Yaser Birjas – The Secrets Of QurAnic Arabic Revealed
AI: Summary ©
The Arabic language is the result of a lack of "na" and Hamilton, and it is the best way to describe words in Arabic writing. It is unique and comes from a time when political and cultural events were happening, and it is used to identify authentic harves and describe emotions and moments in the language. The QVC is not perfect and may not even be appreciated, leading to the need for people to know what it is. Different qiraat recitations for political or cultural reasons, as well as preserving the qiraat, are also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, we will continue
insha'Allah studying with the Arabic of the
language of the Qur'an and we came
to the point of why in Arabic, why
the Arabic language is so important.
If you guys remember, we discussed a few
things before that.
We talked about Arabic language being the language
of the people.
So when the Prophet ﷺ came to speak
the language, it was the language of his
own people.
And we know that the Arab, they spoke
different dialects, so the Prophet ﷺ, he was
also committed to convey the message to the
people based on the language they understand, including
the dialects that they also understand.
By the way, some people, they think those
dialects are gone completely from this life, from
this world, but they do exist.
The remnants of these dialects still exist in
different cultures, in different cultures.
So in the center of the Arabian Peninsula,
they speak in a specific tongue, different than
the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula, different
than the one that is spoken in the
south, like in Yemen, for example.
The Shami accent, the Egyptian accent, they all
have roots somewhere that goes back again to
the actual Arab tongue.
So we're going to discuss some of that
later, inshallah ta'ala.
And we said the Arabic language is a
Semitic language.
And one of the unique characteristics of Semitic
languages is that they have what we call
the trilateral root system.
The trilateral root system is that system by
which most of the words go back again
to three letters root.
That root, if you know the meaning of
that root, then you'll be able to expand
on it in different ways using what we
call the Arabic sarf or morphology, the pattern
and the structure of the word.
We're going to cover that a little bit
in a second, inshallah ta'ala.
So if you know the meaning of a
word or a root, then you can make
tons of words, even if you don't know
the words yourself.
So if you remember, we said that the
scale fa'il, fa'il means what?
The one who does the action.
The one who does the action.
So if you know what is fa, ayn,
and lam in that fa'il, you can
tell what it means, right?
So if I tell you, if I tell
you to give me the one who does,
for example, al-akil, akala.
So the one who eats, what do we
call him?
Say it again?
Al-akil.
Look, you speak Arabic, masha'Allah, already, right?
If you say someone who is, let's say,
who swims, sabaha.
What do you call the one who swims?
Sabih, sabih, right?
There's another form in the Arabic language, if
you want to talk about exaggeration, exaggeration of
sabaha, for example, swimming, then it's the scale
of fa'al.
So if you want to say someone who
is a professional swimmer, what do we say?
Sabah.
Sabih becomes a swimmer, but sabah, like professional
swimmer, basically.
So if you learn these little things here
and there, believe it or not, you will
understand the Quran without even knowing the meaning
of the words.
Because now you realize it's speaking in a
specific way.
So we're going to explain that to you
here, insha'Allah, in the next few slides.
So let's talk a little bit about the
Arabic eyes from that perspective.
Number one, the Arabic language, even though it's
formulated in the Arabian Peninsula, in the desert
area, but it was a very sophisticated language.
Why is that?
Here's the thing.
The Arabs, first of all, were a very,
very natural society.
It was not influenced by any culture from
around.
Like the Romans, the Persians, they fight in
the north.
They have their own vessel states in the
north and the south.
But the central area of the desert, they
have no business in it.
No resources, no even survival skills over there.
So therefore, they just let them be.
And as a result, the Arab, they only
created their own culture, was very pure from
any influence from the outside.
The Arab, they did not have the same
sophisticated societies and cultures of the civilization in
the east and the west.
So they didn't have writing materials, didn't have
libraries, didn't have any of that kind of
stuff.
So what do they need to do?
They need to make sure that they preserve
their tradition.
And how would you preserve your tradition if
you don't have anything to write on?
You're going to have to memorize it.
You're going to have to learn to memorize
it.
So to memorize something, you need to memorize
something.
It has to, or not it has to
be, but at least it's better for that
thing that you memorize to be what?
In rhyming sounds or poetic, right?
Has to be poetic and rhyming.
Also, in order for you to have those
words to be easy to remember, they have
to be what?
Something that is easy for you to relate
to.
That's why they relate things to nature.
They name things after what they see and
what they hear.
They use words from what they hear and
what they see as well too.
So they start deriving words from nature.
Like for example, Allah says, What's a tariq
anyway?
Anyone knows what a tariq is?
Knocks.
And when you knock, how does it sound?
So they say tariq.
Because it has the sound of talk, talk,
talk.
Why kalb was called kalb?
How does the kalb sound when it starts
pumping?
The sound of it is the word itself,
actually.
Yes.
Yes, because it fluctuates.
But the sound of it gave the name
to it.
The kalb, kalb, kalb, kalb, kalb, kalb.
So it's kalb, basically.
Because it also keeps flipping and swaying.
But from the sound of it.
So a lot of the Arabic words that
you guys read, it came from nature.
The Arabs, they describe what they see and
they use the exact same thing.
And they hear sounds and they add to
that.
So for instance, letters.
And that's, subhanAllah, something that's very profound in
how it's sophisticated.
If you ever studied tajweed, and especially if
there's the advanced tajweed, the articulating points of
the Arabic letters, they teach you that these
sounds of the Arabic letters, they have what
they call them.
So each letter has specific original characteristics and
accidental or circumstantial.
So for example, those original letters, original sounds,
original attributes, they are original to the letter
itself.
Let me give an example.
Letter, we said letter qaf before, right?
So letter qaf, where is it pronounced from
when you say letter qaf?
It's pronounced from where?
From the back.
Way back of your mouth.
So if you want to say qaf properly,
you're going to have to pronounce it by
saying ak, qaw.
Try that out.
Say it, ak, qaw.
Say it again, ak, qaw.
How do you feel when you say ak?
What do you feel?
