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السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

an Overview of: Qur’an – the Linguistic Miracle Book –
by MuslimsAndTheWorld.com

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..gives us an overview of their observations of the book;

The Linguistic Miracle of the Quran

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The Quran is widely recognised as a miraculous book, for the unique style and presentation of the arabic language. As muslims worldwide know, the words and surahs contained in the Quran can only have come from Allah. Unlike other religious texts, the Quran famously issues a challenge to all mankind to try and produce even one Surah just like it. To date, nobody has been able to meet the challenge, even though many have tried.

To a native English speaker, this challenge sounds like it can easily be met, especially if they have read an English translation of the Quran. But the arabic language is so unique and powerful, that only after they study and learn it will they realise the great difficulty (and impossibility) of ever producing a surah which can rival that of those contained in the Quran.

The team at Linguistic Miracle have produced an excellent document which goes into great detail explaining how the Quran is a true linguistic miracle. It covers the arabic language, the Quran, and also the aforementioned challenge contained in the Quran. You can download the book in either pdf or word format directly from their website, and they also have available coloured charts to help you learn to understand arabic.
The document goes into a high level of detail, and it must be mentioned that having even a small knowledge of the arabic language will be a great advantage in understanding all the concepts they present. However, if you do not know any arabic, there will still be sections which will provide you with valuable knowledge of the Quran and arabic language. You will learn the conciseness of the language, and the wide range of amazing literary effects the language has had the potential of producing, as well as finding out how the pure root definitions, placement of words, and the intertwining of passages contributes to the special nature of the Quran.

The non-arabic speaker will be able to develop a greater appreciation of the Quranic text, as it is explained how the arabic words are presented to involve the use of sounds when recited, which adds dramatic effects for the listener, and can make it seem like they are watching a movie instead of reading or listening to a book. The effects are accurately explained by Arthur J. Arberry, who exclaimed “Whenever I hear the Quran chanted, it is as though I am listening to Music, – words are recited to give meaning ike rain splashing and noises underneath the flowing melody there is sounding… insistent beat of a drum, it is like the beating of my heart.”

The final section of this important presentation covers the challenge issued by Allah to produce a surah like those in the Quran. Firstly it provides an outline for what the potential challenger is expected to produce, and secondly gives examples of those who have attempted the challenge, and provides an in-depth evaluation of their work and why they failed in the task.

We highly recommend that all muslims take a look at the Linguistic Miracle presentation, as they are sure to gain even a small amount of beneficial knowledge from it. To conclude, we will reproduce a list of what you can expect to learn from their sections on arabic and the Quran, and finish that with an inspiring quote from ibn Kathir, which provides a glimpse of what you are about to learn.

ARABIC

Classical Arabic is a concise language and can express alot of detail through its accurate, descriptive and rich triliteral root vocabulary.
Arabic etymology allows one to break down triliteral words to find their original etymological meaning. This allows one to understand Arabic vocabulary thoroughly and well at an extreme level.
The letters in Arabic all have a distinct sound which will have an impact on the meaning of the word. I.e. A thick sounding letter or word will carry a thick and deep meaning. A lightly pronounced letter sound will carry a light meaning. I.e. the Letter ‘Shiin’ has a dispersing sound effect, and that’s exactly what it etymologically means. Words which sound similar yet have a slight change in one letter might imply a different shade in meaning. I.e. NaD-H = Flowing water, NaD-kh = Gushing water.
3 letter words have near Synonyms with different shades of related meanings. Sometimes if these 3 letters are shifted in order – the meanings of the new word may be related. Antonyms will also allow one to appreciate the full meaning of a word because ‘words are known by their opposites’.
Words made of more than 4 letters + are often a fusion of 2 or more words (their meanings merged).
Some words are repeated twice to enhance a repeated effect. I.e. Waswasa = repeated whispering. This is often done for emphasis.
Different means of Eloquence are used to emphasise something in Arabic rhetoric. This might be done through shifting the word order in a sentence, or placing the name of an object closer to another intended object – depicting beautiful imagery of closeness or exclusivity of an object through eloquent speech.
Classical Arabic Poetry has similar to visual movie effects, and is portrayed through; metaphors, imagery, word-play and other literary devices in the most awesome of ways.

