al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, Since the dawn of early Islam, and largely provoked by the doctrine of the miracle of the Qur’an’s linguistic inimitability, scholars of both Arab and non-Arab stock concerned themselves with studying the Arabic Language deeply and comprehensively. They were able to establish a range of sciences (‘uloom) into which the letters, …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, There is a long standing disagreement between supporters of classical Arabic الفصحى vs. supporters of colloquial Arabic العامية with regards which should prosper. The former group sought to avoid colloquial words at all cost, regardless of how correct they were or how well they expressed the intended meaning, while the latter …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, A common phenomenon known to linguists is that of semantic shift, whereby a word acquires new shades of meaning over time. This phenomenon is also noticeable when we take a look at Islamic terminology, such as zakat, or Shari’ah, or the Names and Attributes of Allah, or words related to the …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, In response to a recent request, this post will provide a list of some of the main classical books specifically related to the Arabic language from which one may benefit, be it for the sake of research or general interest. The post will be divided into categories based on the most …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, Updates to the site may continue to be slow coming for the next month or so until further notice. Jazaakum Allaahu khayran for your patience. Edited: 28/06/06
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, Arabic linguists of the past examined the semantic connotations of Arabic alphabetical letters according to their position in a word, and were able to notice certain trends in meaning. Although the rules are by no means to be taken as absolute, they may be viewed within the larger phenomenon of ishtiqaaq …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, One aspect of the miraculousness of the Qur’anic language lies in the precision of its words. As al-Suyuti said in al-Itqaan fee ‘Uloom al-Qur’aan, “It is possible to convey a single meaning with a variety of words, some more expressive than others. Likewise for the two parts – subject and predicate …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, While one of the aims of Arabic Gems is to provide original content related to the Arabic language, I came across a great article in The Daily Star by Tamim al-Barghouti that I wanted to post here. It is extremely interesting, has a nice philosophical take on the reasoning behind the …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, There is a category of words in Arabic known as al-ad`daad الأضداد. They are a type of ishtiraak in which a single word shares different shades of meaning, but what is special about the ad`daad is that the same word is applied to two completely opposite meanings. For example, the word …
al-Salāmu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullāh, One of the most fascinating aspects of Arabic in my eyes, is finding the relationship between words that come from the same root but do not seem to have an obvious link in their meaning. The study of etymology in any language is fascinating in itself, but due to the root …
