11-02-2004, 09:24 PM
Then by admission Arabic and Hebrew are really Aramaic-based, like English and Spanish are really Latin-based.
Partially. Arabic seems to retain more Akkadian features than both Aramaic and Hebrew, thus promoting it to the closest to "proto-Semitic" You don't see philologists racing towards Syriac, do you?
Very beautiful. If you ever read Kahlil Gibrans (an Assyrian) works in their original Arabic, it would bring a tear to your eyes.
Maybe.
But English is beautiful, too. And so is Chinese.
Not like Arabic though. Let's listen to Ali bin Rabban at-Tabari, a former Assyrian Christian, who converted at seventy to Islam:
When I was a Christian I used to say, as did an uncle of mine who was one of the learned and eloquent men, that eloquence is not one of the signs of prophethood because it is common to all the peoples; but when I discarded (blind) imitation and (old) customs and gave up adhering to (mere) habit and training and reflected upon the meanings of the Qur'??n I came to know that what the followers of the Qur'??n claimed for it was true. The fact is that I have not found any book, be it by an Arab or a Persian, an Indian or a Greek, right from the beginning of the world up to now, which contains at the same time praises of God, belief in the prophets and apostles, exhortations to good, everlasting deeds, command to do good and prohibition against doing evil, inspiration to the desire of paradise and to avoidance of hell-fire as this Qur'??n does. So when a person brings to us a book of such qualities, which inspires such reverence and sweetness in the hearts and which has achieved such an overlasting success and he is (at the same time) an illiterate person who did never learnt the art of writing or rhetoric, that book is without any doubt one of the signs of his Prophethood.Abdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'??n, Islamic Culture, Op. Cit., pp. 222-223.
Now that's beautiful
Well, that's going a bit too far. Imitation is flattering, but those borrowing A-rabs didn't create anything that wasn't already in existence for thousands of years before they even existed.
True, but they sure did improve much of it.
Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language for 2,000 years. It has only recently been "resurrected." That the meaning of idioms and certain terms was "forgotten" can hardly be blamed on the Jews, who lived away from their homeland for 2,000 years in Europe.
Plzzzz. According to Saadia Gaon (Jewish scholar):
"It is reported," he says, "that one of the worthies among the Ishmaelites, realizing to his sorrow that the people do not use the Arabic language correctly, wrote a short treatise for them. From which they might learn proper usages. Similarly, I have noticed that many of the Israelites even the common rules for the correct usage of our (Hebrew) language, much less the more difficult rules, so that when they speak in prose most of it is faulty, and when they write poetry only a few of the ancient rules are observed, and majority of them are neglected. This has induced me to compose a work in two parts containing most of the (Hebrew) words.
It's their fault, not time's that Hebrew had to be resurrected by the usage of classical Arabic. According to Gaon, they were being lazy with the ancient rules. I'm sure the same happened to Syriac over time too.
Give Assyrians another couple of generations there in Los Angeles. They will forget Aramaic, too.
It contains things Arabic couldn't even express....trust me.
Hey pal, Arabic has eight hundred words for sword. Top that.
I don't believe you. Let Keefa jump on this one. Give me three examples, at least.
Partially. Arabic seems to retain more Akkadian features than both Aramaic and Hebrew, thus promoting it to the closest to "proto-Semitic" You don't see philologists racing towards Syriac, do you?
Very beautiful. If you ever read Kahlil Gibrans (an Assyrian) works in their original Arabic, it would bring a tear to your eyes.
Maybe.
But English is beautiful, too. And so is Chinese.
Not like Arabic though. Let's listen to Ali bin Rabban at-Tabari, a former Assyrian Christian, who converted at seventy to Islam:
When I was a Christian I used to say, as did an uncle of mine who was one of the learned and eloquent men, that eloquence is not one of the signs of prophethood because it is common to all the peoples; but when I discarded (blind) imitation and (old) customs and gave up adhering to (mere) habit and training and reflected upon the meanings of the Qur'??n I came to know that what the followers of the Qur'??n claimed for it was true. The fact is that I have not found any book, be it by an Arab or a Persian, an Indian or a Greek, right from the beginning of the world up to now, which contains at the same time praises of God, belief in the prophets and apostles, exhortations to good, everlasting deeds, command to do good and prohibition against doing evil, inspiration to the desire of paradise and to avoidance of hell-fire as this Qur'??n does. So when a person brings to us a book of such qualities, which inspires such reverence and sweetness in the hearts and which has achieved such an overlasting success and he is (at the same time) an illiterate person who did never learnt the art of writing or rhetoric, that book is without any doubt one of the signs of his Prophethood.Abdul Aleem, I'jaz ul Qur'??n, Islamic Culture, Op. Cit., pp. 222-223.
Now that's beautiful
Well, that's going a bit too far. Imitation is flattering, but those borrowing A-rabs didn't create anything that wasn't already in existence for thousands of years before they even existed.
True, but they sure did improve much of it.
Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language for 2,000 years. It has only recently been "resurrected." That the meaning of idioms and certain terms was "forgotten" can hardly be blamed on the Jews, who lived away from their homeland for 2,000 years in Europe.
Plzzzz. According to Saadia Gaon (Jewish scholar):
"It is reported," he says, "that one of the worthies among the Ishmaelites, realizing to his sorrow that the people do not use the Arabic language correctly, wrote a short treatise for them. From which they might learn proper usages. Similarly, I have noticed that many of the Israelites even the common rules for the correct usage of our (Hebrew) language, much less the more difficult rules, so that when they speak in prose most of it is faulty, and when they write poetry only a few of the ancient rules are observed, and majority of them are neglected. This has induced me to compose a work in two parts containing most of the (Hebrew) words.
It's their fault, not time's that Hebrew had to be resurrected by the usage of classical Arabic. According to Gaon, they were being lazy with the ancient rules. I'm sure the same happened to Syriac over time too.
Give Assyrians another couple of generations there in Los Angeles. They will forget Aramaic, too.
It contains things Arabic couldn't even express....trust me.
Hey pal, Arabic has eight hundred words for sword. Top that.
I don't believe you. Let Keefa jump on this one. Give me three examples, at least.
???Do not give up, for that is ignorance and not according to the rules of this art... Like the lover, you cannot hope to achieve success without infinite perseverance.???