The Quran A Linguistic Miracle

Sato salam ala Rasulillah harati he or SOFIA Jemaine, we begin the name of Allah All Praise and Glory be to Allah and Maine's finest peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad and his family in his companions and all those who tried his path, asking Allah azza wa jal to grant us in your life upon his path and in a death while closely adhering to his guidance and our union around him. Allahumma Amin, welcome back everyone. In sha Allah. Tonight we're going to begin our discussion on the Quran. The Quran, being a miracle, rather the greatest of all miracles, the miracle of miracles and the greatest the proofs for the truth of Islam for the divine origins of

this religion for the prophethood of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you know, we as Muslims, we know this because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam already told us, you know, in the authentic hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Ma'am, in being ill, or Akiyama, I let me flee he am and a nurse, there was never a prophet that Allah sent, except that he gave him some something, some sign, or signs, so that the people could believe in him proof to endorse the legitimacy of him being God sent. He said, What can Allah the OT to who ye N, A el hecho, la Hui Layyah. For our jus an akuna, UK Federal Home tabber Anioma piano and what I have

been especially given this doesn't mean it's the only proof he has been given. But when he was particularly given his most distinguishing sign, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said was a ye was a revelation that Allah inspired to me. And as a result of it, it here is the Quran as a result of the Quran in particular, I am hopeful that I will have the most followers out of them all meaning more than all the other prophets, when the day of judgment happens when the final count, and Tally takes place. And you know, interestingly, that when

the Pew Research Center and others other polling agencies were measuring, what is it that's behind Islam being the fastest growing religion in the US, or in the UK or in Europe at large? Why does it have such a rapid rise? Even though there's bad press, it still has such a rapid growth among populations, when they polled these people? Like why did you choose Islam? The number one and number two reasons where it just makes sense. And number two is I got to read the texts myself, okay, I didn't have to just believe someone I had access to the text. And what I found in the text just makes sense.

And so the Hadith tells us that the greatest proof of Islam and the greatest reason for people to become Muslim and followers of the Prophet alayhi salatu salam would be the Quran and we're seeing that today.

What I want us to do now is to, in sha Allah get a little better and a little sharper in our ability to articulate that to others. What is it about the Quran that makes it so compelling, so convincing? You know, it is understandable that the Quran have the greatest impact because people get to witness it firsthand. It's not like a moment in history where a physical miracle took place. And then sort of you have to believe that testimony because there's good reason to believe that testimony, if there happens to be good reason, okay. It's understandable. In that sense, the Quran is still with us today. But will could be hard to understand is how could any work of literature? How can a book

write letters and words and pages ever constitute a miracle? How does it qualify as a miracle?

And

what I want to argue in sha Allah for the next few Fridays that there are many dimensions, it's multi dimensional, there's many dimensions of the neurons miraculous nature. Some of them will be more appealing to certain audiences than others. You may speak to someone who can't appreciate one angle of the miracle, but they can appreciate another

you know, because some people will reduce it to say it's, it's a linguistic miracle. And we will start talking about linguistics, you know, in a second.

But what if I just, you know, I'm not able to appreciate the Quran being a linguistic wonder. There are others because Allah knew that this Quran Yes, it's Arabic originally and its message, but it's universal. Right in its target audience for everybody.

And so there will be other dimensions we will discuss but let's start from the ground up.

How is the Quran a linguistic masterpiece? Tell me

quickly how?

No doubt it is I'm not downplaying this, but how?

You see, this is the issue. We cannot be sloppy. When we make this argument, there is a correct way to make it. But you and I both will struggle to actually prove in a convincing way the Quran is a linguistic masterpiece.

You can say yes, but the Arabs were like really good at language. And if you compare the Quran to like the poetry of the time, which was like, you know, high level poetry, the Quran knocks it out the park. Really, can you take a page of Quran for me and compare it to the page of poetry for me? I can't do it. I'll be honest with you. I can't. So should we put this proof down altogether? Because we cannot ourselves demonstrate that linguistically it has no comparison. No, there's still ways to do it. Here's how you with me.

All Quran, experts, Muslim and non Muslim, pass past and present generally agree that the Quran linguistically is in a league of its own.

