Name: Ibrahim Abdul Kareem Al-Salman S.

N: 2009300074

Foreign Vocabulary in the Glorious Quran

It has been always a disputable fact that the Quran uses foreign vocabulary, vocabulary borrowed from languages such as Aramaic, Syriac, Ethiopian, Hebrew, and Greek, and other languages. Many of these loanwords are believed to be taken from their liturgical usage in the JewishChristian tradition. However, some scholars claimed that there are no foreign words in the Quran (the most prominent amongst them are the jurist Al-Shafii and also the exegete Al-Dabari). They claimed that any words found in another language does not necessarily mean that these words are originally foreign, for it could be the case that the other language took them from Arabic, or that both languages used those words simultaneously. In the following discussion, more explanations will be provided to show the supposedly foreign vocabulary in the Quran. Actually, many scholars, both Muslims and non-Muslims, questioned and tried to find out whether or not the Quran has any foreign words in it. For example, in some Islamic Schools, a majority of Muslim scholars were against the existence of foreign words in the Qur'an." The Imams differ," says as-Suyutl (Itq, 314)" as to the occurrence of foreign words in the Qur'an, but the majority(among whom are the Imam ash-Shafi'i, Ibn Jarlr, Abu 'Ubaida, the Qacji Abu Bakr, and Ibn Faris) are against their occurrence therein." The fundamental argument of these scholars is that the Qur'an in many passages refers to itself as an Arabic Qur'an. On the other hand, other Muslim scholars, led by Abdullah bin Abbas and Abu Musa Al-Ashari, supported the idea that foreign words exist in the Quran; they put a list of the supposedly non-Arabic words in the Glorious Quran. Examples of these words are the following: :
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In fact, The early linguist Abu Ubayd al-Qasim b. Sallam claimed that both of these groups were correct; he stated that the origin of some Qur_anic words is indeed foreign, but they were introduced into Arabic, as is the case with any language, and were Arabicised by replacing their letters with Arabic letters, and eventually were incorporated into Arabic poetry and culture, such that for all practical purposes they could be considered Arabic. Moreover, The exegete Ibn Atiyyah, in his al-Muharrar, summarized his position regarding this issue when he stated that there is no doubt that Arabs interacted with other civilizations, through trade and other journeys, and in the process they took some of their words and introduced them into the common vernacular of the Arabs, such that they began to be used in their lectures and poetry, and this was the state of affairs when the Quran was revealed with these words. On the other hand, other non-Muslim scholars have also examined this issue. For example, Alphonse Mingana presented a large number of words used in the Qur'an, both religious and common, which are derived from Syraic, for the Syraic influence in the time of the Prophet was strong throughout the Near East, especially in Syria and Palestine. Among the religious terms found in the Qur'an which are attributed to Syraic origin include:

kaahin - from khn', Syraic "priest", in the sense of a pagan soothsayer or diviner masiih.- from mshyh.', Syraic "the Christ", analogous to the Hebrew Mashioch qissiis - from qshysh', Syraic "Christian priest" furqaaan - from pwrqn', Syraic "salvation" rabbaanii - from rbn', Syraic "perceptor, doctor" qiyaama - from qymt', Syraic "resurrection" ruuh. al-qudus - from rwh. qwdsh', Syraic "Holy Spirit"

Mingana also furnishes a review of non-religious words, uncommon in Arabic but very common in Syraic, which also found their way into the Qur'an from Syraic influences. Among these words are the following:

Qur'an (4:85, numerous times) - from qryn', Syriac technical term for "scriptural lesson" or "reading" muhaymin (57:12, etc.) - from mhymn', Syraic for "the faithful" nuun (21:87) - a title for Jonah (Yunus), from nwn', Syraic for "fish"

Anis Shorrosh, a Palestinian Christian and native Arabic speaker, also included a number of foreign words:

taboot, taghout, zakat, malakout - Syriac heber, sakinah, maoon, turat, jehannim - Hebrew firdaus, sirat, hoor - Persian injil - a bastardisation of the Greek, eua(n)ggelion

Finally, the idea that the Quran used non-Arabic words remains controversial, for each group of scholars have their own evidence. Nonetheless, as we could see in the discussion, there are much more evidence about the existence of the foreign words in the Quran than their non-existence. Moreover, the fact that words of non-Arab origin existed in pre-Islamic poetry clearly shows that Arabs, like all cultures, took specific phrases from other languages and incorporated them into their own. In turn, these words were used the Quran when it was revealed. We shall also mention here that the few examples of nonArabic words found in the Quran did not negate its overall Arabic nature.

References: Qadhi, Yasir. Foreign Words in the Quran. www.muslimmatters.org