Tom Facchine – Word Choice Of Allah In The Quran

Now we're going to talk something a little

bit more technical. We're talking about the art

and the skill of reading between the lines.

This is an extremely,

extremely important skill to develop when engaging with

the Quran,

especially, and also the Sunnah. Because Allah Subhanahu

Ta'ala treats us like intelligent people. He treats

us like intelligent people in expecting us to

use our reason, in giving us these sorts

of criteria,

and also not spelling absolutely

everything out explicitly. There are certain things that

he I don't want to say hides in

the text. That's a little too dramatic. But

something less than hides, he implies them. Okay.

He implies them. And there's a few different

ways in which that happens. Sometimes Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala, he uses very specific words.

So he uses certain word choice.

And in that word choice, there are certain

subtle meanings that are beautiful to reflect upon.

Other times, Allah

uses a particular

order of words, the syntax.

And he has a message for us in

the in the word order that he uses.

And then other times, and this is my

favorite one, Allah

he responds

to doubts that the reader is having or

might have without actually naming the doubt whatsoever.

He anticipates it and responds to it, but

never says what it is. And I'm gonna

give examples of each of these three things.

Okay. So we're talking about word choice. Okay.

Let's go to the beginning of Surah Al

Baqarah. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he details 3

types of people. He details the believers, and

he defines who they are. Then he talks

about the kuffar. Okay. The rejecters of truth,

and then he talks about the hypocrites.

So when he talks about the kuffar, he

says,

He says the punishment for the kuffar, the

people who deny and reject faith, adabun

avim.

He says we translate it as a great

punishment. Okay. Adab is punishment. Avim is the

word he uses to describe that punishment. Then

he starts talking about the hypocrites, umil nasimayakuluamanabilah,

he

until the end of it. And when he

talks about what's going to be their end,

he says,

He uses a slightly

different

word. He says they're going to have

a punishment,

elim.

So we had the Kufar

are going to experience,

and the hypocrites are going to experience.

Does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just pick 2

random words, or might there be a meaning

behind the difference between these two words? And

might the difference between these two words reflect

something about the people that they apply to

and describe? Our professor, one of my favorite

professors in the Islamic

University of Medina, his name was Muthena 'Abdul

Fattah from Jordan. He said that, and he,

you know, presented this to us in class.

What's the word that alim is is related

to in the Arabic language is adam,

bones. K. Bones are something that's very physical,

something very corporal. K. And this is applied

to the kuffar. The word that elim

is tied to is elem. Okay? And elem

is a type of pain, but it's usually

a hidden pain that you can't see. If

you have a headache or you have some

sort of, stomachache or something like that, usually,

we use the word elem to describe it.

Okay. As opposed to something like jar, which

is like an injury, like a cut that's

on the surface. Right? So our professor, Mu'than

Abu Fata'h, he said that each of these

two words corresponds

to the group of people that they apply

to. Because

Allah describes the punishment for the kuffar as

adhim,

as physical and corporal,

because their denial is obvious and out in

the open, adhim. Whereas the hypocrites,

their denial is hidden

and internal.

And so the word he uses to describe

their punishment, adagun alim,

is also has connotations

of hidden and internal. And Allah knows best.

Well, this is presented by our professor,

Mutan Adar Fattah, and he's has won awards

for his research in tafsir, mashallah Tabarakallah. I

had him for 2 semesters in the university.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala doesn't do anything arbitrarily.

He doesn't do anything just playing around. If

there's a difference between two words, you best

believe that there's a purpose behind that difference.

Whether we can know it or not, that's

a different thing. And, you know, there's, we

we might get close to it or we

might not. We don't have certain knowledge, but

there's aayat and there's things to reflect upon

that can make us more amazed with Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and his book. So when

you go to the English translation

and you read, you know, it's a great

punishment.

This is the level of contemplation

and inflection and implied meaning that is hidden

from us when we're engaging in the Quran

in, a language other than what Allah, revealed

it in.