Dreaming of Poetry & Grammar

Not last night but the night before, I dreamt of a line of poetry:

آليت أي أقسمت والقسم بر لو تاب من عصى لعز وانتصر

Meaning:

I swear (i.e. I take an oath), and an oath is piety,
If he who sins repents, he would become dignified and attain victory.

While externally this line seems to be talking about sin, it is actually about grammar. In Arabic, as in English, sentences can sometimes take the place of individual nouns. However, there are also places where a sentence could never be replaced by a noun, or any other single word for that matter. Arabic is a highly inflected language, and almost all nouns and adjectives are subject to inflection. Since a word can never replace sentences in these cases, inflection can never be ascribed to such sentences. Such sentences in Arabic are referred to as, "having no grammatical place" (لا محل له من الإعراب); they are:

1. Independent sentences, such as, "I swear" (آليت);
2. Explanatory sentences, such as, "(i.e. I tak an oath)" (أي أقسمت);
3. Parenthetical sentences, such as, "and an oath is piety" (والقسم بر);
4. The subject of an oath, such as, "If he he sins" (لو تاب);
5. Sentences containing the cause of a non-genitive conditional, such as, "he who sins repents" (تاب من عصى);
6. The clauses of relative pronouns, such as, "[he] sins" (عصى), as these contain an implicit pronoun that is their subject and thereby compromise a full sentence;
7. The effect of a non-genitive conditional, such as, "he would become dignified" (لعز);
8. Any sentence that is conjoined to a sentence that has no grammatical place, such as, "[he would] attain victory" (وانتصر), which is once again, a complete sentence.

Orientalist Ignorace Regarding Qur'anic Sources

The basic ignorance of non-Muslim "experts" on Islam doesn't seem to end. If they just swallowed their pride and studied with some qualified scholars, they would save themselves embarrassment. In 1300-year-old Islamic note may solve mystery, they make the unremarkable observation that perhaps the Qur'an was originally written without diacritical marks so that its written form would support variants in recitation. First of all, this is common knowledge. Had these experts read books written hundreds of years ago, they would have known this already. Secondly, there was not just one canonical mushaf (a printed Qur'an) written under Uthman's guidance, but at least five. A necessary but insufficient condition for an established Qur'anic variant is that it must agree with one of these masahif (sing. mushaf). This presents the possibility that, in addition to leaving out diacritical marks to accomodate multiple variants, Uthman's scribes also produced masahif that varied more significantly in order to allow for variants that could not be combined simply by omitting diacritical marks. For example, in the variants of Nafi`, the word هو does not appear in ayah 24 of surah 57 whereas it does appear in the most common variant of Hafs. It is very difficult to imagine that this entire word would have been reduced to a diacritical mark.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the word "Qur'an" means "recitation." As every qualified Qur'anic reciter knows, Qur'anic recitation never was and never will be taken from the mushaf alone. Rather, the mushaf is an aid. Authentic Qur'anic recitation only comes from the mouth of someone who has memorized the Qur'an at the hands of a teacher with an unbroken chain of transmission returning to the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). There are at least 20 major variants in Qur'anic recitation, and within these major variants are many minor variations. If all the printed Qur'ans in the world were to be burned or altered, Muslims would still be able to reproduce all variations. Truly, Allah has revealed the Qur'an and it is He Who protects it. Alhamdulillah.

Alternative Meats

All they need is a zabiha section.

A Couple Qur'anic Blogs

Today, I stumbled by the Art of Recitation and Maqamat Section.

Enjoy!