The sophistication of the Arabic language

[Navodrock]

Chinese is even more sophisticated. Every word is an image so you don't actually need to read, you only look on a page and you grasp the meaning of that page. And also there are other languages (especially Semitic language, therefore related to Arabic) that use the word root system.

And Arabic is not a divine language. The Classical Arabic was in fact a dialect of the Arabic language, because like today, in Muhammad's times Arabic had many dialects.

[everythingisdawa]

Does anyone know where the full lecture can be found? Much appreciated.

[Mindraker1]

Converts are often the most devout.

[beensolongg]

well, if you belive arabic is divine language, so, what you going to explain in others perspective the word "الله" it does pretty much look like a snake.

and according to quran, the snake is a DEVIL, and shaidan.

so, the reality allah is just a Evil who created allah, and world?

[discussislam]

btw when did Hamza Yusuf give this talk? I suspect it was a while ago. He is a little more measured and restrained these days.

[StopSpamming1]

I wish Muslims would make less absolute claims. It just backfires every single time and opens them up to ridicule.

Even the Koran contains Hebrew and Syriac words. And today's Arabic has little in common with the ancient Arabic in the Koran. All Arabic speakers I know laugh when I ask them about the similarities. And some are even a bit embarrassed by my question.

[discussislam]

Hamza Yusuf said: "The greatest proof of the truth of Islam is the preservation of the Arabic Language" Really? How does that prove Islam is true? If that's the 'greatest proof', then then that's not saying much. I suspect Hamza Yusuf would be pretty embarrassed by that statement - not to mention the rather arrogant and grand claims he makes in this video.

[LearnQuranicArabic]

@discussislam your missing the whole point, what he meant is that the preservation of the arabic language is a means to seeing the miracle of the Quran. If the arabic language was not preserved then how would anyone know that the Quran was miraculous. If Arabic had not been preserved then how would we know what is being said. All this a fulfillment of the Prophecy in the Quran " Verily it is We who have sent down this reminder and verily it is upon Us to preserve it"

[discussislam]

@LearnQuranicArabic - Yes, I understand his point - just not very impressed. btw have you seen this video? watch?v=2CHm2xigkBc

[MatrixOfDynamism]

@discussislam considering how ancient the language is, just compare it with the other languages that OId how much they have changed. Arabic over all is preserved.

[discussislam]

@MatrixOfDynamism - Yes, but I don't see how this is - in itself - is the "The greatest proof of the truth of Islam"?

[MatrixOfDynamism]

@discussislam It is not the only proof or the only evidence, the speaker is making the point of divinely inspired language with examples. The only thing left is to study the subject in detail because 3 minutes is too less for it.

[discussislam]

@MatrixOfDynamism - Fine, I just find it very odd that Hamza Yusuf referred to the fact Arabic has been well preserved as: "The greatest proof of the truth of Islam", since - in itself - it does not 'prove' the Qur'an is the truth.

[MatrixOfDynamism]

@discussislam but certainly it does form something that is rather extraordinary. Have you mastered the Arabic language?

[discussislam]

@MatrixOfDynamism - I know Arabic.

[ConsideringPhlebas]

I very much doubt that the Jews never knew of the root system. In fact, every letter in Hebrew has its own meanings and contributes to the meaning of the word itself, and the ancient Semites obviously knew about the significance of these letters as they had a corresponding alphabet that represented the meanings in pictographic form, centuries before the Arabs even had an alphabet, no less.

[LearnQuranicArabic]

@ConsideringPhlebas Actually what Hamza yusuf said is true and even biblical scholars of the old testoment accept that they are forced to go back to arabic roots to understand words in Hebrew. This is why the greatest Hebrew scholars came from the Muslim world.

[ConsideringPhlebas]

@LearnQuranicArabic

I didn't say scholars of the Torah didn't use Arabic lexicons and linguistic writings in studying Biblical Hebrew. I said that the Jews most likely did know that Hebrew was a language that used roots. Besides, it'd be rather silly to look at Arabic roots to understand Hebrew if you didn't already know that Hebrew was a closely-related, root-based Semitic language.

watch?v=dk_m5z0mKzo After 7:30 talks about using roots in the Torah to understand the Hebrew language.