If your head didn't tilt backward, you're not
pronouncing it correctly.
If your head is not tilting backward when
you say ak, qaw, they feel that's pushing
back.
Why is that?
Because it's one of the strongest Arabic letters.
You press the air using the back of
your tongue towards your mouth from the back,
and you press the air over there.
And as a result, you create some sort
of like a combustion over there.
And it's like an explosion happens when you
say ak.
So therefore, if you release the air, your
head will not tilt backwards.
You will not pronounce qaf correctly.
And it's going to come like an ak,
qaf.
And it actually becomes weak.
That's why one of the attributes of the
Arabic letter, of course, the qaf, the circumstantial,
is qalqala.
Qalqa laqada, for example.
So that's a sound because you release the
air.
So qaf is one of the strongest Arabic
letters.
Therefore, in the way you pronounce it, it's
strong.
And whenever you put it in any word,
it gives a sense of power and superiority
as well too, like quwa, qalb, quran, qalam,
and so on.
Take another example, letter sheen.
Letter sheen.
I want you to try to pronounce letter
sheen like this.
Ash.
Say it again.
Together.
Ash.
Okay, so what do you get out of
it?
What do you understand?
What could be the attribute of this letter?
It's called tafashy, harfu tafashy wa intishar, like
dispersion.
Dispersion and release.
Dispersion and expansion.
Because when I say ash, you can't stop
until you run out of air.
Ash, until you're out of air.
That's letter sheen.
As a result of that attribute, any letter,
any word that has letter sheen in it
has to give the meaning of tafashy wa
intishar, spreading and dispersion.
Give an example of a word that has
sheen in it.
Shajar.
What is shajar?
Trees.
And what do the trees spread?
Branches, shade, fruit, you name it.
Spread all over, right?
Someone said shams.
Shams.
What does shams spread?
Light, warmth, life, energy, you name it, right?
Give me something else.
Shukur.
Gratitude.
When you spread gratitude, like an attribute among
the people.
What else, ajma'a?
Somebody said something there.
Before sham.
What is it?
Sharr.
Evil.
It spreads by who?
Shaytan.
Shaytan spreads sharr, right?
What about sharr?
Hair, shirr, poetry.
Any word that has sheen has to have
the meaning of expansion, spreading it out, right?
So what does that mean, ajma'a?
If this is one single letter, imagine put
a few letters together.
You can imagine when you put these letters
together to create one word, how would that
word sound when you actually hear it?
That's why with the Arab when they spoke,
their language was very poetic even at the
level of one letter.
There are several letters of the Arabic alphabet
that constitute a full sentence in one single
letter, like letter ra.
Ra.
What does it mean?
What does ra mean, ajma'a?
It means look at this.
Because ra from ra'a yara, which means
to see, to observe, to look at.
So when you make the imperative command ra
means look at this.
Same thing with the letter qaf, say qi,
that's an actual sentence.
Qi which means protect yourself or protect this.
Because it comes from waqa yaqi wiqayatan, so
it means to protect and guard, qi.
So even one single letter has the power
of a sentence in the Arabic language.
So imagine once again, if you put these
letters together to make one word, how would
it sound when you pronounce that word?
Like for example, the word as-asa, wal
-layli idha as-as.
That's one of those nice, beautiful words that
when you say as-as, basically it means
the opposite meanings together.
When the night comes in or leaves.
How do you describe that?
I can't, because that's how the Arab understand
from the word.
So there's a lot of rather profound understanding
of this, which is why when the Arab
they were putting words together, they had to
be rhyming, they had to relate to it
easily, they had to comprehend it quickly.
Like there's no sophistication in that sense, it
has to be simple to know.
So they can relate to it, to nature,
to the sounds of it, to the understanding.
Oh, that sound has to have this meaning.
So even if they don't really speak the
same tongue or the same dialect, once they
hear the sounds of the letters, they realize
it has a specific meaning to it.
That they can relate to.
So that's why when they start speaking, they
create the beautiful eloquence of the Arabic speech.
And they became very poetic.
And when they start writing poetry, it was
so exquisite, so beautiful, so gorgeous, so amazing.
And as a result, people start competing in
conveying their messages, conveying their tradition in poetry.
And the best poetry is the one that
is most concise, succinct, uses less letters, less
words, but also great meanings.
Which is, right before the time of the
Prophet ﷺ, the Arabic art of speech reached
its pinnacle.
And they have started doing things, they call
them al-mu'allaqat.
Al-mu'allaqat, there's about ten, some they
say seven, of the most exquisite, the most
beautiful poems written by the Arab in the
Jahiliyyah before Islam.
They were so beautiful that the Arab, they
would write them bima ad-dhahab, like gold,
basically, they wrote them in gold.
And they hang those poems on the curtains
of the Ka'bah or inside the Ka
'bah to show the status of these poems.
So the shu'ara, the poets who wrote
and composed these poems actually, they were hailed
as one of the greatest, like the best
poets of all time.
Until the Qur'an came.
When the Qur'an came, it eclipsed all
these poems.
Because the Qur'an did not use the
exact same rhyming system.
It was a bit different.
But it was so profound, so beautiful that
all these Arab, when they would listen to
the Qur'an, they couldn't imagine that you
could put words in that order and they're
still meaning something amazing.
Like they thought they knew how to put
the words in the perfect order to create
poetry.
But to bring these words, put them together,
these words, not poetry, not prose, something in
between.
Using these words that they thought you could
never use them in such a context like
this, but it still gives an unbelievable meaning.
It's for that reason the Arab, when they
were hearing the Qur'an, they couldn't stop
listening to it.
Like really, they couldn't stop listening to it.
I don't know about you guys, but subhanAllah,
sometimes, I listen to some of the Qaris,
the Qur'an, and that makes me feel,
again, guilty sometimes, being the only person to
understand what they're saying.
But some of the Qur'an, and this
is something, mashaAllah, the Mashayikh of the Qur
'an, they know very well.
There is something called Al-Waqf wa l
-I'tinaf, the art of where to pause and
to resume.