The more you go up the ladder of expertise, the less that is bait there is you know, someone who cannot even spell their name in Arabic. Yeah, the Quran is nothing impressive about it, it's like monotonous and it's like, you know, it's jumping all over the place. He doesn't know where to begin evaluating, but the more you go up the ladder, whether you're Muslim or your non Muslim, you're a contemporary scholar of the Quran, or you're one of the Great's of the Arabic language from classical times. They all agree that the Quran is in a league of its own.

They'll disagree on its source, some say yes, and a league of its own. I'm not saying it's from God, because they're obviously not they're not some of them are non Muslims here. But they don't disagree, even despite disagreeing on the source. They don't disagree on it linguistically, being a masterpiece.

And that's important.

Allah sent the Quran framed it in a way form, as if Muhammad brought about a new language to the Arabs, a new language to the Arabs, when they would brag to the world that no one has the rhetoric, no one has the language that has our sophistication. You know, a non Muslim, Palestinian American scholar of literature and culture, one of the Oxford calls and one of the foremost scholars have

public intellectuals, they call them they call him Edward Saeed, who, who passed away about 20 years ago.

He says, Anyone who understands the Arabic language will realize as I realized, and I consider, in my opinion, that the Arabic language is one of the most extraordinary constructions of the human mind. It's hard to compare Arabic to begin with, with other languages, okay? Yet these people who are experts in Arabic don't understand how the Quran was formulated.

And I'll share with you a few citations

to prove the fact that everyone who tried to create something like the Quran linguistically failed. And what do we mean they failed? The challenge of the Quran was to produce Surah to mimic ly produce one chapter, the shortest chapter of the Quran is what's two lines? Right? produce one chapter, not identical to it similar.

Weather Oh, shahada calm and you go call your own judges? Can you imagine how low it is the bar right now. We'll create one chapter like it. That is just similar to it, and go call someone from your side your bias judges to testify for it. When Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the illiterate man who couldn't read and write brought you 6200 plus VS have it? Right. That's the challenge. So it seems to be like come on who can't put that together? Why can't you get a think tank of 10 experts to put that together, someone's going to be able to do it. Yet all the experts agree nobody ever came close.

So

for instance

this is the statement of the German scholar, non Muslim German professor at University of Berlin. She wrote that's the cover of the book or the English translation of it. It was originally written in German. She wrote a six volume commentary on the Quran. She is considered one of or yeah, she still lives about 80 Right now, one of the greatest scholars and experts on

ran in the world today. She says in this is an interview this part is not in the book. She says no one has succeeded at meeting that challenge. This is right. She was I attest to that no one has. And I really think that the Quran has even brought Western researchers embarrassment, the way they were dismissive of achievements, who weren't able to clarify how suddenly in an environment where there was not any appreciable written text, there appeared the Quran with its richness of ideas and its magnificent wordings.

There's another quote here, I'll get all the quotes out of the way. And then we'll discuss in sha Allah, that I really appreciate for Dr. Bessel Messiah in his book and he writes, this book is called the miraculous language of the Quran.

He says, The miraculousness of the Quran.

How can language be a miracle? Right? He says lies in this very paradox paradox means like a seeming contradiction like a deadlock. The paradox of its being truly Arabic. Anyone who hears the Quran knows Arabic, they can understand it, right? It being truly Arabic, and it being at the same exact time, a new language.

He says that might appear to be illogical, like how's it Arabic and not Arabic at the same time? He said, the logic of miracle inheres exists in precisely the fact that it surpasses logic, you're telling me how is it logical that it's Arabic and not Arabic? It's because that's the whole point. You see,

a miracle that rests on logic ceases to be a miracle. He's trying to say, you need to grasp the Arabic language, extremely sophisticated, extremely mature, extremely advanced, right? These people were at the peak of rhetorical expression, meaning they had not just great skill, they had great strictness in their structure. Like there's a, there are clear benchmarks, they all understand the rules you have to play by, if it doesn't fit into these 16 rules. It doesn't qualify. It's shallow. It's a failure. It's a mistake. In other words, he's telling you the beauty of Arabic is not arbitrary. You understand? It's not like, Oh, I feel like this language is beautiful. He's saying

