AL-HUDA
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 5/90
Newsletter for February 2009
Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12
A Common Language of Faith
by Dr. Hebatalla
Elkhateeb-Musharraf
Section I: Introduction The
definitions and connotations of the terms and concepts
about Islam and Muslims used throughout this book have
roots in common with terms used in other faith
communities. This chapter introduces an
original descriptive phono-semantic relationship between
sound and meaning, a framework that uses the comparative
method of phonological analysis as a reliable and
peer-reviewed methodology and original pedagogy to
engage non-Arabic speaking communities in a deeper
understanding of the Qur’anic text and Islamic
terminology. This is a new paradigm of common
language as a unifying force in the study, teaching, and
learning of the universal human capacity for language as
a basis for better communication and cooperation among
faith communities. The
standard paradigm of language dynamics has been
summarized in the book, by Greenburg, Harold, and Croft,
Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and Method[i]
as follows: “Given the arbitrariness of the relationship
between form and meaning, resemblances between two
languages significantly greater than chance must receive
a historical explanation, whether of common origin or of
borrowing.”
Are the two possibilities suggested by Greenberg’s above
quote the only ones? This paper aims to present a
third possibility: a rich, common, and shared
terminology that cannot be attributed to
either
common ancestor
or borrowing
but
is significantly greater
than chance. This
third possibility is based on linguistic evidence from
the Arabic and English languages of a core of
non-language specific universal vocabulary that
transcends borrowing and points to the innate linguistic
aptitude of human cognition. This universal core
of lexical stock consists of criterion words that
reflect normative values and demonstrates the universal
human ability and capacity to facilitate the learning
and conception of the shared universal moral values that
bond all human beings. The
search for a shared origin of language has always been
of concern to the general public and to linguists.
According to the traditional view rampant in the field
of linguistics, the world contains hundreds of language
families among which there are no visible genetic
connections or common origin. Several linguists
challenged this view and suggested that the world’s
languages do share a common origin[ii]
(Merrit Ruhlen, 1994). In his research, Merrit
Ruhlen concluded that the search for linguistic
“relationships” among languages was already over and
that it made no sense to ask if two languages were
related. He asserted that “everything is related
and the question to be investigated within or among
different language families is the degree of their
relationship, not the fact of it.”[iii]
Linguists have developed a theory that groups
together
sets of languages
in a collection called the Nostratic languages, which
are a family of languages which sharing a common
ancestor, the Proto-Nostratic language. They
propose a relationship among several of the principal
language families of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The
relationship implies a common origin for these families
and their constituent languages, and apparently a
Nostratic or Proto-Nostratic homeland, occupied by the
speakers of the notional ancestral language at a date
well prior to the formation of the daughter families and
their languages.[iv]
This hypothesis is based on a “large number of common
roots and many common graphical morphemes.[v]
The Nostratic hypothesis suggests that the main
contemporary language families in the world descend from
a common hypothetical ancestral language, which is
called the Proto-Nostratic. Furthermore, this
hypothesis especially emphasizes the concept of “common
roots” which is the purpose of the present chapter
instead of linguistic “borrowing” within or among
language families. This chapter as well as the Nostratic
theory of languages, adopts an “evolutionary”
perspective which emphasizes a common ancestor(s) from
which languages have evolved. According to Ruhlen,
it is true that many words may have been “borrowed,” but
the basic words such as (I, we, you, not…) are rarely
borrowed. The fact that such words are shared by
different languages especially among different language
families over large geographical areas provides a
powerful proof of a common ancestor.[vi]
This
concept mirrors on a global scale the relation of the
Romance languages to Latin. As Italian, French,
Romanian, Spanish, and other languages derive from
Latin, so too, the theory suggests, do a vast number of
languages trace back to an original, shared source.
From its origins in Asia Minor, the original Nostratic
language birthed many variants as civilized cultures
migrated to Europe, Asia, Africa, and even to North
America. The word “nostratic” itself derives from Latin,
and was attributed by Allan Bomhard to the word “nostras,”
meaning “our countrymen.”[vii]
The Latin origin of the word is “nos,” the nominative
pronoun that means “we.” The word “nos” is similar
to the Arabic root word “nafs,” which means “same”
and
“human soul.”
The Arabic meaning of the word agrees with the
hypothesis of the Nostratic theory which suggests that
all human languages share the “same” origin.
Bomhard finds 601 common roots in the Nostratic
language, while other linguists claim to have found, but
not yet published, an equal or greater number of roots
up to 1,900.[viii]
He uses a methodology of tracing similar sounds and
sound transformations from one language to another in
order to find shared words. For example, the
proto-nostratic “b” transforms into a “P” and a “w” in
the proto-Uralic subset and into a “p” and a “v” in
proto-Dravidian.[ix]
Furthermore, as Bomhard (2008) suggests
in his
latest writings,
it “seeks to investigate the possibility that certain
languages or language families, not previously thought
to be genetically related, at least not “closely”
related, might indeed be part of still larger groupings,
which may be called “macrofamilies.”[x]
This
study uses a methodology similar to Bomhard’s by tracing
similar sounds and sound transformation as one of
several methodologies as detailed below in Section III.