THE QURAN

The Qur’an when heard has an ecstatic, almost hypnotic and overwhelming of emotion effect to those who understand it, and even to those who don’t! to the extent that the antagonists who heard it from the mouth of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon) accused it of being magic, due to its influence and power on the people when they heard it.
The Qur’an is unique in its layout, it defines its own structure as; Ayah, Surah, Qur’aan, giving the Qur’an a structural uniqueness in comparison to other texts.
Even at a literary level – it does not contain exaggerations or unnecessary words like poetry may. Rather it does the exact opposite of accurately choosing the best and most suited words which will describe in the most detail with the fewest of words.
The Qur’an contains meaningful, reflective, beneficial, practical and unmatched literary gems in Every Ayah, in comparison to poetry which may contain only a handful of literary gems in the entire poem.
The Qur’an contains linguistic Scientific marvels which describe modern science embryology in extreme detail and accuracy.
The Qur’an being the mother book of Arabic grammar has provided new levels of advancement in the Arabic language which were not found prior to it in any other language. Examples include; Maqaam – whereby one would use different parts of a book to gain contextual understanding of the overall picture. Tammam Hassan points out that when scholars of balagha [in Arabic rhetoric] recognized the concept of maqam (contextualisation), they were one thousand years ahead of their time. (in comparison to other languages of the world.)
The Qur’an also achieved an all-rounder success in using or introducing all the tools used for a piece of literature to have a powerful effect on all audiences (the experts of language and non-experts alike.)
The Qur’an uses; Sounds, Visuals, Movie-effects, word-play, human psychology, and rhetoric in the strongest of forms to target and influence the deep inner psyche of the listener.
We have seen an outline of how we can extract gems from the Qur’an ourselves.

Whoever reads through the Qur’an will realize that it contains various levels of superiority through both the apparent and hidden meanings that it mentions… So the expressions in the Qur’an are perfect and its meanings are explained. Further, every word and meaning in the Qur’an is eloquent and cannot be surpassed…

The Qur’an is true, just and full of guidance. It does not contain exaggerations, lies or falsehood, unlike Arabic and other types of poems that contained lies. Sometimes, one would find a long poem that mainly contains descriptions of women, horses or alcohol. Or, the poem might contain praise or the description of a certain person, horse, camel, war, incident, fear, lion, or other types of items and objects. Such praise or descriptions do not bring any benefit, except shed light on the poet’s ability to clearly and eloquently describe such items. Yet, one will only be able to find one or two sentences in many long poems that elaborate on the main theme of the poem, while the rest of the poem contains insignificant descriptions and repetitions.

As for the Qur’an, it is entirely eloquent in the most perfect manner, as those who have knowledge in such matters and understand Arabic methods of speech and expressions concur. When one reads through the stories in the Qur’an, he will find them fruitful, whether they were in extended or short forms, repeated or not. The more these stories are repeated, the more fruitful and beautiful they become. The Qur’an does not become old when one repeats reciting it, nor do the scholars ever get bored with it.

(Extract from: Tafsir ibn Kathir – Surah al Baqarah 2:24)

A big thanks, and may Allah reward you to the,

Muslims and the World.com Team

- LinguisticMiracle.com

Asalaamu alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh

How to Speak Arabic

Arabic is an amazingly flexible language, which will make it easy for you to speak Arabic to people so long as you follow certain rules.

There are 2 stages of speaking Arabic; the most basic stage, and advanced stages which people who are experts of the language enjoy (this is known as balaaghah).

You're going to understand the most basic stage, just so you can speak Arabic and people can understand you, just so you can get a feel of how to make basic sentences. Once you get used to these sentences, you can then have paragraphs of discussion.

Before starting:

PreConditions:

1 - You need to Understand the language when you hear it. The more vocabulary (words) and grammar you know, the better.

[We have already made the book; 'Learn to Understand Arabic in 12 Colored Tables' to get an understanding of the language.]

2 -Vocabulary is most important so you can maintain a long conversation, Google translate (http://translate.google.com) is good for helping in your vocabulary (English to Arabic translator).

So is Ejtaal.net Almanac dictionary, and Project Root List Quran are also useful.

3 -Grammar is important to get a feel of - because if you don't say words properly, your lack of knowledge of arabic is exposed.

In simple terms - the more you already know of Arabic, the better.

Who this article is for:

People who can understand Arabic, but find it hard to connect words together to speak Arabic in sentences.

Let's begin:

To speak sentences at the most basic level, all you need to have is a bunch of objects (nouns),actions (verbs) andconnective words (harf/huroof) which will work together to form the sentence.

