CHRISTIANS APOLOGETICS: Defending The Christian Faith By JOSHUA NAABU

Why was the Quran revealed in Arabic?

If Islam is the religion for all people, why would the main evidence for Islam only work in one language, a language that most people don’t speak? Why can’t the Quran be understood in any other language apart from Arabic?  Even native Arabic speakers can’t understand much of the Quran because it is written in classical Arabic. Even most classical Arabic scholars can’t understand much of the Quran. This is the word of some of them;
“The Quran claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen’ or ‘clear.’ But if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense. Many Muslims-and Orientalists-will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Quranic text is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Quran is not comprehensible-if it can’t even be understood in the Arabic-then it is not translatable. People fear that. And since the Quran claims repeatedly to be clear but obviously is not- as even speakers of Arabic will tell you- there is a contradiction.” 
- Gerd R. Puin, a German scholar, specialist in Arabic Paleography and an authority on Quranic historical orthography.     

“The Quran contains sentences which are incomplete and not fully intelligible without the aid of commentaries; foreign words, unfamiliar Arabic words, and words used with other than the normal meaning; adjectives and verbs inflected without observance of the concords of gender and number; illogically and ungrammatically applied pronouns which sometimes have no referent; and predicates which in rhymed passages are often remote from the subjects. These and other such aberrations in the language have given scope to critics who deny the Quran’s eloquence.”
– Ali Dashti, Iranian scholar and senator.                                                                                                                                                         

So the Quran isn’t clear even in the original Arabic. So why did Allah reveal the Quran in Arabic? According to the Quran, Allah sends prophets to every nation. “And verily We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming): Serve Allah and shun false gods. Then some of them (there were) whom Allah guided, and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just hold. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers!” Surah 16:36. An apostle was sent to every nation to guide people to the truth. The Arabs was the last to receive guidance so Mohammed was the last of the prophet. Surah 36:2-6 says “By the wise Qur'an, Lo! thou art of those sent On a straight path, A revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful, That thou mayst warn a folk whose fathers were not warned, so they are heedless.”  So the Arabs hadn’t been warned. “And if Our revelations are recited unto them in plain terms, they say: This is naught else than a man who would turn you away from what your fathers used to worship; and they say: This is naught else than an invented lie. Those who disbelieve say of the truth when it reacheth them: This is naught else than mere magic. And We have given them no scriptures which they study, nor sent We unto them, before thee, any warner.” Surah 34:43-44
No warner before Mohammed. Surah 32:3 “Or say they: He hath invented it? Nay, but it is the Truth from thy Lord, that thou mayst warn a folk to whom no warner came before thee, that haply they may walk aright.” So a prophet had been sent to every nation but no prophet had come to Arabs. And this is why Allah sent Mohammed. Once he was sent to the Arabs, the last people to receive a prophet, every nation had been warned. “Lo! We have sent thee with the Truth, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and there is not a nation but a warner hath passed among them.” Surah 35:24. According to the Quran, Mohammed was sent to warn the Arabs. Other nations had their own prophets. Allah says in Surah 42:7 that the Quran was revealed in Arabic to warn the Arabs who lived in and around mecca. “And thus We have inspired in thee a Lecture in Arabic, that thou mayst warn the mother-town and those around it, and mayst warn of a day of assembling whereof there is no doubt. A host will be in the Garden, and a host of them in the Flame.”(Surah 42:7) Think about this for a moment, there were Jews and Christians in Arabia. The Arabs could have simply listened to what Jews and Christians were saying about their book. Why did the Arabs need a book in their own language? Muslims today will say because the scriptures of the Jews and Christians were corrupted. But that’s not what the Quran says. The Quran affirms the inspiration, preservation and authority of the scriptures of the Jews and Christians in Surah 3:3-4, 5:47, 5:68, 7:157, 10:94, 18:27. The purpose of the Quran according to Allah is to confirm previous scriptures in Arabic. “When before it(Quran) there was the Scripture of Moses, an example and a mercy; and this is a confirming Scripture in the Arabic language, that it may warn those who do wrong and bring good tidings for the righteous.” Surah 46:12. The Quran confirms the previous scriptures in the Arabic language so that Arabs will know that these books of the Jews and Christians are the words of Allah. According to the Quran if Allah didn’t give the revelation in Arabic, the Arabs will have an excuse on the day of judgment. “And this is a blessed Scripture which We have revealed. So follow it and ward off (evil), that ye may find mercy. Lest ye should say: The Scripture was revealed only to two sects before us, and we in sooth were unaware of what they read; Or lest ye should say: If the Scripture had been revealed unto us, we surely had been better guided than are they. Now hath there come unto you a clear proof from your Lord, a guidance and mercy; and who doeth greater wrong than he who denieth the revelations of Allah, and turneth away from them? We award unto those who turn away from Our revelations an evil doom because of their aversion.” Surah 6:155-157. So Allah didn’t reveal the Quran because all of the revelations has been corrupted, Allah revealed the Quran so that Arabs will not be able to complain that they didn’t have an inspired book in their own language. The position of the Quran then goes something like this;
Allah sent prophets to the various parts of the world and inspired scriptures for different groups of people. These scriptures are reliable and authoritative to the people they were revealed to. In the early seventh century, Arabs didn’t have a revelation in their own language but theses Arabs couldn’t simply trust what the Jews and Christians were saying about the Torah and Gospels so the Arabs needed a revelation in Arabic. That’s why Allah sent Mohammed. Now Arabs have the Quran, they can read the Quran. Other nations have their own books in their own languages. This is the position of the Quran.
By Dr. David Wood

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