These methodologies will be demonstrated as a means to
find vocabulary of shared origin. For example, the “b”
in Arabic transforms into a “w” in German (pronounced
as a “v” in English) as in Arabic
Ba’ied
or
بعيد which means
“far,”
and German
weit
and to a “P”
in Turkish as in Arabic
Kitab
or
كتاب, which means
a “book,”
and Turkish “Kitap.”
Arabic, the language of the Quran, is the longest
continuously spoken Semitic language
and may
represent the ultimate evolution of Semitic languages.
It shares Semitic roots and vocabulary with Hebrew and
Aramaic. This chapter attempts to show that it
also shares the foundation of a universal lexical core
or vocabulary with other world languages. It will
demonstrate the existence of patterns of sound and
meaning that appear to exist across languages between
Arabic and English. The
entire book, Islam and Muslims of which this chapter
provides a pioneering and unique methodology that serves
as the first case study of the Nostratic theory of
language in action.
Proceeding from Chomsky’s hypothesis of language
innateness, this paper assumes an innate cognitive
linguistic facility that enables the human brain to
conceive and comprehend a shared core of universal
values reflected in vocabulary. These shared
concepts, principles, and terminology serve to
reconstruct, restore, and inform the reader of the
original meanings that are sometimes identical or
related and sometimes contextual within the Qur’anic
text. For example, the contextual meaning of the
words “straight,” “strict” and “strata” share the common
contextual meaning of the Qur’anic word “ṣirat,” which
does not literally mean “straight” but rather “path.”
In the Qur’an the word “sirat” is always followed by “mustaqim,”
which together mean “straight path.” This
core of universal values reflected in vocabulary has two
components: 1) a universal component, which is
determined by a core of vocabulary shared by both
languages within the diathesis (composition) of the root
word, and 2) a language specific component, which is
determined by the phonemes (sound) and morphology
(structure) unique to each language. The
long range and ultimate objective of this
chapter and
its parent book
is to facilitate a genuine dialogue in order to create a
global world community and promote faith based
understanding and cooperation within and among
civilizations.
Section II: Common
Origins
Although Islam is sometimes misperceived as an alien
religion in the West, the present study suggests that
Islamic concepts and their Arabic definitions show a
common foundation of shared universal values across
languages that unite all humanity despite our diverse
nature. This, itself, evidences the oneness of
the Creator and the universe (in Arabic, the Islamic
concept of tawḥīd).
Muslims, Christians, and Jews believe that they have
been created by the same Supreme Being, which Christians
refer to as “father.” The English word “father”
corresponds to the Arabic word “Fat’her”,
فاطر , which
means “The Creator” of heaven and earth and everything
in between. They have the same nature. Islam
is the faith of
فطرةor “fature”,
which means “nature”.
Therefore, Islam is a unifying and comprehensive faith
that reflects all others and agrees with “the nature” of
the heart, mind, and soul of “humanity” or
“Umaty”,
أمة
in Arabic.
Linguistically, the English words “father”
and “nature” share the same Arabic root “fat’ure”,
فطر, with the
retention of all letter of the Arabic root in “father”,
and the transformation of the (f to n) in “nature”
following the rule of transformation of consonants. The
word “future” which is derived from the
same Arabic root “fat’ure”,
فطر reflects God
as the only knower and the ultimate source of the
future. Christians use the expression “God
willing” which has the same meaning of the Arabic
expression
in sha’Allah,
ان شاء الله.
In sha’Allah is a phrase traditionally invoked by
Muslims when referring to the future. In the
Qur’an, 18, 23-24, God prohibited any Muslim to say “I
will certainly do it tomorrow” unless one adds: “If
Allah wills!”, or in
sha’Allah,
ان شاء الله
in Arabic.
In English, the future tense is expressed by preceding
the verb with, “shall” or “will”. This helping verb
“shall” is phonologically and semantically identical to
sha’Allah,
شاء الله which
means “God willing” and it reflects the same shared
moral values in communities of different faiths.
Likewise, “will” sounds like
wallah,
و الله
which means “by
Allah”. Furthermore, in Spanish o’jala is
used to express the future tense and implies the same
meaning of in sha’Allah . The French also use the
verb “aller” to express the future tense, which
identically sounds like “Allah” in Arabic, and “Alle” in
Latin, meaning “God”. In sha’Allah brings Allah’s
blessings to facilitate and initiate any action.
Muslims believe that every action is initiated
ultimately by Allah’s will and carried out by human
will. The word “initiate” shares the same core of the
Arabic root ansha’a,
أنشأ, which means
“to initiate” in Arabic, another word which sounds
phonologically identical to “in sha’Allah”.
Sharing the same nature shows the existence of an equal
innate ability and capacity to learn about and seek the
truth without any compulsion of any faith over the other
and with full accountability for one’s own actions: “Let
there be no compulsion in religion.” (Quran, Surah
al Baqara, 2:256). This is reflected in an innate core
of normative or criterion words or concepts across
languages that explicate the universal moral values
shared among all humans. The fact that the words
“nature” and “The Creator” are derived from one Arabic
root provides linguistic evidence from the Arabic
language that could not only restore unity among the
Semitic Abrahamic faiths (Islam, Christianity, and
Judaism) but also among other secular and non-Semitic
beliefs! It also provides linguistic evidence that
regardless of mankind’s diverse interpretation of the
“truth”, absolute reality remains the same as a bond for
all of humanity. Developing this insight is the
purpose of this study.