no, Arabic is a very strict language not difficult, by the way, compared to many other languages, because it's so consistent, so well structured, but there's structure you step outside that structure. It's not Arabic. Right? So there's, for example, like 16 measures they talk about in poetry. He's saying the Quran spoke outside of these 16. Yet, everyone said, wow, that's exquisite Arabic. So it's not Arabic doesn't fit the definition. Right. At the same time, it is the most coherent, pristine, crystal clear, lucid Arabic. And that is why if you look historically, you start finding the great poets of Arabia, like maybe the Nairobi or otherwise, they not just became Muslim,

but they retired from poetry when they encounter the Quran. So I'm not I'm not going to write another stanza, another couple of poetry after this.

And this is why also,

when they went to and when he didn't Mahira, who was a staunch enemy of the Prophet alayhi salatu salam.

They said to him, Go listen to him and tear his Quran apart.

So he said this, right, he went and listened to the Quran carefully, he came back and he said, What can I possibly say, there is not a single man among you who is more versed in prose or in poetry than I am. Even the poems of the jinn, the demons, I memorize them. I know of them.

By God, what he says bears no resemblance to any of these things. He's just completely outside the box.

By God, his statements which he utters have a sweet has a sweetness to it, and a charm hovers over it. Then he explains, he said, its highest parts, its surface, meaning

are fruitful, you know, sometimes when you read something, at first glance, it seems to be profound. Right? But that you can't do much with it. Or if you think about it a bit further, it's actually very problematic. He's saying its surface level is very fruitful. It's not algorithms. It's not complicated. It's you can use it, he said, and it's depth, the further you dig deep into it, you scrutinize it gushes forth without end, it's just endless beauty.

He said it dominates and cannot be dominated, and it will certainly crush all that's beneath it. This language can never be matched the same. And so now you have a non Muslim or a Muslim in those citations from the books I showed you, and this is the best of the best of the early experts in the Arabic language. He said this so they told him you know what happened when he said that they said to lead

they said people they were afraid he's gonna go out to the world and tell them this and admit this said people

are saying that you're going broke, and you're going to start following Mohamed, you're going to become a Muslim so he can spend on you.

And when he didn't know VEDA was the richest guy in Mecca, and he took great pride and great boast in his wealth, all of Quraish would put in money to dress the cabin one year, and he would dress the cabin by himself every other year. Right? And so they hit him where it hurts. People are gonna start saying, I'm not the richest man like anymore. I'm sort of going to go become a, you know, someone begging of Muhammad. And so they said, then say something, dismissed the Quran. He said, What can I say? No one's gonna believe anything I say, storyteller doesn't speak like storytellers. Fortune Teller doesn't speak like a fortune teller. He said the best thing we can see our best odds. let's

align on an accusation. Let's call it Cyril. You're thorough. And this whole incident that I just relayed, is in the beginning of something with it. Let's just call it magic.

Of course, this is from the blindness that Allah azza wa jal at times gives those hearts that are deserving of going blind, that turn away from the truth. You know, when you call it magic, you know what you're doing? You're actually admitting what?

That It's Supernatural.

Right or wrong. So unwittingly, unrealized thing. He's conceding to the fact that this book is not from this world.

And of course, people didn't buy that even though they settled on it. And that is why that's why the sword is there. That is when things turned hostile for the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam and that is yet another proof of the Quran being matchless would you call it magic? Right, unless you couldn't compete with it.

And would you reach for your sword? This is what about Eleni Rahim Allah said in his book, the inimitable Quran, he said, Would you reach for your sword? Unless you were failed by your word, their words failed. And so they were compelled to reach for their swords. Why else? Why would you go to war? Why would you kill your fellow tribesmen? Why would you kill your own family members? Why would you go broke? Why would you subject yourself to being killed and all this unless you really believed you had no other option? Right.

So that is of the further proof that it was not match

could not be matched.

The last point I will mention here, and I'll spend a bit of time on this last slide.

I am not comparing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam to Shakespeare. There's always someone in the crowd, who says this is an insult to the prophets. I love to compare it to Shakespeare.

This slide is about what one of the experts on the Quran, non Muslim Orientalist scholar, his name was Arthur J. arbury. By the way, Arthur J. arbury. Has His own translation of the Quran.

