Eloquence... The Power of Words

Even before the advent of Islam, one of the few things that the Arabs were known for was their eloquence. The isolation in the desert ensured that it stayed unadulterated from other linguistic influences which was not always possible in the towns and cities. It was considered part of a child's education that he grew up in the countryside with the beduins absorbing the inflections and nuances of the tongue at an early age.

It is the Sunnah (natural way of doing things) of God that He challenges a people in a an area of specialization which they consider themselves masters of. Hence, He showed the people of Moses (AS) miracles in magic as they were famous for magic. He showed the people of Jesus (AS) miracles in medicine as they excelled in medicine of their time. And He challenged the Arabs through eloquence, viz the eloquence of the Quran by asking them to produce even a few comparable verses. So many Companions of the Prophet (RA) accepted the new way of natural living just by listening to the richness of God's speech, testifying that it cannot be man-made.

It is interesting to note that God chose language as His everlasting miracle to invite mankind to the natural way of life, as words affect the heart like nothing else. From the ears, the message can reach the heart directly. In an experiment conducted on terminally ill patients, Quranic recitation was played regularly for a period of time on the sound system in a hospital ward resulting in observable improvements in the conditions of the patients' well being.

The science of Quranic recitation, enables students to recite the Quran the same way it was revealed through Archangel Gabriel (AS). It is important to clarify that originally the word "Quran" meant the actual recitation (speech) and not the holy book that many take it to be nowadays. By reciting the Quran with proper recitation i.e. falling back on the original pattern of recitation, a believer can experience special feelings of spiritual high that go hand in hand with the words they articulate. This feeling can penetrate the heart of the reciter and the listener (to a somewhat lesser extent), causing truth and wisdom to become part of their inner being. It is one of the ways of increasing one's faith (spiritual wellbeing).

By knowing a thousand or so words one can understand the majority of Quranic vocabulary as the same words are constantly repeated. It is easier for some non-Arabs whose native languages have historically been impacted by Arabic, e.g. Farsi, Turkish, Kurdish, Pushtu, Urdu, Bengali, Bahasa, Somali, Berber, Swahili, Hausa, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Maltese, etc. and thus share a lot of common words.

Arabic grammar is one of the most logical of language grammars. Learning it is like learning a computer programming language. Once we learn the patterns of the verbs in past, present and imperative form in both active and passive cases, we can recognize new verbs in context, together with their pronouns. All words in Arabic are based on root letters (often 3 letters per word). There are different patterns which use the same root letters to derive multiple words from. Once we know the root letters and the pattern we can conclude the meaning of the word.

Imagine reciting God's own speech in the way they were revealed while understanding what they mean. With a little effort this is an achievable goal for anyone. God has made sure that the language of the Quran is superlative in its eloquence, effect, and ease of learning, because He wants to guide all of us to achieve the highest purpose for which we were created.

Let's change ourselves, to change the world!

Lucid Eloquence