Even where to pause when you recite Qur
'an and where to resume has an art
to it and has a science to it
called Al-Waqf wa l-I'tinaf.
You know when you open the Mus'haf
and you see the letter Jeem and Sa'd,
Lam, Ya, and Al-Waqf, those are not
random things.
Ulema, they've been studying their lifetime to decide
that this is the best time to put,
the best location to put this letter to
make a neutral stand, pausing or resuming.
But those even pausing and resuming, they make
big difference when you listen to the recitation.
If the Qari pauses in the right place
and resumes in the right place, it just
makes a big difference in the understanding.
So imagine when the Arab, they came and
they listened to the Qur'an, how they
felt about it.
If you really would like to understand that
part of the language, you're going to have
to learn the Arabic language.
I'm sorry, there is no real escape of
this reality.
At what level would you be?
I don't know.
I learned a lot from many of my
students from Bosnia who started learning the Arabic
language, things that as a natural Arab, I
wouldn't pay attention to.
Like one time, one of the students, he
came to me laughing.
I mean, laughing at what?
He's laughing at a sentence he read.
I said, what is that?
He goes, you Arab are so funny.
I said, what do you mean?
I didn't know that.
He goes, you know, you have expression that
is very, very unique.
Like when we want to express something such
as chaos, we'd say, qamat al dunya walam
taqod.
Qamat al dunya walam taqod, which means the
whole, the world stood up and never sat
down again.
I mean, it doesn't sound funny in English,
but when I say it in Arabic for
somebody who doesn't really, he sees it in
a different, he imagines it in a different
way.
It's just so funny for him.
I said, like, I never thought it was
funny, but now I can see that.
The idea is that the Arabic language is
very animated.
If you cannot imagine what you're reading and
what you're hearing, you're missing out a lot
on the beautiful meaning of the language.
It's very animated.
Like I said, qamat al dunya walam taqod.
The words are sometimes when they describe things,
they describe things that would make you imagine
the words are moving.
It's like storytelling, really.
If you can't imagine what you're reading, you're
missing out on the meaning of these words
and these ayat.
So that's why it's so important to realize
the meaning of the words, where they're coming
from, the letters themselves, what do they mean
exactly.
And I highly recommend for you guys when
you study tajweed and makharj al huruf, focus
on those things.
I know some of the teachers don't maybe
focus on it for you, because you're not
natural Arab.
So why do I have to bother to
teach you all these meanings of these letters?
But if you really don't know the meaning
of the letters, it would be amazing.
That will give you that perspective when you
hear the word, just like even though I
don't know what it means, but even if
I just say something such as, for example,
like the word shara.
Anyone knows what the meaning of shara?
Huh?
No.
Shara, what does it mean?
But without even knowing the word.
Which could you understand from the word shara?
One who spreads something.
Something that's spreading, right?
Something to spread, right?
Shara means actually street.
So even if you didn't know the meaning,
but you understand something is spreading, going all
over the place.
And when we talk about shara, streets, where
do they go?
All over the place, right?
Now, knowing that shara has the meaning of
legislation and spreading as well.
So now the word sharia means what?
Where does the word sharia come from?
The one who actually does the tashree, which
is the legislation itself.
All of it because it's supposed to have
what?
It's supposed to spread.
It's supposed to be now all over.
It's supposed to be in your personal life
and the social life and all over.
Like sharia is supposed to dominate and control
the way we should live our life based
on Allah's command of this world.
So all these things, even if you don't
understand the words, just knowing the meaning of
certain letters will give you a lot of
understanding.
And I don't know if you guys have
ever heard me talking about the word hub
as well.
Hub, for example.
So hub is how many letters we have
for the word hub?
Two, why?
Because hub is supposed to happen between two
people.
You don't need more than that, right?
And then somebody would try to outsmart me.
Say, but sheikh, what about, you know, two
wives or four wives?
So there's the harakat.
But seriously, the ha and ba, two letters
to form one word called hub.
Because you don't need more than that for
this.
But even the way it's formulated, letter ha
is difficult to pronounce.
Why?
Because it's halki.
It's come from the throat.
So when you pronounce those letters from the
throat, they're very difficult to pronounce.
Like alif, al-hamza, al-hamzatu, al-ha,
wal-aynu, wal-ha, wal-ghaynu, wal-kha.
The most difficult letters to pronounce.
So when you say ah, it comes from
in there.
That's why those who are not proficient with
the language, they pronounce the ha as ha
and kha sometimes and so on.
So love is basically so hard and difficult
to begin with.
And it also chokes you in your throat.
When you're in love, you're always feeling choking.
Something in your throat.
You know what that is, right?
But then letter ba is one of the
easiest letters in the Arabic language.
If you pronounce letter ba, it sounds like
this.
Like there's a gentle press on the lips
from the front.
Gentle press.
Because yeah, it starts difficult, but it's so
sweet and gentle at the same time, right?
And then even when you pronounce the word
hub itself, try it out yourself.
When you pronounce the word hub, say hub.
Just say hub and stop there.
Hub.
What does that look like?
A manifestation of love.
What is it?
A kiss.
It's the kiss.
We say hub.
It's just like a kiss.
And even when you write hub, the word
hub itself, letter ha and ba, if you
connect it from the top, it's a shape
of lips.
All of this, all of this is just
in two letters to say love.
Bring me another language that can give you
this.
But that's the language of the Quran.
This is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
chose the Arabic language to express his divine
message.
So I just want you to keep that
in mind as we move forward.
So I'm going to explain a few things
for you inshallah as well.
I'm going to give you some extra details,
not in your book, but this is for
your reference inshallah so you can, in the
future as you study the Quran, to find
ways of focusing on these little things.
It's more details in terms of the grammar
of the Arabic language.
To give you a certain perspective on pronouns,
the Arabic pronouns, what's so unique about the
Arabic language?
The Arabic language is very detailed and very,
very specific at the same time.
