إِنّا أَنزَلناهُ قُرآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُم تَعقِلونَ
Indeed We have sent it down as an Arabic Quran so that you may apply reason.
EXEGESIS
ʿArabī (Arabic) here refers to the language of Arabs. The word iʿrāb has the meaning of making things clear and articulate, as the Arabs considered their own language to be the most refined and intelligible. ʿArab is often used in contrast to and is said to be the opposite of ʿajam, similar to the Greeks’ usage of the words ‘citizen (politē)’ and ‘barbarian (bárbaros)’. An ʿajam was so called because it was thought that they did not speak clearly and intelligibly, like the Greeks, who considered non-Greek languages to be a nonsensical uttering of ‘bar bar bar’.
The statement that the Quran has been sent down in Arabic can be understood in two ways: first, as a reference to the Arabic language itself, and second, as an indication that it is clear and comprehensible. This second meaning aligns with the context of the verse. This is because the Quran being in the Arabic language in and of itself does not necessarily mean it is clear or facilitates understanding and that it results in the goal of so that you may apply reason. Additionally, the Quran’s audience is not limited to Arabs. Naturally, Muslims are encouraged to study and learn the Arabic language if they wish to directly benefit from the revealed word of God.
EXPOSITION
As previously mentioned, this verse can have two possible meanings depending on the referent of it in We have sent it down. If it refers to the Quran, then the verse means that the Quran has been revealed in clear Arabic to ensure its audience can understand it. On the other hand, if it refers to the protected tablet, as some commentators have suggested, then the verse signifies that the knowledge of the protected tablet transcends human language and concepts. Consequently, this knowledge has been distilled and sent down in a form accessible to humans – the Arabic language.
It in We have sent it refers to the book mentioned in the previous verse. It is revealed in a language that is accessible and understandable to the Prophet’s contemporary audience. As the Quran states, Had We made it a non-Arabic Quran, they would have surely said: ‘Why have not its signs been articulated?’ (41:44). In other words, the book has been dressed in the clothing of the Arabic language when it has been sent down as scripture, as indicated by the verse, Ḥā, mīm. By the manifest book: We have made it an Arabic Quran so that you may apply reason, and indeed it is with Us in the mother-book, [and it is] surely sublime and wise (43:1-4). The true essence of the Quran resides in the mother-book or the protected tablet, which has then been distilled and articulated in Arabic for human understanding.
Regarding the observation of Ibn Abbas and other scholars about the foreign etymological roots of some words in the Quran, such as those derived from Farsi, Abyssinian, Syriac, Hebrew, and other languages, there is no contradiction between that and the Quran being an Arabic text. Languages naturally influence one another, and words are often borrowed and assimilated into a language over time. The Arabic Quran was revealed using the vocabulary and expressions familiar to its audience at the time. It is important to remember that no organic language develops in isolation; all languages are shaped by interactions with others, and Arabic is no exception to this.
So that you may apply reason: the use of you here is plural, indicating that the address is directed to all who read the Quran.
In the previous verse we discussed the knowledge of the Quran revealed to the Prophet on the Night of Ordainment (laylat al-qadr). While that specific knowledge was not intended for the general believers, the Arabic Quran is accessible to all of humanity, allowing them to understand and benefit from it. Through the application of reason, believers can gain insight into aspects of divine knowledge. This aligns with the overarching theme of the surah, which revolves around the interpretation of divine knowledge, and it highlights how believers, too, can derive benefit from it. If the Quran was not sent down in this Arabic form, it would not be understandable and accessible to all people.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Ṭūsī links this verse to the debate about the createdness of the Quran, remarking that it is evidence that the Quran is temporally created (muḥdath), since it is described as being revealed and in Arabic, and that is not a description that can be made of something pre-eternal (qadīm). Similarly, he argues that the Quran is not the same as God, since the Quran is described as Arabic and God cannot be described as such. He concludes that anything but God is created, and hence the Quran is created. Rāzī relates similar arguments from Jubbāʾī, mentioning also the argument that the specification of it being Arabic is evidence that it could have been revealed in another language as well. Rāzī then succinctly replies to these by saying that they are all evidence that ‘the combination of letters, words, statements (alfāẓ), and expressions (ʿibārāt) are all temporal (muḥdath), and there is no debate about that. What we claim to be pre-eternal is something other than that’. That which is pre-eternal is the knowledge that is within the Quran, and Muslim scholars are agreed upon that.
Those debates aside, we may here note the connection with what we discussed earlier, namely the difference between the knowledge of God represented by the protected tablet and the expression of that knowledge in the form of the Arabic Quran.
Tabatabai points to this verse as evidence that the Quran was revealed to the Prophet in Arabic, which he then related verbatim, and not that he did not receive an understanding which he then himself expressed in Arabic words. If the Quran was revealed only in meaning to him on a conceptual level, it would not be correct to say it was revealed as an Arabic Quran.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
[1] ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ṣaʿīdī, al-Ifṣāḥ fī Fiqh al-Lughah (Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, 1929), 1/202, ʿ-r-b; Raghib, p. 556, ʿ-r-b; Tahqiq, 8/88, ʿ-r-b.
[2] Lisan, 1/586, ʿ-r-b; Tahqiq, 8/88, ʿ-r-b.
[3] This word was probably also the origin for the Arabic word Berber.
[4] See also Tahqiq, 8/89-90, ʿ-r-b.
[5] Nemuneh, 9/300.
[6] Tibyan, 6/93.
[7] See Zamakhshari, 2/440.
[8] Mizan, 11/75.
[9] See also Sharawi, p. 6822.
[10] See also Alusi, 6/366-367.
[11] Mizan, 11/75.
[12] Tibyan, 6/93.
[13] Razi, 18/416.
[14] Mizan, 11/75.
[15] 2 Timothy 3:16.