But he's not Muslim. He's not very fond of us either. But he's a he's a specialist. He's a scholar.

He writes, I think he wrote this an intro of his translation of the Quran, that there is no doubt that the Quran is a unique masterpiece of the Arabic language, forever Muslim, Christian or not. If you're Arab, you measure your Arabic by comparing it with the likes of the Quran. Okay. He says, But Muslims shouldn't exaggerate. Muslims shouldn't take it from being the best league of its own top of its class to exaggerating and saying it's from another world. It's otherworldly, It's Supernatural. He's saying that's unjustified.

Why? He says because every language has its top work of literature. In English, you have the sonnets of Shakespeare.

In Greek you have the Iliad of Homer, and so the Quran is no different. It's just the Quran of Arabic, that's all.

So in his rush to be dismissive of the Quran, divine origins, he made a huge oversight. Miss 10 oversights, at least and this was taken from the the book of Dr. Samuel hamady are adapted from the book of Dr. Samuel Amity, who was a great

Algerian scholar and comparative religion out of Minnesota.

Let us sit there and compare and contrast for a second or ask Can Muhammad ever be compared to Shakespeare?

Or let me reverse that can Shakespeare ever be compared with our Prophet Muhammad? sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So number one, which one of them Mohammed or Shakespeare was formally educated, had access to books and libraries?

Shakespeare right. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was not just uneducated in reading and writing, but he was

From a people that were majorly unlettered the whole society, illiteracy was the norm was prevalent there. And he worked in his life as a shepherd of sheep, and in some instances as a tradesman,

whereas Shakespeare was educated in Greek and in Latin, write multiple languages and had access to books and libraries of them. Number two, who wrote for a living?

The Prophet SAW Selim never wrote, Shakespeare was a professional playwright, he was dedicated salary coming in to refine his craft day in and day out year after year, one play after another, right.

Number three, who brought a new compositional structure to their language? I already explained what that means in Arabic that he was speaking outside of every norm of rhetoric known to the Arabs who were experts at rhetoric at speaking.

Shakespeare's what Shakespeare's poems for those of you you had to get dragged through this in school, I had to for more semesters than I wanted the trauma of an English major. He's it was called sonnets. Right? You guys know what sonnets are? Like, you know, what haikus are? That's an easier what's a haiku guys?

Yes, right. There's three line poem, every line has to match up to a certain measure of syllables. Right? sonnets are like that there's a certain form yet did Shakespeare invents on its no sonnets were being used for hundreds of years before Shakespeare. Got it. As for the Prophet, alayhi, Salatu was Salam. He spoke, meaning the Quran that he brought, stepped outside of every known structure of composition in the language. Nobody before ever used that and wait, nobody after it ever was able to replicate it. Completely different. Number four, this final metric test was his final metric test. That's just the big clunky word

stylo metrics is

it's basically a mathematical comparison. It's software that has been produced

in recent in recent times, that they call it author discrimination. How do you discriminate This is really from this author or not from this author? Okay. So basically, it's almost like aI with a very primitive form of AI,

or plagiarism software's or otherwise? Imagine, we dig up in the park down the street, a book that says, manuscript written by William Shakespeare, we're not sure it's actually one of his books, or not one of his plays or not. So what do you do? They input into the software, right? After they've already input everything we know and verified has been from Shakespeare. So they already got his patterns of language, his styles and otherwise, immediately you can tell is this actually his does it match up? Or does it does it not? Is that clear, by the way, this author discrimination technique, is how they discounted and disprove that many of the books in the Bible that are

attributed to even Paul or not even written by Paul himself,

Paul, the creator of Christianity,

but what they did is they performed 12 different experiments comparing what the Quran with a book like so I had a body. So I had heard, you know, is the most authentic, you know, collection of statements and descriptions and actions and approvals of our prophets. Allah Allahu Allah was Allah, his everyday speech, basically, to simplify. And what they did when they compared the language of the Quran, with the language of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they concluded that it is humanly impossible for these two to come from the same person. Why? They found like, for example, 66% of the vocabulary in one book doesn't exist in the other book whatsoever.

