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.