Detailed and specific, which means when it comes
to, if you read a text in the
Arabic language or if you hear people speaking,
you will be able to identify if he's
speaking or she's speaking or if they're speaking
to two or three or more, if they're
speaking to men versus women.
You can hear, you can know all these
details without even looking at it because the
pronouns are very specific in the Arabic language.
So the first pronoun in the Arabic language
is ana for me.
So whether you're a man or woman, you
don't have to identify the gender here.
Why is that?
Because if it's the first person, you must
be looking at them or at least you're
hearing them so you recognize the voice.
But that was during the good old days
and now it will not be anymore, unfortunately.
But right now we have ana for the
individual and nahnu for the group.
So if we are a group of people,
it doesn't matter if we're men or women
or mixed because when we say nahnu, we're
supposed to know because you can hear, you
can see.
So ana is for the singular, nahnu for
the plural in the first tense or the
first person.
The second one, second person, anta, anti, antuma,
antum, antunna.
Very specific.
Anta is when you speak to a one
man.
Anti, when you speak to a one woman.
Antuma, when you speak to two.
It doesn't matter if it's men or women
here.
And then antum, it's for a group of
men.
Antunna, group of women.
Usually sometimes antum also takes over by speaking
to a mixed group, men and women together.
So when I speak to you guys here,
I speak antum.
If I want to speak to the sisters
in particular, I say antunna.
So the men are excluded.
So when you hear those in the words,
in the Arabic words, you naturally, immediately recognize
antum, antunna, and so on.
Yes, say it again.
Oh, it's missing.
Yeah, antunna is actually, somehow, I don't know
what happened here when we changed the font.
Antunna, so there's another actually noon here before
that.
Antunna.
So ana, nahnu, anta, anti, antuma, antum, antunna.
If you memorize that while you're visualizing it,
and even actually pointing with your own hand,
saying like, anta, anti, antuma, antum, antunna.
If you make it in that fashion, you
will recognize a lot of Arabic words in
the Quran without even knowing what do they
mean.
How so?
Here's an example.
Using those pronouns, those specific pronouns, with nouns
for possession.
Like we talk about something in possession for
something.
If you talk about me, I'm saying kitabi.
So what does kitab mean?
Book.
Kitabi means what?
My book.
And who is speaking right now?
Could be a man, could be a woman.
If we're a group, we say kitabuna, kitabuna.
And remember, there's ana and there's nahnu.
The noon is always there in the pronouns.
And then you have, if I'm speaking to
the second person, kitabuka, like saying anta for
the man, kitabuka for him.
The cat is for the possession.
For her, kitabuki, like anti, kitabuki.
For both, kitabukuma, your book for both.
And then for men, kitabukum, like antum, kitabukum,
antunna, kitabukunna.
So they're very specific pronouns over here.
So even if you don't know the word,
you know it's something about plural if it's
masculine or feminine, or if it's single or
otherwise.
So if I say, for example, baytukuma, what
does that mean?
That I'm speaking to what?
To two people, could be husband, wife, could
be two individuals, but I'm speaking to two,
no more.
I'm speaking to two over here.
If I say saatuki, what does saat mean?
A watch.
So when I say saatuki, what does that
mean?
A female's watch, I'm speaking to her, right?
The third sentence here is the ha.
The ha represents the third person.
So the second person is actually, you see
here, the calf, and the third person is
the ha.
So kitabuhu, I'm talking about him.
Kitabuhu, kitabuha, her.
Kitabuhuma, there's ha still, but the ma as
well for the plural, for the dual.
And then kitabuhum and kitabuhunna.
So the ha represents the third person.
So even if you don't know the Arabic
language, when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la speaks in the Quran in any way,
and you read the ha in a word
that is considered noun, you realize if it's
something plural, singular, male, female, group, you know
that right away from the pronouns.
Another thing that we see would come to
the verbs.
Even the verbs are specific when it comes
to pronouns.
So we have past tense verbs.
Past tense verbs, like kataba is a standard.
Like he wrote, that's what it means.
Kataba, he wrote.
So you say, when you talk about yourself,
the first person, you would say katabtu, I
wrote, too.
Katabna, we wrote.
And then the second, when you talk to
the person, say katabta, you wrote.
Katabti, for the female, you wrote as well
too.
And then katabtuma, you wrote.
Katabtum, you wrote.
Katabtunna, you wrote.
In English, they're the same pronoun.
But in Arabic, every person you talk to
has a very unique pronoun for them.
Same thing with the third person.
Kataba, he did, he wrote.
Katabat, she wrote.
Kataba, they both wrote.
Katabu and katabna.
So now when you hear in the Quran,
any word that has u towards the end,
it must be a plural.
And it must be, here you talk about
a verb, a past tense verb that comes
with that.
Same thing would come to the present verb.
The present verb, aktubu.
I'm writing right now.
Anaktubu, we are writing.
And then the second person, taktubu.
Taktubina, you are writing.
Taktubu.
Taktubina, that's for the female.
Taktubani, taktubuna, taktubna.
Yaktubu, taktubu.
Yaktubani, yaktubuna, yaktubna.
The specific pronouns added to these letters, I
know it sounds complicated for someone who doesn't
know much of the Arabic grammar or sarf
morphology, seems to be overwhelming.
But trust me, if you just understand, if
you learn the formula, it will open miraculous
doors for you.
Like literally.
That's why I highly recommend for you guys
to study the Arabic morphology.
As-sarf, the Arabic morphology.
Here's an example of it.
Here's just an example for you.
The Arabic morphology, it concerns itself with what?
It concerns itself with the patterns and the
structure of the word.
Not necessarily the meanings, but the pattern and
the structure of the word.
Which means, if you change the structure of
the word, it will add certain meaning to
it.
Like for example, when Allah says in Surah
Al-Kahf, فَمَسْتَطَعُوا أَن يَظْهَرُوا وَمَسْتَطَعَ لَهُ نَقْبًا
فَمَسْتَطَعُوا أَن يَظْهَرُوا وَمَسْتَطَعُوا So they have sta'
and istata'.
What does it even mean?