In your sentence, related words will need to maintain the same pattern in the following;

i - Gender
ii -Definite / indefinite form ('THE' or 'A')
iii - the Vowel marks on the words' last letter. (Raf'/Nasb/Jarr forms)

i - GENDER:
Number (i) is just like in english or any other language.

Example:

'The big man, he iseating tasty foodinhis house.

al-RajulUal-KabeerUya'kulUTa'aamAnLadheedhAnfee BaytI-hi'.X

Looking at (i) from Arabic and English (and any languages perspective) - 'the big Man, he is Eating tasty food in his house' makes sense.

X - We do not say 'the man SHE is eating tasty food.' Because you would say 'HE' for a man.

Point (i) is now clear, and all languages agree with this.

ii - DEFINITE or Indefinite (Specific or non-Specific - 'THE' or 'A'):

Point (ii) is also easy to understand.

Al-Rajulu al-Kabeeru = the Big Man.

English does not have this, but simply put, when you add 'AL' (meaning 'the' or referring to something specific) - it implies that thing SPECIFICALLY. (i.e. THE)

Example:

AL-Rajul = THE man. (a specific man)

Compared to:
RajuluN = A man. (not anyone specifically because there is no 'AL').

Adding an Adjective:

Now let's add an Adjective [ صِفه] (Attribute) to describe this Man.

Al Rajulu Al-Kabeeru = the BigMan

[NOTE: In Arabic:- Adjectives (Attributes) are added AFTER the Noun (object), unlike English where Adjectives (Attributes) are mentioned before the Noun.]

This 'AL' on both implies Definiteness, Definite means there is no; 'A', 'Is', 'Are' type of words in this phrase, it is only 'THE'.

If there was no 'AL', those words would be added. (i.e. A man, Are men etc.)

I.e. RajuluN KabeeruN = 'A' Man 'Is' big.

How to write 'The' or 'A' in Arabic:

If there is 'AL' ('The') at the beginning - there is no 'N' (meaning: 'A') at the end of the word. | If there is no 'AL' before the word, then it will have a letter N[tanween] at the end to show it is indefinite (not specific) - meaning ('A').

Example:
Al-Rajulu_ (no 'N' attached at end) = THE man.
__- RajuluN (no 'AL' attached at beginning) = A man.

How to write 'Is' or 'Are' in Arabic:

If there is part definite (i.e. AL-Rajul [the Man]) and part indefinite (kabeer-uN) - then it looks like the following:

Al-Rajulu KabeeruN = The Man IS big.

Compared to: AL-Rajulu Al-Kabeeru (= The Big Man) [no 'a', or 'is' is mentioned].

Also compared to: RajuluN KabeeruN (= A Man is Big)

Or: RajuluN al-Kabeeru = a Big Man

SUMMARY:

Al Rajulu Al-Kabeeru = the BigMan

RajuluNKabeeruN = 'A' Man 'Is' big.

Al-Rajulu KabeeruN = The Man IS big.

RajuluNal-Kabeeru = aBig Man

iii -This 3rd step is unique to Arabic:

The 'mood' of the word is shown through the vowel mark/sound on a words last letter.

What is the 'mood' of a word? The vowel on the last letter of a word tells what the word is doing in the sentence.

We have touched upon this in our I'raab* table already, so refer to this for the basics.

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Any word in the sentence can either be a; Doer, Doing, Targeted Object, Owner of something else, etc:

'Doers' [faa'il] and 'Doings' (Actions - Fi'l) & often Default words usually end with a 'U' sound on the end of the word. (known as: Raf'/maRfoo')

Targetted Objects, Descriptions, or 'receiving Attention' words often end in 'A'. (known as: Nasb/maNsoob)

'Owners' often end with 'I' on the end. Harf al Jarr (small words like 'Fee', 'Alaa etc.) words also make the word after it have an'I' on its end letter. (known as: Jarr/maJroor)
Conditional statementsadd a sukoon (silent pause) on a word [meaning: no vowels are pronounced on the last letter].

Mabni [ مبني] (meaning: 'made') words do not follow the patterns mentioned above. They have to be learnt separately.

Let's look at an example:

ZaydU DarbU 'AmrA
Zayd Hit 'Amr

We see thatZayd is the 'Doer' (U), he is 'Doing' (U) Hitting (DarbU), and 'Amrhas an 'A' at the end because he is being the Targetted Object/recieving Attention.