Section III: Methodology A.
The Universal Component The
suggested core vocabulary, as summarized above, has two
components: a shared universal component and a language
specific component. The universal component is
revealed through the identification and isolation of the
language specifics in order to examine the root words
that appear to correspond in both sound and meaning in
Arabic and English. Additional examples from other
languages may also be included for clarification.
The
language specific characteristics are revealed through
observation and analysis of the phonological and
morphological attributes unique to each language. These
language specific components must be identified and then
isolated to reveal the universal relationships in the
common core of distinct languages even across unrelated
language families. Such analysis has identified
and isolated language specific components in order to
reveal the underling patterns of affinity that form the
common universal core in both Arabic and English: 1)
Deletion of one or more graphemes (letters) 2)
Addition of one or more graphemes 3)
Transformation of one or more grapheme 4)
Addition of a prefix, suffix, or both a prefix
and a suffix: a)
the addition of a prefix such as (in, con, de, re, or
pro); b)
the addition of a suffix such as the Arabic feminine
suffix “ta marbutah”; c)
the addition of both a prefix and a suffix ; 5)
Vowel changes in type or duration, (short to long, long
to short, reversal,
e.g., a to e and e to i), 6)
Order of letters within the word:
a) Scrambled order;
b) Reversed order, as will be explained later.
These
dialectical observations, as shown by examples below,
reveal the common core of shared vocabulary and explain
the phonological and morphological pattern variations
between Arabic and English.
B.
Language Specific Components The
language specific phonological patterns of deviations
from the Arabic root are established and illustrated in
the form of alteration from the Arabic root as follows:
1) deletion, 2) addition, 3) transformation of one or
more graphemes (letters), and 4) the addition of a
prefix, suffix, or both a prefix and a suffix, 5) a
change in the type or duration of short or long
vowel(s), 6) order of letters within the word: The
order of letters within the word whether scrambled or
reserved as follows: 1)
Deletion:
The Arabic word
cut’a,
قطع, which means
“to cut” in which the final “ع”
is deleted to form the English word “cut”, and the
Arabic word
baiy’a,
بيع, which means
“a selling or buying transaction” and the English word
“buy” in which the final “ع”
is dropped. The Arabic word
injaraḥ,
انجرح, (which
means to get wounded or injured in Arabic) and the
English word “injure” where the final “ḥ” or “ح”
is dropped. 2)
Addition: The
Arabic word
atta,أتى
(meaning to
attain, bring, offer, or arrive “at”), and the English
word “attain,” with
the addition
of the final “n”
. The Arabic meaning of the word atta reflects
the difference between the concept of attainment through
God as the source of attainment and the concept of
attainment by human power alone as in many non-Islamic
cultures. This
same concept of attainment through God applies to the
similarity between the verb “to have” in English and the
Arabic verb
wahaba,
وهب,
as well as the German verb haben, which is
similar to the imperative form of the Arabic verb
hab li,
هب لي,
in Surah Al-‘Imran, 3:38, meaning “grant to me” rather
than “I possess”. This highlights two different
perspectives between the Islamic theocentric culture
that revolves around God as the ultimate Grantor of
every good, and the anthropocentric or man-oriented
epistemology of secular cultures. This
focus on God as the source of everything we enjoy in
life explains why gratitude is essentially a synonym in
the Qur’an for the Biblical concept of love, although
the Qur’an has a rich vocabulary for various kinds and
levels of love. For example, the common Qur’anic
word for love,
hubb,
حُبّ, shares the
same root with “hope” and “hobby” (what one loves to
do). The English phrase “hopeful” reflects the
Islamic concept of unconditional love in the phrase
hubb fi allah,
حُب في الله,
only for
Allah’s sake without any expectations of return. This
explains why a really practicing Muslim can never
succumb to desperation and destruction.
Another form of love emphasized in the Qur’an is wed
or wadda,وَدَّ,
which is reflected in the English word “wedding.
The Qur’anic term does not mean literally marriage, but
refers to the love of Allah as the ultimate source of
love and as the loving bond between husband and wife.
This good example of contextual meaning highlights the
importance of the Qur’anic term
muwadda,مَوَدَّة,
or compassionate love as the basis for marriage. 3)
Transformation of Grapheme Examples:
This
methodology is similar to that of Bomhard’s methodology
of tracing similar sounds and sound transformations from
one language to another in order to find shared
vocabularies. This study uses the methodology of
tracing similar sounds and sound transformation from the
Arabic alphabet to and from those of the Latin alphabet
as one of several other methodologies in order to find
vocabulary of shared origin as will be explained in
details in the alphabet transformation CD. For
example, the “b” in Arabic transforms into a “w” in
German, pronounced “v” in English, as in Arabic “Ba’ied”
which means far and German
weit”;
and to a “P” in Turkish as in Arabic
Kitab,كِتاب,
which means a “book” and Turkish “Kitap.” This
methodology of letter transformation is illustrated in
detail by animation on a separate CD that teaches the
Arabic alphabet and their transformation to and from
those of the Latin alphabet.
