God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
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now read almost exclusively as part of college
curricula with the help of glossaries, dictionaries
and ‘translations’.
But the history of the Arabic language is strikingly
different, having withstood the test of time for no
less than 1500 years. Wording and style have, of
course, undergone some development, but not to
such an extent that words should lose their original
meaning. Supposing someone belonging to the
Quranic times of ancient Arabia could be reborn
today, the form of language in which he would
express himself would be as understandable to
modern Arabs as it was to his own contemporaries.
It is as if the Quran had placed a divine imprint
upon Arabic, arresting it in its course so that it
should remain understandable right up to the last
day. This being so, the Quran is never just going to
collect dust on some obscure ‘Classical Literature’
shelf, but will be read by, and give inspiration to
people for all time to come.
In the field of science, despite the great and rapid
advances in knowledge in recent years, we come
back to what was asserted in the Quran, so many