Example 2:

BaytUllahi - (broken down: Baytu Allahi) = Allah'sHouse) [Owner & Default]

Example 3:

ZaydADarbU 'AmrU
'Amr HitZayd

This one's tricky, isn't it? Compare it to example 1.

The reason why Zayd in this one is being 'Hit' is because he has got the 'A' written on the end of his name. 'Amr is the 'Hitter' because he is the 'Doer' (faa'il) [U on the end.]

This is an example of how powerful, sensitive and flexible the Arabic language is.

NOTE:
1 - Mabni [ مبني] (meaning: 'made') words do not follow the patterns mentioned above.

Example: Daraba = He Hit.

Because the word 'DarabA' has an 'A' at the end, it does not mean it is a 'Targetted Object'. Rather, this word has an 'A' at the end due to it being made that way with other rules of the language. Your job with Mabni words is to simply memorise them as they are, and if you ever doubt if a word is mabni or not, you will have to ask someone with knowledge of Arabic, or continue learning.

2 - A deeper study of grammar (nahw) will show you that vowels on the last letter of a word change for other rules too. So further study of Arabic is important, this article only intends to show you the extreme basics to maintain a conversation whereby Arabs can atleast understand you.

The Vowel on a Object & it's Attribute's last letter - have to be the SAME.

Looking at the sentence made earlier in (ii);

We see that both these have a Damma ('U' sound) on its last letter;

Al-RajulU Al-KabeerU (TheBig Man) - (Noun - Adjective both have 'U' on the end)
RajulUn KabeerUN. - (Noun - Adjective both have 'U' on the end) (A Man IS Big)

This is important so people KNOW that the Attribute belongs to the Noun (in this case, the 'Noun' will be the Man):

Al-RajulU [noun]Al-KabeerU [Adjective/Attribute], ya'kulU (Faa'il [Doer = he] & Fi'l - Doing word)Ta'aamAN (Targetted Object has Fat-ha/zabar on last letter) LadheedhAn (Description).

"The Big Man (he)is Eatinga Tasty Food"

Commentary:

i - We see 'the Man' (AL-Rajul) [a specific man] is being mentioned.
ii - His Attribute is mentioned after him (which differs to english where an Attribute is mentioned first. I.e. the Big Man)
iii - ya'kulU ('ukl = eat food) and the 'ya' = 'he' (present-future tense) [see 'Learn Arabic in 12 colored Tables' book to see differences of Past vs Present-Future tense].
iv - Ta'aamAN = 'A' food (if it was 'AL-Ta'aamA' = 'THE food') (Targetted Object/recieving attention - because it is being eaten.)
v - LadheedhAN = 'A tasty' (if it was 'AL-LadheedhA' = THE tasty') (Description)

Let's try one together;

So now just imagine any verb or noun, think of some adjectives (Attributes) and some huroof (words which connect a sentence together.)

Let's try it.
WhatVerb (doing word - fi'l) shall we use?

Rakaba* = he Rode (past tense) / yaRkabu = he is Riding (present tense).

*[BIG NOTE: Rakaba is a 'Doing' [verb]. But it has no 'U' on its end. This is because it is a 'mabni' word.

What Noun Doer (faa'il)shall we use?

al-Rajulu = the Man

What 'Targetted Object' (maf'ool bihi) shall we use?

HimaarAN = A donkey

What Attribute (Sifah) shall we use to describe the Targetted Object?

Saree'An = Fast.

Let's now Join the sentence together:

1)Al-RajulU2)Rakaba 3)HimaarAN 4)Saree'An 5)Fee Bayti-h.

1)The Man 2)Rode 3)aDonkey 4)Fast 5)in his House.

1)[Doer = U (raf'). 2)Doing = U (raf') [in mabni/made form so no 'U' is shown]. 3) Object being Targetted = A (nasb). 4) Description = A (nasb) [it is similar to (3) in vowel because it describes (3 - the object)]. 5) Harf al Jarr (Fee) caused word after it (Bayt) to have ' i ' on its last letter too.)

Shifting the Sentence Structure for Attention:

Rakaba al-RajulU al-KabeerU HimaarAn saree'An fee Bayti-h

A big man was Riding a donkey, fast - in his house.

The Verb (Action) is placed at the beginning of this sentence compared to the sentence before to EMPHASISE the Action. I.e. the first word the Arab hears is 'Riding' so that is the main focus of attention in this sentence. Compared to the earlier sentence which had emphasis on the MAN doing the riding.

