SHAFAQNA | by Zahra Asadian- A professor of Arab language and literature believes: “In the linguistic studies of the Holy Quran, less attention has been paid to the duality of the book and the words of the Holy Quran. The function and effectiveness of the two layers of spoken language and written language are different. The Holy Quran presents itself in a surprising way as both a word and a book.”
Dr. Mohammad Khaqani, professor of Arabic language and literature at Isfahan University, told Shafaqna about Islamic humanities: “A few years ago, I held a theorizing chair titled Islamic Semiotics and Linguistics at Isfahan University. The most important criticism that came to that was why I named that theory Islamic Linguistics; Because the critics believed that linguistics as well as other humanities is a scientific field and it is not possible to have a religious approach to it.
My answer to the raised criticism is that a scientific discipline, while proceeding with scientific methodology, can take its foundations from a philosophy. As Chomsky has founded the Transformational and generative linguistics school based on Cartesian philosophy; While Descartes is not a linguist, but a rationalist philosopher. In the same way, when an approach to linguistics takes its basic principles and philosophical foundation from the Holy Quran, it can be called Islamic linguistics.”
The Holy Quran presents itself as both a word and a book
In another part of his speech, he considered the Holy Quran to be the only divine book with two dimensions of speaking and writing and explained: “In the linguistic studies of the Holy Quran, less attention has been paid to the duality of the book and the words of the Holy Quran. The function and effectiveness of the two layers of spoken language and written language are different. The Holy Quran presents itself in a surprising way as both a word and a book.
When you open the book and look at the written verses of the Quran and think about it, here the Holy Quran is the book of Allah Almighty that challenges the human intellect. But when the verses are pronounced and recited by the chanter, here the Holy Quran is the word of God and the melody of the recitation affects the emotions of the audience. These two dimensions are completely different and have different effects, which can be studied scientifically with different methods in modern linguistics.”
Islam attaches great importance to spoken language along with written language
Khaqani noted: “A Muslim must pronounce the phrases while praying. Therefore, the religion of Islam attaches great importance to the spoken language along with the written language. The Holy Quran says in the second verse of Surah Al-Jumu’ah: “He is the One Who raised for the illiterate ˹people˺ a messenger from among themselves—reciting to them His revelations, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom, for indeed they had previously been clearly astray”.
In this verse, the meaning of Yatlu Alaihim is the verses of the spoken language, and the meaning of Yalamahim Al-Kitab and Al-Hikmah is the written language. The importance of Adhkār in Islam comes from this issue, and the Verse “Ala Bizikrillahi Tatmainnal Quloob (Verily, in the remembrance of Allah (SWT) do the hearts find rest. (13:28))” shows it. ”
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