Ali Ataie – The Masterful ArabicHebrew Symmetry in the Quran

			There are linguistic subtleties in the Quran
		

			that the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam could
		

			not have known.
		

			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
		

			The name Zakariyah in Hebrew
		

			means the mention of the Lord. This is
		

			what it his name Zakariyah in Hebrew means
		

			the mention of the Lord. So this verse
		

			is a play on words.
		

			The mention of the mercy of your Lord
		

			to his servant, the mention of the Lord.
		

			This is there's this beautiful subtle symmetry
		

			in this one ayah,
		

			The author of this ayah, new Hebrew, there's
		

			no doubt about it. If a Jew living
		

			in the Hejaz heard this verse, his ears
		

			would perk up. He would notice the subtlety.
		

			Another example, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
		

			the wife of Ibrahim alaihis salam,
		

			she laughed and then we gave her glad
		

			tidings of Isaac. Isaac means laughter.
		

			And then it says,
		

			And then following Isaac, Jacob. The name Isaac
		

			means laughter in Hebrew. The name Jacob means
		

			to follow or to come after.
		

			This is a type of wordplay that adds
		

			to the eloquence
		

			and brilliance of the Quran.
		

			Whoever composed this verse knew Hebrew. Of course
		

			we know this is a revelation from Allah
		

			subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		

			I'll give you another example. There's there's 100
		

			and 100 if not thousands of these types
		

			of examples.
		

			Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about Yahya alaihi
		

			salam.
		

			Now Yahia is John, John the Baptist, peace
		

			be upon him, most probably.
		

			The Quran calls him Yahia, meaning he lives
		

			because he was martyred,
		

			and the martyrs are alive.
		

			They're alive with their Lord, receiving sustenance
		

			from their Lord. But the Hebrew name of
		

			John is Yohanan,
		

			which is related to Hananan.
		

			This is the only occurrence of this word
		

			in the entire Quran
		

			and it's describing Yahya alaihi salam because it
		

			actually relates to his historical name.
		

			These are subtleties that go over the head
		

			of 99%
		

			of the Quran's readers.
		

			The author of the Quran is playing with
		

			these languages in a masterful way.