So what does that mean? It means it's humanly impossible for you to live 23 years self policing self censoring yourself, I'm only going to use these words on this subject and those words on that subject, is that even possible? It's not humanly possible for you to regulate yourself in speech that way over the span of no one can ever do it. Can you imagine? Like, I'm gonna say, I'll never say the word house on Sundays.

And someone sort of like, so. This is a way for people to objectively see the Quran could never have come from Muhammad. Ali Salatu was Salam. Whereas the patterns and the styles of Shakespeare are well known to us. You know, the people around the Prophet SAW Selim knew this. They knew that these were not his words. We talked to him

Everyday we grew up with him, he grew up with us, we know how he speaks, right? But for someone who cannot compare the, the everyday words of the Prophet SAW Salem with the words of the Quran, there's sort of like an objective mathematical way for you to know, we must differentiate between the source of these words and the source of those words can't come from the same person clear.

Number five, which one had in their authorship right? In their books, in their writings in their literature, unwavering eloquence, what does that mean? That means beauty that is consistent perfection, mastery of language that never falters.

Definitely not Shakespeare, because every class you take with Shakespeare, no matter who you take it with, they're always gonna make you stop at a few words where he really knocked out the park. It's not like all his plays are equally beautiful. There's, you know,

To be or not to be and there is, you know, all those phrases, you know, right. From from Romeo and Juliet, there's segments of distinct brilliance. What about the Quran and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam brought, you need to understand the Arabs had a tradition, because they were so sophisticated in rhetoric and language called the knock, tradition, knocks tradition is like literary critique. Basically, you critique each other's language and literature, you know, like in rap battles,

but on a very different level. So they would basically listen to each other's masterful poetry and say, That was good. But because this was the scene, you should have used that metaphor, or this conjugation of the verb or more for the word this way to about all they did was brutally scrutinize each other's poetry. That was just

the life they were about. Has anyone ever pointed at any room for refinement for any phrase in the Quran? No.

Who can pull that off?

Number six, who was it Muhammad Ali Salatu was Salam or Shakespeare that ever challenged their peers? I dare you to make something like what I produce. No, Shakespeare understood, and everyone around him understood that he was normal human, had some skills. By the way.

Back to our very statement, you know, the sonnets of Shakespeare, the scholars of the English language do not agree on Shakespeare being the number one

writer of plays in the English language. They don't like you, Craig from Newcastle University, one of the authorities of the English language without boring you guys, he ranks him as number seven. Right? There's 15. If it's controversial, who's number like Shakespeare? Yes, was the most well known, maybe had some good connections, maybe the politicians liked him, maybe he struck gold, whatever it is, right. But in terms of the strength of the language, know Shakespeare was just considered by some not agreed upon, considered by some, the champion in an arena of worthy competitors, they could be compared with him, you get it.

Whereas the Quran

would chastise them and challenge them and lower the bar time. And again, the challenge happens in many verses, not just one to produce anything like this. Come on, nothing but 10 chapters, one chapter, bring your own judges, anything, whatever you want, right? And in humiliation, they all were what were silenced. Number seven, who had the luxury of the flexibility of fiction.

What does that mean?

You know, when you're just writing fiction fiction means fantasy fiction means not real. You can like, talk about whatever you want, right?

And that was Shakespeare. He's writing plays. He's writing romance. He's writing drama, right? You just fiction. So you would expect that his language would be more appealing right around

the Quran that the Prophet Mohammed brought us la Salatu Salam is forced to speak about reality. I'm using the word force loosely here is, isn't it? Tough subjects, right theology and philosophy and law and uncomfortable truths about diseases that lurk in people's hearts and refuting and rebutting false you know, paradigms or worldviews or beliefs and doctrines and you know, an expert start speaking on like, on these levels, people usually just zone out.

The language just becomes very heavy, right or wrong.

And so that you wish more

have an advantage, right, because of the inflexibility of facts and truth and nonfiction at the Quran came with. Okay.

Number eight. Now this is a build on it, which one of them has universal appeal?

Like if I were to lose my mind, and, you know,

coordinate a play a Shakespeare play in the social hall next week, besides the fact that you guys would get me thrown out of the masjid besides that one, right? Who would care to show up?