·
The Arabic
word
salm,
سـلم, which means
peace, and soundness, in which the initial “s” was
turned into “c” in the English word “calm”;
·
The Arabic
word
nam,
نام,
which means to sleep and the English word “nap”,
in which the final “m” was turned into “p”. The “m” was
retained in the English word “numb” which
literally means to put to sleep and an extra “b” was
added;
·
The Arabic
word qist,
قِسط, which means
“justice”
and the English word “Just”,
in which the initial “q” was turned into “j”, which is
closer to some colloquial Arabic in which the “q” is
turned into “g”;
·
The word
ilyat,
عِلية, means “the
height” and “the upper class of people” in Arabic, in
which the Arabic letter “ع”
is converted to “e” in the English “elite”. 4)
Addition of a prefix, suffix, or both prefix and suffix: a)
The
addition of a prefix: The
addition of a prefix such as (in, con, re, or de):
For example, the English word “intimate” and the
Arabic word tamat’a,
تمتع, which means
“enjoy”, where the prefix “in” is added to the
Arabic root as “en” is added to “joy” to literally mean
“in the state of joy”. Another example of the
addition of a prefix is the word “console” from
the Arabic root word for
salah,
صَلاة
meaning the
attainment of peace through prayer
and
connection with God which is the literal meaning of the
word “Salah” as
in the honorific, salah Alahu ‘alayhi wa salam,
which means “may Allah console him (the Prophet)
and keep him
connected to Him (God)”. b)
The
addition of a suffix: The
addition of a suffix such as the Arabic feminine suffix
“ta marbuṭah” as in “authority” and the Arabic word
assultah
,
السُّلطةِ
which means
“authority” in Arabic and shares the same meaning with
the Arabic word “Sultan” and the English word “soldier”
and its German
and Russian
cognates “soldat”.
c)
The
addition of both suffix and a prefix The
addition of both prefix
(de)
and suffix
(te)
to the Arabic root to form the
ارتقاء
English word “delicate”
in which the prefix “de” and the suffix “t” to represent
the “ta marbuta” are added to the Arabic word alriqat,
الرقة, which
means “delicateness”. This shares the same root
with the English word “aristocrat” and Arabic word
istirqā,
“استرقاء”or
“” which means rising to a high ranking or superior
moral or physical state. 5)
Vowel change:
Vowel change is exemplified as follows: a)
A change to the vowel’s type by free conversion
among vowels. For example, in the English word “cat”
and the word
qit,
or kit,
قـِط, meaning
“cat,” the “i” turns into “a” while the original “i” was
retained in “kitten”. b)
A change in a vowel’s duration
from long vowel to short or vice versa. For example, in
the English word “ultimate” and the Arabic word
altamat,
التامة, which
have the same literal meaning, the long “a” in the
Arabic word turns into a short “i” in the English word.
6)
The order of letters within the word as follows: This
method was used within the Arabic language by some
classical creative linguists, such as Ibn Jinni
(d.392/1002), who invented what he calls the great
derivation (al-istiqaq
al-akbar,
الاشتقاق الأكبر
). This was a new technique whereby the letters of
the verbal root are rearranged repeatedly to yield new
ways of looking at ideas or objects. This study
expands on this concept of Ibn Jinni by developing its
application across languages as follows: a)
Scrambled letter order.
The order of letters within the word is scrambled both
within and among languages. For example, the order
of the letters is scrambled between the root of the word
“Arabic”, which is “A-R-B” meaning “to express”, and the
root of the word “ Hebrew”,
which is “A-B-R” meaning
“to go or project across”. The order of the
letters of the root word is changed from (A-R-B) in
Arabic to (A-B-R) in Hebrew. The
present chapter goes
beyond Arabic and Hebrew and apply the same concept to
other languages, such as English, in order to establish
a semantic relationship between Arabic and English
words, such as elaborate, boat, board, and port, which
share the root of the Arabic words
abbar,
عَـبَّر, (which
means to express) and
abara,
عَـبَرَ or
abarat,
عَـبَرَتْ, (which
means to cross). These share the same Arabic root
with the English words mentioned above. These
English words may
initially seem unrelated
without knowing their common Arabic root.
Remarkably, these English words together reflect the
totality of the original Arabic meaning. b)
Reversed letter order.
The order of letters within a word among languages may
be reversed. For example, the Arabic word
ard,
أرض, which means
earth, is reversed in the Latin word
terra,
despite the fact that the Arabic word
ard
has the same order in the German word
erde
and in the English
word “earth”. Another example of reversed order is
the Arabic word
sakhr,
صَـخر, and its
reversed letter order in the English word “rocks”.
C.
Semantic Connections The
semantic relationship expressed in the shared basic
meaning of the core words in Arabic and English may be
direct or indirect. Even though English words may
initially seem unrelated, one can still recognize and
rationally identify the semantic relationship among
English words and relate them back to their shared
Arabic ancestral roots. For example:
·
The word
“flip” and its Arabic cognate “Qalip” means “flip” in
Arabic in which the “q” was turned into “f”.
·
The
imperative form of the above verb is the Arabic word
eclip,إقلب,
and the addition of a final “s” in “eclipse”.
·
In the two
examples above, the meaning was related literally.
The word clap derived from the same Arabic root
qalaba,قَلَب,
in which the
original Arabic letter “q” is retained and not
transformed into “f”. This is an example of
“semantic connection” in which the words are related
semantically not literally. Clapping does not
literally mean clapping in Arabic but it is related to
the meaning of the Arabic root because the act of
clapping needs the flipping of one hand over the other,
which explains the semantic connection rather than the
exact literal meaning.