It's the same thing, but once you add
a letter or take a letter out of
a word, it changes the whole meaning.
So here's some examples for you from this
word.
In the Arabic language, if you start with
alif, sin, ta'.
The alif, sin, ta' together.
That is actually, it means you're seeking something.
You're soliciting something.
So when you say istamil, which means you
realize this.
When you say istaghfir, seek forgiveness.
Istakbil, go and solicit the reception of certain
people, for example.
Istakbil.
So once you hear the word alif, sin,
ta' or the letters alif, sin, ta' at
the beginning of a word, you know this
is something about soliciting something.
Even if you don't know the meaning of
the word.
But where do you get the meaning from?
From the original three letters that will come
after that.
Because the structure of the word, the alif,
sin, ta' is a prefix for that to
represent soliciting.
And then the verb comes after that with
the three letters.
Those three letters have the meaning you're looking
for.
So here we have istamsaru, nunsadra, nasara.
What does it mean?
Victory.
That means victory, right?
And then we have waw and alif.
Waw, so that's for the plural.
Plural for masculine or group of people.
So if you have now, if you know
that alif, sin, ta' means to solicit, and
you know that you're soliciting what right now?
Victory.
And those who are soliciting victory, is it
one person or a group of people?
Group of people, from knowing that it's waw
at the end, right?
So what would that word mean to you
then?
Victory.
That they are soliciting or seeking help and
victory and assistance.
They are seeking help and assistance in one
single word.
One single word.
It means a sentence in English.
So this is how sophisticated the language of
the Qur'an.
And I want you to, when you go
back to the Qur'an, look for these
examples.
In the break, open the mushaf and start
looking for these pronouns.
Look for these verbs and see for yourself
if you can understand what do they mean
without even having a dictionary with you.
Slowly and gradually, I can tell you, will
be miraculous.
When I first went to Bosnia, I start
teaching Arabic by teaching morphology and also some
grammar.
And teaching the kids these actually, these pronouns
and verbs.
And subhanAllah, in five months, Ramadan comes in.
The first night of Ramadan, our imam, mashaAllah,
was Hafidh.
He sat from the beginning of the Qur
'an, surat al-Baqarah.
One of the kids was about 15 years
old.
He comes after the salah so excited.
Like he was so happy, so excited.
And he says, you don't understand.
I was able to understand what the imam
was saying.
I said, how much did you really understand?
He goes, a lot.
I said, what does it mean?
He said, almost one third.
One third of the recitation.
Just by studying five months of grammar and
sarf and the structure of the words.
If you would like to really understand the
Qur'anic language, don't waste your time in
studying tayyara, ghasala, and thalaja.
Which means fridge and washing machine and an
airplane.
Don't waste your time on this, really.
Study the morphology of the Qur'an and
the Arabic language and the structure of the
words.
And you will see how you will start
understanding things miraculously.
Just by understanding what do these pronouns mean
and how the verbs are structured.
Any questions, imam, before we proceed?
Yes.
Oh, can we study grammar?
Arabic grammar?
Where?
Can we study it?
Where, here?
You can, but you have to have a
teacher for this.
I hope so.
I mean, I hope that every grammar teacher
understands morphology and sarf.
But sarf is an advanced science of the
Arabic grammar.
Sarf is advanced science.
If you look into, if you google Arabic
morphology, you will see that this is not
like grammar.
Grammar focuses on the end of the words.
It focuses on the fatha, dhamma, and kasra
or sukoon.
Or if you omit a letter and a
letter as a position of the word in
the sentence.
That's what grammar is concerned about.
But morphology is concerned about the structure of
the word itself.
Like how do you form a statement, a
word that represents the subject of the sentence.
Or the object of the sentence.
You have to have a scale and pattern
for that.
So fa'ala, fa'il, maf'ool, mif
'ala, fa'al, mufta'il.
All these scales will represent specific meanings.
And if you understand one root, you'll be
able to understand hundreds of words based on
that.
Just simply understand the sarf and get yourself
a dictionary where you can identify the meaning
of the three letters.
And you will realize that you start learning
tons of words without even seeing them before.
Like when you hear a word without even
knowing it, you've never maybe seen the word
before.
But just hearing it, with knowing the sarf,
you realize, oh, it means such and such.
Slowly and gradually, it becomes natural to you
insha'Allah wa ta'ala.
Any other questions?
Okay, I'm going to give you one minute.
I want to discuss this with the neighbor
who's sitting next to you.
So they can wake up as well insha
'Allah wa ta'ala.
And of course, I want to discuss with
them, what did you learn about the Arabic
of the Qur'an?
Bismillah, go for it.
You have one minute.
I want to hear from you.
Tell me, what did you learn about the
Arabic of the Qur'an?
Tell me your reflection on it.
It doesn't have to be like, give me
an answer to what I asked, but at
least your reflection on this.
What did you learn?
What did you get out of it?
Yes?
Who's going to do it?
Oh, me?
I'm sure they're much more qualified.
Honestly, because I love the Arabic language.
I'll tell you the truth.
I love it, literally.
I love it.
I breathe it.
And subhanAllah, I love poetry.
I love literature.
So I go and breathe in the Arabic.
And sometimes I'm just like, I read things.
I'm just like smiling like crazy.
I'm just like, why am I smiling?
It is so beautiful.
The way it was said, it's just amazing,
really.
And I would love and I dream the
day for all of you to have that
same feeling.
It might have been better insha'Allah wa
ta'ala.
But seriously, if you study it insha'Allah,
it will happen.
I think you have maybe more qualified teachers
here locally, insha'Allah, who can teach you
here locally.
But just push them to do that.
Just push them to do that.
Yes, sister?
It's not just a matter of intellectual comprehension.
It's also feeling it, right?
Like everything is embedded in the language.
It's like, wow, you feel it.
You say it.
And by the way, if you ever read
the love poetry in the Arabic language, oh
my god, it's crazy.
Literally.
No.
But it's really, it's so beautiful, so sweet,
so good.
That's why there's a famous branch in the
language called al-hubb al-udhri, which is
basically like the romantic, innocent love.