English speaking

probably college educated, upper to middle class, probably Caucasian, a very specific sliver of the population would ever have interest in something like this. Now, if I were to bring an expert reciter of the Quran, to dismiss it,

to recite for you

words that you may not even understand unless they're translated, who would show up for this event, if I were to bring chef machete Lofa syrup Rashid Sophie are one of these great recyclers of today are mad at him why Italy? Or ship us today? So should aim or whoever you prefer to listen to?

Who would come

the Arabs and the non Arabs and the young and the old and everybody, right? The Quran has the universal appeal.

Even though Arabic is not necessarily universal language in that sense. Number nine

creative Liberty versus interactivity what in the world does that mean?

Let's imagine Shakespeare.

Okay, is speaking fiction, right? Let's imagine speaking nonfiction even. But even with nonfiction, he gets to decide what I'm going to talk about. Let's ignore the fact that it's fantasy. He decides what parts of truth to leave out

right or wrong. Whereas the Quran, the Quran was addressing what was happening in real time like there are 13 passages in the Quran

that begin with Yes, Aluna they ask you all Mohamed about the moons how to count the months they asked you about how much of their money are they obligated to spend out in charity? They ask you about the menstrual cycle? It's an eye on the Quran, isn't it? Every time they ask Allah sends out their response. You know how hard it would be like imagine I'm putting together what I want to be the most moving, inspiring talk for you about the reality of paradise in the hellfire, right.

I want everyone to walk out being so heavy in sha Allah. And in that in those 30 minutes, you guys keep raising your hand share. But this issue of like, isn't this Wasting Light? Isn't this too much? Like, can we get some energy savers on here? Like, and you just keep asking me questions. Share what like I said to my wife, you're divorced four times before the lecture is that fine? Like, can I still go home tonight? Or can I not go home tonight because like I was like a little disoriented when I said it. And every time I tried to get back to my subject, you asked me another question.

How much interest would I retain in my audience?

Not much, right? And it's not even just that they were prompting him with questions. The Quran is addressing spontaneous events. Also, events are just happening. Like you would think that the Quran if it were produced by a human being obvious, it would waver in its beauty in its eloquence at the times when the Prophet alayhi salatu salam is going through the stress, he's bleeding. He just he's walking home from a battle.

His uncle Hamza, on the other hand just got mutilated.

If a human production, would it be equally effective, equally thoughtful, equally creative. In moments when we're going through trauma versus moments when I'm sitting there, calm under a candlelight, sipping my candle meal, and then writing it out for you. How did the Quran come out like this unwavering eloquence despite the fact that I don't get to speak, right? The Quran is not speaking in a silo. It's interacting with its audience live. Right?

Last one, and here's the kicker.

Which one

wrote their book? I know what the process I didn't write the book, I get it, wrote their book in linear fashion, assembled the book in linear fashion.

Shakespeare wrote

everybody, not just Shakespeare who writes back to front.

I don't mean direction like Arabic English. I mean, like the actual subject who writes everyone writes the beginning, the middle the end. That's how we write the top, the middle of the bottom. What we need to realize is the Quran

did not come down like this, the order of the sorrows and the eye that you have right now in the Quran, the chronological order of your most half is not the order of descent, the order it was revealed.

So the Quran came down imagine like there's a painting or like a big puzzle, and this piece comes down, then that piece comes down, then this piece comes down, then that one, then add another piece here, then a part over there, and then some over here. Can you imagine that coming out like a beautiful tapestry?

Who can ever do that? Who can ever paint that way? And then the Quran is not even written, it is spoken. How do you put together a book that way?

That is unmatched.

By the agreement of the experts.

10 Zero Mirabal Allah mean there's no other way to explain it. This is a grand miracle that has been revealed from above the heavens. And so that is sort of how the Quran despite it being a work of language of work of literature, qualifies with flying colors for being an actual supernatural out of this world. gift from Allah a miracle. In sha Allah and the coming Fridays, we will speak about how the Quran and the history the last knowledge it shares with us proves beyond a doubt that it was a miracle and from Allah, and then we will visit other aspects of its miraculous nature such as its preservation and its potency and its impact on the world and otherwise, be it in the light Allah

Subhana Allah Hambrick shadow Allah Allah Allah interest of Europeana to Blake, are there any questions?