According to Eltigani Abdulqadir Hamid, “one way of
analyzing the Qur’anic terms is to trace them back to
their roots. The basic meaning subsiding in the
verbal root remains a unifying common element to which
all derivatives can be traced in the same way that
members of a family are traced back to their common
ancestor. All members of a family share some
minimum common attribute that stems from the family
root. To apply the basic meaning to a member of a
family is to make a generalization, that is, to form a
concept in the etymological discourse.” In
Arabic, the root word is always a verb that usually
consists of three consonants. The basic meaning in
the verbal root remains a unifying common meaning around
which all derivative meanings revolve and connect and
reflect the totality of the full spectrum of the
cohesive meaning of the verbal root. Therefore,
knowing the total meaning of the Arabic root facilities
the process of identifying all other Arabic and non
Arabic words that reflect the totality of the meaning of
such root, and vice-versa. This study attempts to
further the application of Ibn Jinni’s great derivation
concept across languages to establish semantic relations
between Arabic root words and all the English words that
may seem initially unrelated, but in reality share a
common root and reflect the totality of its meaning.
D. The Use of Reason to
Establish a Semantic Relationship between Cognates The
use of reason is necessary to establish a semantic
relationship when there are two morphologically and
phonologically close words to choose from. For
example, the words “salvation” and “salve”
share the same meaning with the Arabic word “salm”,
which means salvation and peace through loving
submission to God, and its English correspondent “calm”
in which the “m” was turned into “v”. Therefore,
the relationship is rationally established based on the
cognates with semantic relevance. The
concept of patience in Islam, “sabr”,
has a relationship with the English word “bear” as in
the expression bear with me. This becomes
evident when we apply the methodology of “deletion” by
dropping the first letter “s” and the prefix “per” in
the English word “persevere” and transform the
letter “b” to “v”. One can apply reason to
establish a relationship with the word “supper”, which
has the exact order and type of letters with the
transformation of the b to p, but means a snack to
help one’ self bear with hunger. Reason helps
to establish a semantic relationship among words that
share a common meaning regardless of the
language-specific form.
Arabic is a language of a Holy Scripture, that
constantly urges mankind to use reason for its words
reflect a full spectrum of cohesive interrelated
meanings. This provides a full and comprehensive
understanding of a unifying faith that agrees with the
nature of the mind, heart, and soul of humanity.
For example, the word “faith” itself has several
interrelated meanings in Arabic and provides the root
word for several apparently unrelated English words,
notably: 1) faith, 2) belief, 3) victory, 4)
fortune, 6) profit, 7) Prophet, and 8) first.
These words have two different connections with the
Arabic root word (fat’h) as follow: 1)
phonologically they share the same three core letters
(f, t, and h) of the Arabic root, and 2) semantically
they all represent the semantic field of the Arabic root
and reflect the totality of its meaning. For
example, the spectrum of interrelated meanings of the
Arabic root word for “Faith” manifests itself as one of
the attributes of Allah: “The Opener” (of all gates of
faith, profit, victory, fortune.) It is also the
name of the “First” chapter of the Quran: “Al Fatiha”
which means “The Opener” (to Faith, Victory,
and profit.), and Chapter 48, “Al Fath”, in the
Quran, which means “victory” (with the
conversion of “f” to “v” and the addition of extra “r”.)
The
ultimate objective of this descriptive framework is to
create a sound pedagogy and effective methodology for
teaching and learning the Arabic language and Islamic
terminology and concepts from a global pluralistic
perspective and to acquaint the non-linguist with the
semantic and phonological patters of connection between
Arabic and English cognates as the basis for a core of
universal moral values across languages. This, in
turn, helps to dispel some of the misconceptions about
some Islamic terminology from the Quran and Islam in
relationship to other faiths. It seeks to do this
dialectically by phonological analysis of the Arabic
language using a descriptive framework of inductive and
deductive reasoning. This approach induces the
principles of phonological patterns of English and
Arabic cognates to establish descriptive principles and
then to refine those principals by deduction.
This
descriptive framework establishes the language specific
phonological patterns of deviation from the Arabic Root
to English and the semantic connection between the
Arabic Root and the English word(s). It also seeks
to enlighten the reader about the totality of the Arabic
meaning(s) of many religious and secular terms and
concepts in English with side trips to other languages
for further clarification. Thus a challenge for the
reader is to focus on the diathesis (composition) of the
Arabic root word (language universal) and deduct,
recognize, and understand the patterns of phonological
and morphological differences (language specific) from
Arabic to English, and then to induce the connection
between English words that seem unrelated and the
semantic field of the Arabic root as a unifying common
element to which the English derivatives can be traced
back in order to see the totality of meaning in the
Arabic root.
Section IV:
Scope of the
Analysis Even
though English is a derived language compared to Arabic,
which is an original language, this analysis compares
the two, rather than comparing Arabic to other languages
because: 1) it is widespread as a living language all
over the world, and 2) its inclusion of many other world
languages facilitates comparison with other languages by
non-linguists. This analysis covers a core of English/
Arabic phono-semantic cognates that appear to be shared
across language families without arguing or presuming
which language came first or which should take
precedence over the other. This
analysis is intended
to stimulate
intellectual and analytical interest as an
interdisciplinary approach to learn the Arabic language
within the Islamic cultural context through themes that
deal with practical aspects of this culture. It
does not attempt to indoctrinate learners in a certain
Islamic belief to create a unified faith, or to
undermine previous scholarly commentaries, “tafasir”, or
to propose a new interpretation. Rather it
presents a sound methodology and original pedagogy to
engage Non-Arabic speaking communities in a deeper
understanding of the Qur’anic text and terminology.
