if ‘Ā’ishah and H.afs.ah felt rather jealous of her. Zayd was the only contemporary of the Prophet mentioned in the Qur’ān beside Abu Lahab. Zayd, a former slave received this honour, and Abū Lahab, one of the Quraysh leaders who was the Prophet’s own uncle became humiliated. Allah said, (المسد  : ١) ...   تَبَّتْ يَدَا أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ  “Perish the two hands of Abu Lahab and  perish he…” (Q.111:1) Here Allah turned the table upside down: the mean became noble, and the noble  became mean.

Conclusion:

One of the miracles of the Qur’ān is its eloquence, and one of the aspects of eloquence is the choice of words which are easy to articulate; this is a kind of blessing for non-Arab Muslims as they have to read the Qur’ān in its original text in Arabic. (ANUMA, 8 December, 06)