Part 25

Of course, people may designate a name for something that comes into existence for the first time and that, for this reason, no one was familiar with before. For example, a son might be born to someone, after which he gives the child a name, either after someone else, or one that has been improvised. Moreover, a person or object named may be unique, the name not having been agreed upon by more than one person; or people may happen to refer to the entity by the same name. Similarly, someone might manufacture an instrument, write a book, or builda city, then give it a name, since it does not belong to any known class such that it would

have an agreed upon name in the common language. Allah says: “The Most Gracious One; Who taught the Qur’an; He created man; He taught him intelligent speech” (55:1-4); and“. .. They say ‘Allah has given us speech Who gives speech to everything ...”” (41:21); and “Who created, then disposed, Who measured then guided” (87:23). Thus, Allah inspires human beings with speech just as He does other creatures. Moreover, if Allah taught Adam all names and presented all entities named to the Angels as He states in the Qur’4n, then we know that He did not teach Adam all the languages that all people would ever speak until the Day of Resurrection. Rather, these languages would be spoken by his progeny after him. For they [Adam’s descendants] speak nothing but their own languages, and to claim otherwise is a patent falsehood. For Adam (pbuh) could only pass on his own language to his children. However, in the year of the great flood, Allah caused all of Adam’s progeny to drown except for those who were in the ark; and the progeny of all those in the ark were cut off, except for Noah’s sons, but they did not speak all the languages that would be spoken by nations after them. For even a single language, such as Farsi, Arabic, Latin, or Turkish, contains within it so many differences and variations that only Allah Himself could count them. Among the Arabs themselves, each tribe has a lughah, dialect, that others may not understand. This being the case, it is inconceivable that all these languages and dialects could have been passed down from those who were in the ark when they left no offspring behind. Rather, the offspring who survived were those of Noah and all those who were descended from his three sons: Sam, Ham, and Japheth. Allah says: “And we have caused his offspring to survive” (37:77). In other words, Allah allowed no one to survive but his [Noah’s] offspring. As has been recorded by Ahmad [Ibn Hanbal] and others on the authority of the Prophet (pbuh): “His sons are three in number,” and of course these three sons could not have spoken all the languages of the world so that they could be traced back to them. For those who know one language will generally not be familiar with another. And if those who passed on such languages were only three in number, then they taught their children, and their children in turn taught their children, and if this had been the case, there would have been continuity. However, we find that even among the descendants of a single father, one tribe will speak a dialect that is incomprehensible to other tribes. Nor would we say that this father taught one of his sons one language while he taught his other son another. For a father may only have two sons, while the languages spoken by his offspring far outnumber these two sons.

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And by virtue of the way Allah created them, human beings generally teach their children the language in which they speak to them, or the language that others use in addressing them. As for languages that Allah did not create speakers for, then of course no one teaches these to his children. In addition, there are human beings who utter words they have never heard from anyone else. On the authority of the pious ancestors, learned scholars from among the commentators and others take two different views regarding the names that [Allah] taught to Adam.

According to the first of these views, Allah taught Adam only the names of rational beings. This view is based on Allah’s statement in the Qur’an: “. .. Then He presented them to the Angels . . .” (2:31). Those who hold this view say that the object pronoun used in this verse (i.¢., hum, them) may only be used to refer to rational beings. If reference were being made to nonrational beings, the pronoun employed would have been ha, it or them, rather than hum. For this reason, Abu al-‘Aliyah says that Allah taught Adam the names of the Angels, since at that time, the only rational beings in existence were the Angels. Iblis had not yet separated from the other Angels nor did he have any offspring. Another interpretation of this verse, held by ‘Abd al-Rahman Ibn Zayd Ibn Aslam, is that Allah taught Adam the names of his progeny. This is consistent with the hadith narrated by al-Tirmidhi on the authority of the Prophet (pbuh), which says: “Adam asked his Lord to show him images of his descendants who would be prophets. When he saw them, ra” fihim man yabussu, he saw one of them shining. He then asked: ‘Lord, who is that?’ To which Allah replied: ‘He is your son Da’ iid [David].’” Hence, Allah revealed to Adam images of some of his descendants as well as their names, in which case the names Allah taught him were proper names rather than common names.