And it's all respectful love.
Like you express your feelings in words like
crazy.
Really, it's just beautiful.
That's why some people, they want crazy.
Like the very famous Majnoon Layla, the insane.
They say about him, he's always nuts.
He's always crazy.
You see him in the desert.
He's drawing circles in the sand and so
on.
The moment they mention the name Layla, he
suddenly becomes, he goes back to his senses.
And he started reciting all this beautiful poetry
of Layla.
Simply because he's just in love.
So be careful.
The Arabic poetry can drive you crazy.
Yes, anybody else?
Your reflections?
Yes.
So it's methodological.
If you really learn the structure of it,
it's easy.
Like if you understand.
I know some people, they say, well, too
much grammar and this and that.
Look, it's logical.
If you focus too much on the details,
you might get lost.
But focus on the patterns.
If you can really identify the patterns of
the language, wallah, it will be so easy
for you because it's very logical.
Very, very logical.
We'll see, inshallah, as we study some of
the tafseer as well.
Anybody else?
So are you trying to compare the English
to the Arabic right now?
Is that what you're trying to say?
OK, so what do you see in the
contrast over here?
True?
I mean, subhanallah, like we said, one Arabic
word, you have to have a sentence for
it in another language to express that meaning.
And by the way, I don't know, many
people, they hear about the surah of Yusuf
alayhis salaam in the Quran, right?
How beautiful it is and so on.
And you enjoy hearing the story in English.
I just wish that you can read it
the way it was revealed.
And it's Arabic, original Arabic from the Quran.
It's just unbelievable.
I can't describe how beautiful it has been
narrated in the words of the Quran.
It's just beautiful.
That's why no matter how much you read
it, you just want to read it again
and again and again.
And if you have, alhamdulillah, a reciter who
knows how to recite it properly, like animate
the story for you as he recites, it's
gorgeous.
We had one time a couple of years
ago in our masjid, a brother comes to,
he recited actually surah Maryam.
And the way he recites, subhanallah, he wasn't
reciting.
He was literally narrating the story.
And the way he was reciting, he goes
so loud with his sound and the intonations.
And it was amazing.
There was tahajjud in Ramadan, subhanallah.
It's online.
If anyone wants to watch it, actually, it
can be found on our channel, YouTube channel,
at YouTube, inshallah azawajal.
But look for brother Muad, Muad, the Qari
Muad, inshallah, just like amazing recitation.
From the masjid, everybody after the salah, you
can tell that it was just like mesmerized.
And what surprised me the most is that
those who were mesmerized the most, they didn't
even understand Arabic.
But they just felt it.
They said, we could feel it.
We could feel what he was reciting.
And for me, I said, imagine if you
understood what he was saying, how he was,
what he was saying exactly.
So please make effort to learn that, inshallah
ta'ala.
I didn't hear from the brothers, Jamal.
What do you guys, reflections on the Arabic
of the Qur'an?
Yes.
So they understood the language.
They knew how powerful it was.
And even they were trying to listen to
the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, but their
ego prevented them from admitting the truthfulness of
the Qur'an.
That's for the Arab land.
Brothers, anything else?
Yes, sister.
Absolutely.
So the Arabic language is very specific.
Even the vowels, the fatha and kasra and
dhamma, so specific.
Not just the order of the letters, even
the sound of it, as you put in
that order.
Means something.
So it's a very emotional language.
And I just want to give you an
example on how you can feel the emotions.
I'm going to recite a few lines of
poetry for you, without even telling you what
the meaning is.
And you're going to give me your impression
of it.
So here's what it says.
What does it mean to you?
What did you hear from me?
What can you tell about what you listened
to?
Female.
That's the pronoun, female.
That's one thing.
What else?
Say it again.
Someone he misses.
What else?
No, but actually, no, but we're coming closer.
You're talking about the emotional part.
Okay.
There are a lot of sheen, so something
spreads from her.
Sheen or ha?
Ha, a lot of ha.
Yes?
Describing what?
Describing qualities.
Describing qualities, true.
But what kind of qualities?
What does the ha represent in the Arabic
language?
Ha, what does it sound?
When you hear the word sighing, it's a
sigh.
So there are a lot of actually sighing
in the pronunciation of ha in the Arabic
language.
When sighing, sighing means what?
When someone is sighing, what does it mean
exactly?
There's a lot of sorrow, a lot of
grief, a lot of pain.
So he was literally describing a sight of
a woman, a poor woman, who's begging with
her child.
He goes, laqeetu ha, I met her.
Laytani ma kuntu alqa ha.
So he's expressing his sorrow and grief in
the choice of words as well, too.
I wish I didn't get, I wish I
haven't met her.
Like, the sight of looking at her was
so painful to me.
Tamshi wa qad athqala alimlaqu mamsha ha.
She was walking, and walking made her, making
because of her hunger and starvation was so
heavy on her.
So he's speaking all of that.
And he says, athwabuha rathatun.
Her clothes are just kind of worn off
completely.
Walrijlu haafiyatun.
Her feet are bare.
Waddamu tadrifuhu fil khaddi aynaha.
And her tears are flowing on her cheeks.
So can you imagine right now how it
sounds in English?
Imagine understanding it in its original Arabic.
Even the ha, the choice of words and
the pronouns mean a lot in expressing feelings.
So when you read in the Qur'an,
when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, qal
amma yatasa'alun anin naba'il azeem alladhihum
fihi mukhtalifun kalla say'alamun thumma kalla say
'alamun The words, the choice, the sounds are
scary because you speak about the Jahannam.
When you talk about Jannah, what does he
say, subhanahu wa ta'ala?
waliman khaafa maqama rabbihi jannatan fabi ayiya alayhi
rabbikuma tukaddiban And he speaks about them, you
know, mudhammatan, aynaya tajriyan, in more soft letters,
less strong letters than qaf and ayn and
less letters than that.
So again, the choice of words is very
important.
So hopefully, as you read, you realize if
the context is soft and easy or somebody
requires my attention because it's dangerous.