Section V:
Observations
The Qur’an is unique among the revealed scriptures of
the world in its explicit indication that linguistic
diversity is divinely ordained as stated in the Quran
30:22 “And
among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the
earth, and the variations in your languages
and your colors: verily in that are Signs for those who
know.”
There is a presumption
that Islam is a religion of the Arabs because the Qur’an
was revealed in Arabic, but
the Arabic
language of the Quran was facilitated for both Arabs and
non Arabs as stated in verse 41:44 “Had We sent
this as a Qur'an (in the language) other than Arabic,
they would have said: ‘Why are not its verses explained
in detail? What! (a Book) not in Arabic and (a
Messenger an Arab?’ Say: ‘It is a Guide and a Healing
to those who believe; and for those who believe not,
there is deafness in their ears, and it is blindness in
their (eyes): They are (as it were) being called from a
place far distant!’"
In Genesis 11:1 the confusion of language is said to be
ordained by God as a means to divide humanity after it
had been one: “And the whole earth was of one language,
and of one speech.”
In the Qur’an, on the other hand, Surah 30:22 states
that the variations in language are a sign of Allah as
part of tawhid, in which the diversities in the universe
point to the Oneness of God. It uses linguistic
evidence to concretize or make tangible what otherwise
would be abstract religious beliefs.
The Qur’an, meaning "the recitation," is the holy
scripture of Islam. Allah commands Prophet Muhammad, “Recite
the Qur’an calmly and distinctly, with your mind attuned
to its meaning.” Again, He reminds the believers,
“Recite the Qur’an with tarteel and tajwid,
in which the former shares the same root with the
English word (to re-tell) and the later, based on
the Arabic word gawwada or (jawwada),
meaning to do something well, shares the same root with
the English word (good).” The Qur’an is not a simple
text linguistically. The word “Qur’an” in Arabic
allows for a duality of meaning, because the ending “an”
added to the word “Qur” implies two of a kind, two
cores: 1) of this life, and 2) of the hereafter, as well
as a criterion or “furqan” to distinguish truth from
falsehood and right from wrong.
The Qur’an as a book of guidance for human morality
provides a coherent comprehensive framework for
maintaining justice for all and one’s self on the
straight path throughout the course of life. It
provides a complete and detailed way of life and good
education that, if followed, grants one the best of this
life and the best of the hereafter. The English
words core, course, curriculum (as a comprehensive frame
work), chronicle (as permanent and never to be
outdated), court, criterion (to ordain just and clear
judgment between right and wrong), career, and courteous
are all derived from the root of the word “Qur’an” and
reflect the totality of its meanings. Muslims
believe
the Qur’an, in its original
Arabic,
to be the literal Word of
God that was
revealed to Muhammad through the Archangel
Gabriel (Jibra’il)
over a
period of 23 years. Without linguistic help Non-Arabs
may feel intimidated by the Arabic language and this may
discourage them from understanding and engaging with the
Qur’an. The
Islamic concepts in the Qur’an transcend place and time
by addressing both Arabs and non-Arabs in their own
mother tongues.
“And
among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the
earth, and the variations in your languages and
your colors: verily in that are Signs for those who
know.”
Section VI: Nature of
the Arabic Language of the Quran
to Establish the
Meaning of Islamic Concepts
The
Arabic language of the Quran is unique in the way its
words represent a holistic spectrum of meanings that
define a complete concept. Furthermore, beyond
sharing identical roots and vocabulary with its
linguistic relatives like Hebrew and Aramaic, it shares
the core lexical foundation of the vocabulary of other
world languages. This core of vocabulary is
reflected in the natural and unconscious capacity of all
humanity to correlate concepts and interpret them the
same way. This chapter shows that although the
West perceives Islam as a wholly alien religion, the
very vocabulary (and therefore the very ideas and
concepts) of Islam, and especially the Qur’an where
every word presents a complete concept, is embedded in
the everyday language, faith, law, and culture of
Western countries.
For example, the Islamic concept of “prayer” or in
Arabic “Salah” which means prayer (with a silent ‘t’ or
written as Salah) is the second pillar of Islam
and is an
integral part of the daily routine of every observing
Muslim. This
concept of “prayer” in general means
any formal act of worship involving ritualistic
movements, but it also encompasses any informal
supplications used in asking God for forgiveness and
guidance or for His blessings. In the Islamic
tradition, supplications are called Du’a, which
can be said in any language, but Salat refers
strictly to the ritual prayers mentioned below, which
must be said in Arabic.
Linguistically, the word salat is derived from
the root wasala¸ which has many affirming
meanings of its blessings, value, and effectiveness,
meaning that God accepts and answers the prayers of His
believers. Wasala means to reach, to
connect, to contact, to unite, to attain success or
recognition, to receive, to deliver, to get, to take, to
transport, to transfer, to transmit, to communicate, to
conduct or act as a conductor, to turn on, to continue,
to be continuous, to persevere, to maintain close
relations, to gain access to, to arrive, to be
interconnected, to form an uninterrupted sequence, to be
a consistent unit or integral whole, to be
self-contained, to get in touch with, to have a
relationship with, to be near, to belong to, to come to
(someone’s) knowledge, and to supply. All these
meanings form a spectrum that reflects the totality of
the meaning of the word salat and convey its
power as a direct connection between man and God.