Summary:

We learn that;

1 - Arabic is so flexible, that 'Doers' [Faa'il], the 'Doings' [Fi'l], and the Targetted Object [Maf'ool bihi] can go almost anywhere in a sentence, so long as the vowel on the last letter is added correctly.

2 -
'Doers' [faa'il] and 'Doings' (Actions - Fi'l) & often Default words usually end with a 'U' sound on the end of the word. (known as: Raf'/maRfoo')

Targetted Objects, Descriptions, or 'receiving Attention' words often end in 'A'. (known as: Nasb/maNsoob)

'Owners' often end with 'I' on the end. Harf al Jarr (small words like 'Fee', 'Alaa etc.) words also make the word after it have an'I' on its end letter. (known as: Jarr/maJroor)
Conditional statementsadd a sukoon (silent pause) on a word [meaning: no vowels are pronounced].

Mabni [ مبني] (meaning: 'made') words do not follow the patterns mentioned above. They have to be learnt separately.

3 -AL = "The". When there is no 'AL' (meaning: 'The') but 'N' at the end of a word instead], you can translate it as the words; 'A', 'is', 'are', and similar words which show indefiniteness.

(i.e. AL-sayyaarah = THE car. | SayaaratuN = A car.)

4 - Nouns which have Adjective/s (Sifah/an Attribute) come AFTER the Noun (Doer) in Arabic, unlike English.

(i.e. al-SayyaartUal-KabeerU = the Big Car [in arabic, the word 'Car' was mentioned first, unlike English.])

5 - The Vowel marks on a Nouns last letter and it's Attribute (Sifah)HAS TO BE THE SAME to show they are related to (describing) each other in the sentence.

(as seen in number 4's example, both words have a 'U' at the end.)

Almost finished:

i - So now you know that you can put words in almost any order in a sentence.

ii - You know the vowel signs to add to prove who is doing what in the sentence (known as the 'mood' [i'raab ( اِعراب)] of the word).

iii - You know how to add connective words in a sentence, in addition to simple words like, 'the', 'is', 'are' etc.

iv - You know how to give Attributes (Sifah) to a Noun in the sentence.

So in simple words; you can now make sentences inshaa' Allah, which can turn into paragraphs of discussion in Arabic.

All you need to do now is build up on your Arabic vocabulary (which we've already said - you can use google translate (http://translate.google.com) for, or Quran translations, or Lexicons [from http://ejtaal.net Almanac dictionary].

To Finish:

I'll leave you with some words to play around with;

Nouns and Objects:

AL = THE | (no 'AL' at the beginning of a Noun, but 'N' at the end of a Noun/Object = 'A')

Ana = I

Rajul = Man. | Rijaal = Men (plural)

Mar'ah = Woman | Nisaa' = Women (plural)

walad = boy | baneen = sons

bint = daughter | banaat = daughters

sayyaarat = car

Maa' = water

Verbs (Doing words):

La'aba = he Played / La'abat = she Played |
yaL'abu (he is Playing [present tense]) | yaL'aboon = they [males] are Playing

Sharaba = he Drank | Sharabat = she Drank
yaShrabu = he is Drinking - yaShraboon = they [males] are Drinking. | taShrab = she is Drinking - taShrabNa = they [females] are Drinking.

jahada = he Struggled / Jahadat = she Struggled.
yaJhadu (he is Struggling [present tense]) | yaJhadoon = they [males] are Struggling.
taJhad (she is Struggling) - taJhadNa = they [females] are Struggling.

Connectives:

Fee = In

'Alaa = On

Bi = With

Kaana = Was | yaKuwn = Is

Wa = And

Fa = So / Then

Min = From

A sentence using these words could be;

Ana aShrabUal-Maa'Awa a'kulUal-Ta'aamAminsayyaaratI-hi

I am Drinking the Waterand I ameatingthe Foodfromhis car.

(Mabni, Doer, Doing, Targetted Object of Attention, Connective word, Doer, Doing, Targetted Object of Attention, Harf al Jarr connective word, Noun which has been forced by the 'min' to have an 'I' on its end), and 'hu' [meaning 'his'] has become 'hi' (pronounced 'hee') for easy pronunciation purposes (imitating the word before it).

If you can't understand this sentence, then read the Book: 'Learn to Understand Arabic in 12 Colored Tables'

Keep practising with the above samples, and even look at the Qur'an and Ahadeeth to see how to make your own sentences.

LinguisticMiracle.com