So even the sound of words can make
a big difference for you.
So with that being said, let's move on
and shot to the next part.
The harf and the qiraat of the Quran.
Now that we know that the Arabic language
is very sophisticated, it's very exquisite, very beautiful,
animated, emotional, intellectual, methodological, you know, logical,
mathematical, whatever you want to describe it.
But it's very unique.
That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose
that language to be the vessel of the
last divine message.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose the Arabic
language for this.
In order for the Arab, of course, to
be able to comprehend that language, like we
said, they spoke different dialects.
They spoke different dialects.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reviewed the Quran
to the Prophet ﷺ to make it easy
for the Arab in different styles.
Those styles, what we call them harf and
qiraat.
We have a professional, alhamdulillah, a qiraat over
here who can speak for this better than
I do.
But I'm going to explain to you from
a technical point, inshallah, tabarakah wa ta'ala.
Al qiraatu wal harf in the Quran, what
do they exactly mean?
By the way, just to let you know,
when it comes to speaking about the qiraat
and the harf and so on, the Prophet
ﷺ, he spoke the language of Quraysh, right?
That's the standard language.
Now, what is the most popular qiraat that
we recite in the world these days?
Hafs and Asam, right?
That's the most common one.
But was that the one that they recited
in Mecca?
Was that the language of Quraysh?
Allahu alam.
Because if you ask the North Africans, the
Moroccans and the Algerians, they would say, no,
Warsh was the language of the Arab back
then.
So that was the Quraysh language.
So what made Hafs and Asam the most
popular one?
Simplicity, ease, and also political impact.
The politics of the time also enforces certain
madhab, certain school of thought, certain recitation.
So Hafs and Asam didn't become the most
popular because it is the standard of Quraysh.
Allahu alam.
But it became because it was actually the
easiest and, of course, was enforced by the
politics of that time.
So that's why it became the most popular
recitation of the Qur'an.
Now, when it comes to the harf and
the qiraat of the Qur'an, Allah ﷻ
made it easy for the Prophet ﷺ to
spread the knowledge of the words of the
Qur'an through different huroof.
Ibn Abbas ﷺ qala Rasulullah ﷺ, aqraani Jibreel
ala harf.
So Jibreel recited the Qur'an to the
Prophet ﷺ using one dialect.
And the Prophet ﷺ says, give me more.
I need to recite in different dialects for
the Arabs, other besides the Quraysh people to
understand.
So that they don't think the Qur'an
is exclusively for the Quraysh.
So they want to know that they're also
included.
So he kept asking for more.
He kept asking for more until he was
given the recitation of the Qur'an at
seven harf.
So we call this harf.
Now, what does it mean to say harf?
Because as we speak about huroof today, has
any of these huroof survived that time until
our time?
Most of the ulema, they say, actually, nope,
we don't even know what the huroof anymore.
Imam al-Jazir ﷺ, he gave many, many
opinions on what does the harf mean, the
harf of the Qur'an.
So there is not really one solid opinion
on what's the meaning of the harf.
Some ulema, they say the harf was different
sounds.
When you recite the Qur'an, you pronounce
the letters in different sounds.
Some, they say, change of words.
But those words reflect the exact same meaning.
Like what?
So, for example, if you would like to
say ta'al, what does ta'al mean?
Come here, ta'al.
But other cultures, other dialects speak ta'al,
they give different words for ta'al.
Like, for example, irwah.
In the North African, actually, they say irwah,
which means come.
So it depends on which dialect that is,
they use different words for it.
They use different words for it.
Could that be the meaning of the harf
of the Qur'an?
Allahu a'lam.
So you say, but wait a minute, that
means that they were reading Qur'an in
different words?
That's a possibility.
But all these words did not mean anything
different from what we know about it today.
What we all know is that at some
point, the need for these harf start kind
of like fading out slowly and gradually as
Islam starts spreading all over.
So then the dialects kind of like the
standard of the Qur'an, the standardization of
the Qur'an happened at the time of
Uthman, which we're going to talk about later.
So it's happened at the time of Uthman.
So they unified the dialect and unified the
one particular recitation for all.
So that's when the need for the harf
became, khalas, irrelevant.
Some of the sahaba, they insisted on keeping
their masahib with them, the original masahib like
Abdullah bin Mas'ud.
He said, no, I'm not going to let
go of mine.
Even though the command came from the khalifa
to destroy any other manuscript that carrying any
other harf besides the standard harf of Quraysh.
So, but the harf again, there were seven,
and they were mentioned in the hadith of
the Prophet ﷺ, as you see in Sahih
al-Bukhari and Muslim.
And the other narration also in Sahih Muslim
that the Prophet ﷺ, he tried to resolve
a dispute among the sahaba in regard to
the recitation.
As Islam starts spreading outside of the Quraysh
territory and area went all the way up
to the north and the east and the
south.
So those people, when they memorize the Qur
'an from the sahaba that they learned from,
they came to recite and the recitation was
a bit different.
So some of them, they kind of like
was wondering what's going on here.
They came to the Prophet ﷺ and the
Messenger of Allah, he asked them both to
recite and he said, you both are doing
well.
Like you both recitation is good.
It's okay.
So basically it's indicating their recitation was different,
but it's still valid in accordance to these
haroos.
However, now that the harf is no longer
available for us to study except in some
specialized books of tafsir and books of qiraat,
what we have today is one harf and
that's the harf of Quraysh, but that same
harf is also being recited with different qiraat,
different pronunciations.
Those pronouncements of the same harf, we call
them qiraat.
They're not harf, they're not harf, that's from
the past.
So the same word, but recited or pronounced
differently.
We call them qiraat.
And the qiraat are many.
Some of them are mutawatira, some of them
are mashhoora, and some are considered shadda.
So there are a major seven qiraat that
are mutawatira, which means absolutely authentic through abundance
of narrations.
And then you have three that are considered
mashhoora, or at least three that are considered
mashhoora, which means popular, but not as authentic
as the first seven.
