Dialogue with an Atheist: Learn more by Mostafa Mahmoud

Author:Mostafa Mahmoud [Mahmoud, Mostafa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2021-05-18T11:00:00+00:00

Mary, 4

“Taha. We have not revealed unto

you (Muhammad) the Quran that you

should be distressed. But as a

reminder unto him who fears. A Revelation from him who created the

earth and the high heavens. The

Beneficent One, Who is established

on the Throne” Taha. 1-4

If the topic dealt with is a threat the sentence structure and morphology become like chunks of flint stone and its rhythm produces a sort of metallic screeching that pierces the ears:

“On a day of unremitting woe we let

loose on them a howling wind which snatched them off as if they had been trunks of uprooted palmtrees.”’

The Moon, 19—20

Words like ‘howling’ and ‘uprooted’ strike our ears with their sounds in Arabic, like pieces of rock. If Quranic verses report a major event, like those that speak about the end of the Flood, their sentences become very short as if they were Morse Code signals. A verse in its entirety becomes like a pithy telegram with a momentous impact:

‘A voice cried out: ‘Earth swallow up

your waters; heaven, cease your rain!

The floods abated and God’s will was

done.”

Houd, 44 Such varying effects in word morphology, syntax, and the concordance of rhythms with meanings and feelings reach to the very summit in the Quran. They are always achieved in a smooth and easy manner without any artificiality or affectation.

Thirdly, 1f we further pursue this line of analysis, we will discover a meticulous accuracy and staggering adequacy: every letter is in its precise place neither advanced nor retarded. You cannot substitute one word for another, nor put one letter in place of the other. Every word has been chosen from among millions by a very sensitive act of discernment.

We shall presently encounter such accuracy as has never been equaled in composition. Examine, for example, theword ‘fertilizing’ in the following verse:

“We let loose the fertilizing wind” Al-Hijr, 22 It was in the past understood in a figurative sense to mean that the wind stimulates the clouds causing them to rain; therain would then ‘fertilize’ the soil, that is, make it productive. Nowadays, however, we know that the winds drive positively-charged clouds into negatively-charged ones causing lightning, thunder, and rain. In this sense they‘fertilize’ the clouds. We also know that winds carry the pollen from one flower to the other thus literally fertilizing them. Hence, we are before a word which is true figuratively, literally, and scientifically. It is, moreover, aesthetically superb and rhythmically pleasing. This is what we mean by meticulous accuracy in the choice and placing of a word.

Let us also consider the following verse: “Do not usurp each other’s pr operty

by unjust means, nor bribe judges with

it in order that you may knowingly and

wrongfully deprive others of their

possessions.”

The Cow, 188 The Arabic word used for ‘bribe’ here is ‘todloo’ which literally means to ‘lower’ something or send it down. This may seem a Strange use putting in mind that the judge or ruler to whom the money is given is in a higher not a lower position vis-a-vis the givers. The Quran, however, effects

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