Understanding all these meanings elevates the salat
beyond a ritualistic act of worship and establishes it
as the active fulfillment of any need, desire, or wish a
believer may have in terms of one’s relationship with
God and all of His creation (including oneself and
others), thereby creating among all of God’s creatures a
strong, harmonious, and continuous bond centered around
a common Creator.
Even though the
English words console, reconcile, supplication, and
supply (of all sources of goodness from God which raise
one's spirits,) seem to be unrelated, they all share the
same Arabic root, “salat” (with the addition of
the prefix “con” or “recon” in the former, and the infix
“pp” in the latter) which emphasizes the great value of
supplication or prayer as a great and continuous means
of attaining the supply of blessings as an ultimate gain
from God. If the letters of the word “salat” are
rearranged, they yield a new English word “settle” (in
which the “t” precedes the “l”). This emphasizes
the role of Salat to reconcile, straighten out, and
raise one's spirits. Furthermore, the French word
salut and the English word “salutation” come from
the word salat as well, meaning that it is a
means of saying salutations to God. This sense of
greeting or salutation is used when Muslims ask God in
their prayers to give salat and consolation to
the Prophet Muhammad, meaning that Muslims wish for the
Prophet to receive God’s greetings and consolations,
not His prayers.
Salat
therefore provides consolation, peace, energy,
blessings, and meditation for the believer, as this
connection with God fulfills and refreshes him or her
with positive energy to keep them going throughout the
day as they perform each of the five prayers.
Nowadays, people mimic some of the very moves and
purposes in salat in their yoga practices – from
the use of an assigned large room for prayer assemblies
(called “sala” which is derived from the word “salah” in
most world languages as in Spanish “salon”, French “salle”,
Italian” salone”, Russian “zal” or “Zala”, German “Saal”,
English “hall” and Arabic “Musalla”) right down to
a rug to rest on (like the prayer rug)! Such
exercises are meant to attain inner peace and
meditation, but the Islamic prayer transcends these mere
physical moves and extends its great effects to the
minds and souls of those who pray. Indeed, the
words “soul” and “source” (where the “l” is converted to
“r”) find root in the word salat, as this prayer
is one of the only ways, and is the best way, to fulfill
the needs of the soul – by getting its nourishment
straight from the source!
Section VII: Literacy
and the Common Natural
and Unconscious Capacity
to Correlate Concepts The
creation of the Arabic language facilitated the art of
reading and recording in the region of Arabia. The
creation of an Arabic alphabet, which invented specific
graphemes (shapes) to represent different phonemes
(sounds), replaced the primitive system of
hieroglyphics, which had a different shape for each
specific word or picture. This ancient
hieroglyphic system required the memorization of a
countless number of shapes in order to achieve basic
literacy. It also limited the creative capacity of
the written language by requiring the invention of an
entirely new symbol for a new concept, rather than a new
configuration of letters, which would be much easier to
grasp and commit to memory. The
importance of the written alphabet, although taken for
granted in modern times when literacy rates are high and
printed language is widespread, is not lost in the
Qur’an. Many chapters of the Qur’an begin with
letters of the Arabic alphabet, indicating clearly the
Arabic base of the Qur’anic language, and implying its
accessibility to anyone who not only knows the Arabic
language but its simplest form of alphabet. The
second chapter of the Qur’an, for example, starts with
the letters Alif, Lam, Mim (similar to A, L, and M).
Other chapters of the Qur’an begin with letters that
represent sounds that have no cognates in many other
languages like ‘ayn, ḥa, qahf, and ṣad.
Furthermore, the Qur’an itself means “the reading” and,
according to the Islamic tradition, the first word of
the Qur’an revealed to the Prophet Muhammad was the word
Iq’ra, which means read!
According to some Qur’anic scholars, there are different
theories concerning the meanings of the letters at the
beginning of many chapters of the Qur’an. A second
implication of the placement of these letters at the
beginning of many chapters of the Qur’an may be that
these letters, and specifically the sounds they
represent, are vital to interpreting the words of the
Qur’an, as well as to the preservation of their
meanings. The reader who does not know these
sounds may misinterpret the words, and the changing of
these sounds also obscures their actual origins.
For example, the English word “elite” comes from the
Arabic word ‘ilyat (the height),
but the
letter ‘ayn, “ع”
at the beginning of ‘ilyat was lost when the word
was adopted into the Roman alphabet, which has no letter
that parallels the ‘ayn but instead uses the letter “e”.
Elite shares the same root of one of Allah’s attributes
“Al-Ali”, “العلي”
which means “The most High,” where the initial ‘ayn, “ع”
was transformed into “A”.