And then you have qiraat and shadda.
These are odd recitations, meaning they do not
have the abundance of narrations to prove it
to be an authentic one.
So what do the ulema use these qiraat
and shadda for?
They use them in tafsir only.
So they don't say it's from the Qur
'an.
They say, no, it was probably recited in
such and such time, from such and such
sahabi, and it could mean this way or
that way.
So they use it for tafsir.
What do we need in order for us
to identify an authentic qiraat?
Like if we would like to say this
qiraat is valid qiraat, what do we need
to do?
There are three conditions for the qiraat to
be acceptable qiraat.
Number one, that it agrees with the sound
principles from the principles of the Arabic language.
So the grammar is correct.
The word is correct, an Arabic word.
So it's nothing out of the ordinary.
It's in accordance to the general rules and
principles of the Arabic language and grammar.
The second condition that also agrees with the
written scripture compiled by Uthman So Uthman, when
he wanted to unify the masahif, because the
people were reciting differently, he chose to write
the mushaf in a specific script that would
also include different qiraat.
So sometimes you have the word jannat written
jim, noon, ta, connected.
And sometimes you have it written jannat, jim,
noon, alif, ta.
So what does that mean?
So if it's written jannat with alif, it's
plural for sure.
But if it's written jim, noon, ta, there's
another qiraat that might sound like this, jannat
or jannatun, basically.
Jannat or jannat.
Could be plural, could be singular.
Depends on the qiraat.
So it has to match the script of
Uthman, which is why sometimes you see that
the Arabic standard script is different than the
script of the Qur'an.
Because the Qur'an has to match the
recitations of all the other recitations as well
too.
And the last condition to make these qiraat,
of course, valid and acceptable, is to have
to come through a chain of tawatuh, which
means abundance.
Not just one line of, no, tons of
narrations that would make this qiraat mutawatir for
us.
Usually like we said, the qiraat are common.
We could talk about the 10 qiraat that
are the most common qiraat.
That's just a balloon, jimma.
Masha'Allah.
Tables and balloons.
God knows what's going to happen with the
roof, jimma.
So the qiraat basically, also they have what
they call them riwayat.
What does that mean?
Like for example, even Asim, we say Hafs
and Asim, right?
So Asim is a very famous sub-narrator
of the qiraat.
He has two major students, Hafs and Shu
'ba.
So each one of them has a different
riwayah.
They're still considered Hafs, considered Asim's qiraat, but
it has different riwayat as well too.
So that's why sometimes you have variations of
the recitations.
So if you hear the imam recite differently
sometimes, you need to maybe ask them first
what recitation they're reading.
Like in our masjid, masha'Allah, for Ramadan
specifically, our qurra, they like to recite different
qiraat.
And even sometimes with Hafs, with Asim, they
recite Hafs one time, Shu'ba one time.
So alhamdulillah, our people at the beginning were
kind of confused, but then they got used
to it.
So no one corrects the imam anymore, alhamdulillah.
Sometimes too extreme that even when he makes
a mistake, no one corrects him anymore.
Because we don't know if it's a qiraat
or otherwise, right?
But yeah, there are different also narrations.
So we know that when you hear the
imam recite something that might be a different
vowel, or fatha or dhamma or kasra was
pronounced differently, it might be a different qiraat
or different riwayah.
Who are these major reciters of the Qur
'an or the major ones?
These are now the name of the sub
-narrators of the qurra, I would say.
So you look at them insha'Allah wa
ta'ala, and you will see depends on
the specific geographical region, there is a popularity
of specific qiraat.
So usually, usually the most famous one, like
I said, is the one recited by Asim.
And in North Africa, the predominant one is
Warsh An-Nafi.
And then they have also Qaloon somewhere in
Sudan in the south, and the east actually
African as well too.
And subhanAllah, different reciters, different qiraat obviously.
Again, what made one popular more than the
other one?
Most of it is how easy, how simple,
and also the politics that push certain qiraat
over the other ones.
Now, if you guys need to know more
about this, ask our beautiful Qari Isa here
insha'Allah.
He can help you with that, bismillah azza
wa jal.
All right, any question?
Yes.
The qiraat are separate from the huroof.
What makes them different?
It's just like saying, you know, when you
speak English, like you speak English here, for
example, in this area.
Let's say London, for example.
The people in the east and the south
and the west and central London, they speak
English, but with different pronunciations, right?
Don't they?
And that's what I learned from the cab
drivers.
Everybody was from London, but speaks different accents.
The exact same thing with the qiraat.
How were they formed?
Now, we know that's from the Prophet ﷺ
approval.
Now, there's a lot of debate actually on,
did the Prophet ﷺ recite the Qur'an
in different seven qiraat and different huroof?
Like, how many times did he recite the
Qur'an then?
In all these sounds?
And he changed every single word?
But no one says that actually among the
ulema.
Instead, the Prophet ﷺ, he recited the qiraat
based on the general rules of the qiraat.
And then when the people recite to him,
he would say, you're correct, you're correct.
Based on the original dialect of their language.
That's all.
Any other question?
Not being preserved.
Yes, that's some of the orientalist claims.
Sometimes they do that.
They say that.
They say, look, wait a minute.
I mean, you guys, the Qur'an was
revealed on seven huroof.
Where are they?
How do you claim that it was actually
preserved?
Well, we're going to talk about preservation of
the Qur'an tomorrow, inshallah, morning.
So one of the claims, of course, is
that the Qur'an was not preserved because
of that.
But when Allah ﷻ promised to preserve the
Qur'an, He didn't promise to preserve all
the huroof of the Qur'an, the dialects
of the Qur'an.
He preserved the Qur'an.
And it is here, alhamdulillah.
So the promise has been fulfilled already.
So to claim that what are the other
huroof, it's irrelevant right now because they're not
necessarily being spoken anymore.
And everybody today, regardless of their language, if
they learn the Qur'an, they will understand
it just like everybody else.
So alhamdulillah, it's preserved and it's protected.
But we're going to talk more about this
later, inshallah.