According to the second majority view Allah taught Adam the names of everything. Among those who hold this view are Ibn ‘Abbas and his followers. According to Ibn ‘Abbas, Allah taught Adam even words such as al-faswah, the noiseless emission of wind from the anus, and al-fusayyah, the diminutive form of al-faswah, as well as al-qas‘ah and al-qusay‘ah, the large intestine and the small intestine. In other words, He even taught abstract and concrete nouns, including their regular and diminutive forms. Evidence for this view is found in the two collections of sound hadiths, according to which the Prophet (pbuh) said in the “hadith of intercession”: “People say: ‘Oh, Adam, you are the father of humankind. Allah created you with His own hand, then breathed into you His

spirit and taught you the names of all things.”” Likewise Allah’s saying, al- >asma’a kullaha, all names, has a comprehensive, distinct reference that cannot be particularized. This is also true of His saying: “He presented them to the Angels,” in which the pronoun hum, them, includes both rational and nonrational creatures, with the rational predominating. Allah says: “... For among them there are those who creep on their stomachs, those who walk on two legs, and those who walk on all four . . .” (24:45). According to ‘Ikrimah, Allah taught Adam the names of classes, without the names of their particular members. For example, one might say human, jinn, angel, and bird. And according to Mugatil, Ibn al-Sa’ib, and Ibn Qutaybah, Allah taught Adam the names of riding animals, reptiles, and birds that He created on earth.

Further evidence for the view that these languages have not been passed down from Adam may be found in the fact that most languages lack elements found in Arabic. For example, they do not have special names for children, houses, sounds, and other concepts that are ascribed to animate beings; in fact, they only use the idafah, annexation, in order to express such names and concepts. For if Allah had taught Adam all names, He would have taught them to him proportionally in correspondence to each other. We also find that every nation that lacks a holy book also lacks words in its language for the days of the week; rather, its language contains only words for day, month, and year, which may be discerned through intuition and reason. Thus, such nations have assigned names to the concepts of day, month, and year, since the expression of something always follows a mental conception of it. As for the concept of the week, it was only recognized through hearing a revealed message. That is, it only came to be known, through the reports of the prophets, that Allah created the heavens and the earth and everything between them in six days, then sat down upon the throne, who established legislation according to which people were to gather one day every week in order to worship Allah and to remember that very first week during which Allah began to create this world. Hence, names for the days of the week exist in the languages of the Arabs, the Hebrews, and those to whom their languages have been passed down, whereas they are not found in the languages of the Turks and others, since they did not recognize this concept. Thus it has come to be known that Allah has inspired the human race to express through words those things that they desire and conceive. The first person taught this was Adam, and other human beings have been taught just as he was, albeit in different languages. For Allah sent His

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revelation to Moses in Hebrew and to Muhammad in Arabic, but in both cases what was revealed was the speech of Allah. In this way Allah has made clear what He desires and requires of human beings, even though one language is distinct from the other. Nevertheless, Hebrew is among the closest of all languages to Arabic; in fact, it bears a closer resemblance to Arabic than that found between other languages.

In sum, our purpose is not to prove the nonexistence of the matter mentioned above. Rather, it is sufficient to say that it is not known whether it exists or not. In fact ilham, inspiration, is a sufficient basis for an expression to come into existence in languages without having been established beforehand. And if this may be called learning through experience, let it be called so. Thus, whoever claims that all categories and classes are laid down somehow before they are used in languages, has spoken ignorantly. Rather what is known with certainty is actual usage. Some also say that literal usage is distinguished from figurative usage on the basis of whether one can discern the meaning of a word without the aid of a surrounding context. That is, if a word clearly expresses a certain meaning even when used in isolation, then we have a literal usage; whereas if the meaning of the word only becomes manifest through the al-qarinah, context, then we have a figurative usage. This issue is related to the use of a word within a given meaning, but has nothing to do with the matter of establishing words in a language prior to their usage.