The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an —The Prophet’s Miracle
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excelled. Arabic maintained the style set for it by
the Qur’an. No masterpiece comparable to the
Qur’an was destined to be produced after it; so
Arabic remained cast in the mould of that divine
symphony.
Take the example of English. In the 7th century AD
it was just an ordinary local dialect, not geared to
the expression of profound intellectual thought. For
another five hundred years this situation continued.
The Normans conquered England in 1066 and,
when the founding father of the English language –
Geoffrey Chaucer – was born around 1340, the
official language of their court was still French.
Chaucer himself had a command of Latin, French
and Italian, besides his native English. This, along
with his great gifts of scholarship, enabled him to
make English into an academic language. To use
Ernest Hauser’s words, he gave the English
language a ‘firm boost’ with his Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer transformed a dialect into a language,
paving the way for fresh progress in times to come.
For two hundred years English writers and poets
followed Chaucer’s guidelines. When William