Even within Arabic
words, the simple
transformation of
one sound into another similar sounding one in another
language or accent can change the meaning. This
distortion of letters occurs frequently when Arabic
words are adopted by other languages and their meanings
reduced and simplified. For example, the Arabic
word nahat,“نهَت”
in its singular feminine form which
has a comprehensive set of meanings like: to stop, to
put an end to, to forbid, to prohibit, to restrain, to
ban; to transmit, to come to one’s knowledge; to come to
an end, to attain a high degree, to reach, to abstain or
refrain, to be concluded, and to be terminated, simply
becomes “no” in other languages, which adapt the word to
fit their alphabet and phonological patterns. In
Urdu, it becomes nahi; in German, it becomes
nein (similar to the form nahiyun, in which
the letter “ha” was dropped); and in English it becomes
not and negate (the “ha” is dropped in the
former, and is
transformed
into a “g” in the latter). Despite these minor
morphological and phonological changes, all of these
words essentially share the same Qur’anic word for
prohibition!
Furthermore, the words forbid, prohibit,
and innovate share the same root of the Arabic
word “bida”, “بـِدعة”
which means
"legally
prohibited innovation"
in religion.
The word “innovate” itself shares the same root with the
Arabic word “bid’a” and the English word “prohibit” by
dropping the prefix “inn” and restoring the original
letter “b”, which was converted into “v”. The
correlation of prohibition and innovation can be
understood only through reference to the Arabic.
This cannot be coincidental. The natural and
unconscious capacity of all humanity to correlate these
concepts of prohibition and innovation in religion and
law suggests a higher unitive
design.
Section VIII: The
Phonological Similarities
between the Arabic and
Roman Alphabets
To further illustrate this point, it is important to
point out that there is a clear and direct relationship
not only between words but between letters of the
alphabet across languages. Even the individual letters
are recyclable across languages. Since the Arabic
language arguably is the oldest living Semitic language
in the world, these correlations confirm the extent to
which the romance languages actually draw their alphabet
shapes and their phonological representations from the
Arabic language. For example, the Arabic letter
“ل”
(lam) is similar in shape and sound to the Roman letter
“L” written right to left as in all Arabic
script, the lower case letter “a” resembles in
shape with the final form of the Arabic letter “ـه”
at the end of a word, and the cursive letter “E”
looks and sound like the Arabic letter ‘ain,
“ع”.
Even the cursive lower-case “e” is identical with the
medial form of the letter ‘ain, “ع”.
This reveals a new correlation between the upper and the
lower cases in English letters, which can be seen only
by comparison with the Arabic alphabet. We see
similar correlations among almost all the letters of the
Arabic and Roman alphabets (see table 1), not to mention
the universality of the Arabic numerals as a single
universal language of numbers. As
was hinted above, even when looking at cognates one
finds that there are similarities in the phonological
representations in these languages. This opens the
door to a new paradigm in the theory of phonology
through the study of the patterns of sound
correspondences. For example, the Arabic number “سَبْعةً”
(sabatan) (7), the English “seven” and the
French “Spet”. Other examples are the
Arabic “قطع”
(cut’a) and English “cut”, or Arabic
“كَسَرَ”
(kasara) and the French “casser,”
which means “to break”, and the Arabic “
بَعيد”
(ba’id), which with the standard conversion of
“b” to “w” in German or “v” in English, produces the
German “weit”, the Dutch “wijd,” and the
English “avoid” or “abort” as in “أبعُـد”
(ab’od) (through restoration of the original
letter “b”), which all mean “far.” This
correlation is consistent, and calls for the study of
linguistic roots of the romance languages drawing from
and sharing with the Arabic language. Previous
linguistic etymology studies have not dug deeper than
the Latin base. This exposes the reason for the
shortcomings of well renowned linguistic thought in
explaining certain phonological rules and etymological
origin of some words that are usually attributed to
unknown origins. Table 1 shows a comparison between some Arabic phonetic symbols and their similar, equivalent, or substitute phonetic symbols of the Roman alphabet.
Table 1
Illustrative
Transformations of Letters from the Arabic to the Latin
Alphabets
Section IX: Summary
As shown above through analysis of the alphabet, the
core of shared vocabulary, and the unconscious mutual
linguistic application of concepts, all the way to the
Arabic numerals, there appears to be a universal
language inherent in the human brain or psyche. This,
in turn, indicates that the highest level of each
person’s identity is in the higher community, ummah, of
humanity (umaty), even though the source of such
community is the dignity and sacredness of the
individual human soul, which is subject only to the
Sovereignty of God. All of these words share one
common root and reflect the core Islamic principle of
tawhid, in which the diversity of existence points to
the transcendent Oneness of our common Creator.
[i]
Harold, and
Croft, Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and
Method, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 6.
[ii]
Merrit Ruhlen,
The Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy,
Stanford University Press, 1994.
[iii]
Ibid, p.272.
[iv]
Aharon
Dolgopolsky, Nostratic Dictionary, University of
Cambridge, 2008.
[v]
The
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol. 5, p.
2838.
[vi]
Ruhlen, Merrit
(1994). The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution
of the Mother Tongue. New York:Wiley, 1994, p. 13)
[vii]
Allan Bomhard,
The Nostratic Macrofamily: A Study in Distant
Linguistic Relationship, Mouton de Gruyter, New
York, 1994.
[viii]
Ibid.
[ix]
Ibid.
[x]
Bomhard, Allan R. ,
Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic: Comparative
Phonology, Morphology, and Vocabulary. 2 vols.
Leiden:Brill, 2008, p.1) Courtesy: Dr. Robert Crane |
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