Tag: Qur’an

Islam Extols Arabic NOT Arabs

There is a perception that Islam is the glorification of Arabs and their culture and customs.

Well, it is not.

It is neither Arabism nor worship of Arabs.

Never once does the Noble Word exhort its reciters to follow the Arabs and their manner of living.

The Noble Quran makes a clear and decisive distinction between the dynamics of language and race. The former cuts through racial, ethnic, tribal, and national differences. However, the latter is fixed and cannot be appropriated.

I can possess native fluency in English, but that does not mean I can also physically become an Anglo-Saxon.

In extolling the Arabic language* and admonishing** the Bedouin conduct, Islam states a fascinating feature embedded within human beings, which is as follows:

Anyone can master any language.

Therefore, one sees a non-Arab of ANY race/ethnicity reciting the Quranic verses as beautifully and effortlessly as an Arab.

It can be said that Islam is the only system that balances the particularity and universality of human existence.

It prevents a particularity from eating its own self. Also, it stops a universality from enveloping and destroying a particularity.

 “Indeed in that is a lesson for those of vision.” [3:13]

*: see Quran 12:2, 13:37, 16:103, 41:3
**: see Quran 9:97, 9:98, 49:14

Islam’s Account of Man: A Short Sketch

أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَـٰكُمْ عَبَثًۭا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ

Deemed ye then that We had created you for naught, and that ye would not be returned unto Us?

[Surah Al-Mu’minun: 115] Translation: Muhammad William Marmaduke Pickthall

The Noble Qur’an uses the terms In-saan [انسان] and bash’ar [بشر] to refer to a human being [man and woman].

They are often used interchangeably but they, nevertheless, have differences.

Bash’ar is a more empirical description. It is concerned with the outward appearance. It is the superficial and material account of a human being.

Now, as far as In-saan is concerned, it signifies a more profound and higher state.

The word shares its roots with the word Nisyaan [نسيان] which means forgetfulness and amnesia.

It is said that In-saan is a being who is in a state of forgetfulness with regards to its purpose.

So, when a Bash’ar is aware of his/her lack of knowledge and forgetfulness and strives to overcome it, he/she attains the rank of In-saan.

The Self is called Nafs (نفس).

It has three categories:

Nafs Ammarrah [نفس أمارة] : The part of self that entices Man to follow his lust and baser instincts.

Nafs Luvammah [نفس  اللوامة] : The part of self that admonishes Man to review, repent, and mend his ways.

Nafs Mutma’innah [نفس المطمئنة] : The highest level of self whose bearer finds satisfaction and bliss in absolute submission to the Ultimate Reality [الحق].

The primordial condition on which every human being is born is called Fitrah [فطرة]. It is a kind of operating system, a software which in its uncorrupted and undefiled form helps Man to establish a connection with Allah Almighty.

As Rumi says,

Or (suppose that) a mother cries to her suckling babe, “Come, I am mother: hark, my child!”—

Will the babe say?—“O mother, bring the proof (of it), so that I may take comfort in thy milk.”

When in the heart of any community there is savour (spiritual perception) from God, the face and voice of the prophet are (as) an evidentiary miracle.

When the prophet utters a cry from without, the soul of the community falls to worship within,

Because never in the world will the soul’s ear have heard from any one a cry of the same kind as his.

That stranger (the soul), by immediate perception of the strange (wondrous) voice, has heard from God’s tongue (the words), “Verily I am near.”

If it claims to be Universal, why was Qur’an revealed in Arabic?

I commented the following on an article [If You’re So Trad, Why Don’t You Move to Afghanistan] on Counter-Currents where I share my views under the name ‘Muhammad Aryan’.

The text in bold is parts that I quote from the article.

To which Mr. Vehmgericht replied,

I reply as follows:

So what if it is Arabic??

Linguistic expression rests in the metaphysical domain.

It is one aspect that distinguishes us human beings from other living creatures. It is something above the biological existence.

On the biological grade, we are all divided into different races and tribes.

However, on the metaphysical level, we are all the same.

For instance, how does a Dravidian who speaks Tamil or Malayalam or Kannada, etc., masters the languages of the Indo-European or Afro-Asiatic families?

How does a Korean or Indonesian learn English or French or German and vice versa?

So on and so forth.

A child does not born with a language already saved in his memory. He familiarizes himself with the sounds he hears around him and then tries to express them with his tongue.

What if a child born to German parents grows up in a Spanish household where he never listens to a word of German? Will he speak German? That is why to preserve a culture, it is necessary that children of a given ethnolinguistic community be taught about their ancestral heritage. Otherwise, that heritage will be lost.

There are many non-Whites who speak and write English better than most Englishmen, however, that does NOT mean that English heritage will be preserved even if there are no Whites Anglo-Saxons around.

Immigrants who migrate to Western lands like the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc., from South/West Asia faced this disconnect. Many a time, their children cannot speak the language of their ancestors or those who do speak, speak it in alien accents. Indeed, this is a strange breed of men which does not belong anywhere. It hangs in the air. It has no grounding.

Anyhow, coming back to the argument.

Men can learn any language. As we can see, it is quite evident.

There are Muslims of Han, Senegalese, Berber, Kurdish, Indonesian, Caucasian, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, Turkic etc., stock who when recite the Arabic verses do not give a hint that they belong to an entirely different linguistic family.

Qur’an was revealed in Arabic because learning and mastering a language is embedded in our constitution. It is a universal aspect of human nature.

Hence, if Providence chose Arabic for the transmission of the Final Revelation to mankind, it was perfectly in line with our disposition.