The
Types of Arabic.
There
are 4 Types of Arabic today:
1
-Spoken
Arabic
– ('aamiyahعاميه /
slang – dialected).
This differs in country to country in the Arab world.
2
-Proper
Arabic
[Modern Standard Arabic].
(Official spoken Arabic in modern times on News, Politics etc.
(Modern Standard Arabic [MSA] - called FuS-ha
- فصحى.)
3
-Ancient
Arabic.
(Classical Arabic.)
- Far more sophisticated
/ complex / deeper / picturesque / intellectual
than Modern Standard Arabic.
Why did Modern Arabic form when Ancient Arabic is more complex?
The following points will address this question, insha' Allah;
TheArabic Language in the Pure Desert
People
who lived in the desert described the world through their picturesque
speech and words. The
Arabs language was Pure
and Refined
because it was not affected by other cultures(since
other nations did not affect/influence them much - the Arabs were
sovereign/independent from other states).
The Arabs did not have any arts/buildings/philosophies to take pride
in. But what
they did have full pride in was their language.
[ClickHERE
for examples of Classical
Arabic Poetry].
TheArabic Language goes Global
When
Islam spread across the globe, it spread to the 'Arabs, and even
non-'Arabs. To the extent that the
non-'Arabs ('Ajam) became more in number than the 'Arabs.
WhatSocial-Linguistic
changes
took place?
The 'Arabs now;
Have a lot of mixture with non 'Arabs.
They have left the plain desert life and are seeing other civilisations. Their imagination is decreasing in comparison to past pure 'Arabs.
Their mixing with other languages causes the purity of the Arabic language to become contaminated.
Subtleties / Details of the language are being used less, and people are speaking the basic concepts of Arabic to convey the message easily to new learners of the language instead of advancing their use of the arabic language with experienced speakers. In effect - Lowering the languages standards.
Scholarly Preservation of the Classical Arabic Language;
Due to this serious problem, scholars of the Arabic language (within the 1st Islamic century) wanted to Preserve the pure language of the Qur'an, throughcollection of pure Arabic;
Poetry
Sayings/Riddles/Figures of Speech and Idioms.
These were compiled for later generations, so we understand how the ancient 'Arabs spoke the language, and therefore what Allah meant through His speech. This furthermore proves Allah's preservation of the full Qur'an for us, since He not only preserved it's text, butpreserved it's subtle meanings too.
What is Classical Arabic Speech?
The
Poetry and Sayings collected were of the Arabic
speech spoken during; the lifetime of Allah's Messenger and spoken by
the Arabs before him.
This was the main focus as the language would change as Islam
expanded to other nations.
This would give us a good
understanding of what Allah meant in His spoken speech of the Qur'an.
Since the Qur'an was revealed in pure Arabic.
Here are a list of some Lexicons compiled by Early Generation Scholars on the Classical Arabic language.
Final
Point:
The Ancient Arabic is the one spoken at the time of Allah's
Messenger, Muhammad (sal
Allah alayhi wasalam),
and Modern
Arabic is its simplified version which is generally used
today.
Alot
of Muslims have a limited understanding of the Qur'anic Miracle today
- due to their lack of understanding of the subtleties of the Ancient
Arabic. (It
is the aim of this website -LinguisticMiracle.com- to compile these
Gems.)
What
is number 4?
4
- Qur'anic
Arabic.
There
is no book or text similar to the Qur'an, and no-one has been able to
produce anything equal to it.
Furthermore, anyone who argues that the Qur'an has Grammatical errors is incorrect – sincethefirst Complete Book in the Arabic language was the Qur'an. And the Qur'an is the Book by which Arabic Grammar is defined and measured.
Qur'an,
Arabic & the Orientalists:
Any
people/Orientalists' who try to criticize the Qur'an using the rules
of Modern Standard Arabic - they are mistaken because they are
measuring a deeper language [Classical Arabic] with a more simplified
version of Arabic [Modern Standard Arabic].
Source: The Brilliance of the Book - Nouman Ali Khan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwl9z0r-gs