In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Introduction
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds and prayers and peace be upon His faithful Messenger, to whom the Holy Qur’an was revealed by a clear Arabic tongue, and to his family, and his righteous companions;
I have seen that the lengthy interpretations of the Holy Qur’an in its various approaches, do not present the meaning of the verse or verses of the Holy Qur’an by adopting the methods of Arabs in their speech, but the words and the explanations of the interpreters of the Qur’an diverge in many directions when they deal with the interpretation of a verse or a group of verses of the Qur’an, and they do not enable those who want to know the meanings of the Qur’an to reach the meaning revealed by the structure and arrangement of each verse of the Holy Qur’an, and I have also seen that the brief explanations and interpretation of the Holy Qur’an, like the interpretation book of “Tafseerul Jalalain” (Jalalul-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mahalli, who died in 864 AH, and Jalalul-Din Abdul-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr al-Suyuti, who died in 911 AH), and the interpretation book of “Tafseer Shubbar” (Al-Saied Abdullah Shubbar, who died in 1242 AH) do not provide the meaning revealed by the structure and arrangement of each verse of the Qur’an by adopting the methods of Arabs in their speech.
When the Holy Qur’an was revealed by Allah to his faithful Messenger Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) with the tongue of the Arabs and their methods of speaking, the Arabs who lived in the same era of the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, understood the verse or verses of the Qur’an recited by the Messenger Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) after it has been revealed, as they understood the words of their people based on the knowledge of their speaking system, and their methods of expression. As a specialist in the Arabic language, I have placed myself in the position of the Arabs who lived in the same era of the revelation of the Holy Qur’an on the faithful Messenger Muhammad (p.b.u.h.). So I read a verse or a set of verses that express a topic, and are arranged in its context, and try to understand them as the Arabs who heard them from the Messenger Muhammad would have understood them, as it has not been known of the Messenger Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) that he clarified the meanings of the verses after reciting them to his people.
In order to understand the meaning of each verse of the Qur’an, I analyse it according to the arrangement and coalition of words and phrases which create well-formed sentences in Arabs speeches (syntax), and their methods of expression. This method of adoption of the linguistic analysis of each verse is required in our present time because of the distance of Arabs in the present time from the era of the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, and from the era of the knowledge of the arrangement and coalition of words and phrases in Arabs speeches (syntax), and their methods of expression.
For the sake of those who want to know the meanings of the Qur’an to be able to reach the meaning revealed by the structure and arrangement of each verse – and after putting my trust in Allah – I have started to clarify the meanings of the verses of the Holy Qur’an by relying on its syntax analysis in Arab speech, and their methods of expression, away from the methods of interpreting the Qur’an with narrations, sayings, reasons of revelation, and narrated stories, stripping myself of every doctrine, previous opinion, or previous belief, so that the meaning I am trying to present to the reader of the Qur’an is not interpreted in accordance to a doctrine, a previous opinion, or a previous belief, and I have distanced myself from every narration of hadith used by the interpreters in their interpretations, and I relied on explaining the meanings of the verses of the Qur’an on linguistic analysis only, and I called this work (Clarifying the Meanings of the Holy Qur’an in the light of linguistic analysis). My purpose in doing this work is to understand the meanings of Allah’s Book as Arabs understood them when they heard it from the Prophet Muhammad as he was reciting them to his Arab people. My method in this work is explained in the following points:
1- I relied on the Qur’anic text found in the current Holy Qur’an copy (handwritten by Osman Taha) which is in circulation now, and I also relied on the approved reading that was adopted in this copy.
2- I dealt with each of the verses of the Holy Qur’an with linguistic analysis in all aspects of its text, in terms of syntax, in which every word takes its syntactic position in the text of the verse according to the methods of the Arabs in their speech, and in terms of the lexical meaning of words and prepositions in the text, the meaning of the text will appear clearly in which it will be exactly matching the structure of the verse.
3- The purpose of the linguistic analysis I have adopted is to reveal the meaning of the text in the verse.
4 – I found that the text of the Holy Qur’an is very brief, and brevity is considered as one of the most important foundations in speaking by Arabs, and it indicates the eloquence of the speaker, as he who does not follow the path of brevity in speaking is not considered eloquent. In addition, it is vital to estimate the omitted words from the text in order to make the meaning of the text clearly standout, and so I endeavoured to estimate these words according to evidence.
5- In terms of explaining the meanings of the verse’s words, I relied on linguistic dictionaries and traced the development of the meaning of the word historically through linguistic dictionaries, and if linguistic dictionaries mentioned more than one meaning for the Qur’anic word, then I choose the meaning that fits in the arrangement and context of the verse. Also, I did not ignore the Embedding phenomenon in the language of the Arabs, which had not been appreciated by the interpreters, which means: (placing a word in the position of another which will be treated as the meaning of the main word but also contains other sub meanings).
6- I endeavoured to ensure that the meaning of the verse is identical to the linguistic analysis and within the limits of the meanings which are denoted by the words of the verse mentioned in the dictionaries, or the meanings which are contained in some of the verse’s words.
7- I only adopted the meaning appearing by linguistic analysis of the verse’s text and did not put in consideration what the interpreters mentioned about the differences in sayings of the early people who engaged in the interpretation of the Holy Qur’an such as Ibn Abbas, Qatada, Mujahid, Ikrima, Al-Saddi, and others, and also did not put in consideration what they mentioned about the different reasons for revelations, narrations, hadiths or sayings that some interpreters adopted in the interpretation of the verses of the Holy Qur’an, as I mentioned earlier.
8- The general meaning of the verse in the light of linguistic analysis may refer to sub-matters or meanings that the reader who ponders on the meaning can derive. I put what I could derive from the general meaning of the verse in the light of linguistic analysis between red brackets, to distinguish it from the general meaning appearing by the linguistic analysis of the verse’s text.
I invite those who are interested in translating the meanings of the Holy Qur’an into other languages to rely on the general meaning appearing by the linguistic analysis of the verse’s text, and I am confident that depending on the meaning appearing by the linguistic analysis in translating the meanings of the Qur’an into other languages will have a good effect on Qur’an reciters of non-Arab Muslims, and will open the insights of non-Muslims towards Islam.
It is worth noting here that I mention that my work is not an interpretation of the Qur’an, rather it is (Clarifying the Meanings of the Holy Qur’an in the light of linguistic analysis). It is also worth noting that I hope that the scholars who adopt the narrations and Hadiths in the interpretation of the Qur’an and the derivation of rulings, do not think that I refuse what is true of the narrations and Hadiths altogether, but I am trying in this work only to reach the meanings of the Qur’an, which appear by the linguistic analysis of the verse’s text, and I put my very best effort in analysing the text of each verse, and in clarifying its meaning in the light of linguistic analysis.
I ask Allah the Almighty to make the meanings clarified through this method of linguistic analysis of each verse to be close to the meanings that he wants, and if not, then I ask him the reward for trying my best, for he is the aim, and he is the guardian of success.
Prof. Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Zubaidi