Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Arabic Language is not Enough

For one to study the meaning of the Qur'aan, one needs a teacher who is well versed in the Qur'aan and the knowledges one must possess before attempting to interpret the Qur'aan.

After 'Ishaa salaah on Monday night, Moulana Ahmad Chohan of Musjid As-Saaliheen, Sherwood was giving a talk on the Holy Qur'aan. He mentioned a few incidents which illustrated that simply knowing the Arabic language does not mean one will understand everything in the Qur'aan. 

One of the incidents he mentioned was about aayah 187 of Surah Al Baqarah. The aayah mentions the words 

  حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ الْخَيْطُ الْأَبْيَضُ مِنَ الْخَيْطِ الْأَسْوَدِ مِنَ الْفَجْرِ

The aayah is mentioning that a person may have relations with ones spouse as well as eat and drink 'until you can distinguish between the white thread from the black thread at dawn'.


The meaning of this aayah is that one should stop relations, food and drink when the white thread (meaning the white light at the horizon) and the black thread (meaning the darkness of the night) are distinguishable.

Moulana Ahmad saheb was mentioning how when this verse was revealed there were Sahabah who were confused as to the meaning, so they clarified this with Rasulullah Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam, even though they knew the Arabic language perfectly! 

This then proves that knowledge of Arabic is not sufficient to understand and explain the meaning of the Qur'aan.

1 comment:

  1. Of course, it is right. I should say, if you learn Arabic language it will definitely help you to understand the language of Holy Quran, but it doesn't mean you can understand the Holy Book by having this.Manahil from Online Quran Recitation School.

    ReplyDelete