Yūsuf 12:2

The issue

According to the verse, God announces, “Surely, we have revealed it-- an Arabic Quran-- that you may understand.” The Qur’an repeatedly declares its Arabic calling and outstanding eloquence. Upon reading such verses, one cannot help but wonder: If Quraysh spoke Arabic well, why did the Qur’an need to confirm the nature of its language?

That claim, however, is subject to criticism as the Qur’an contains many non-Arabic vocabularies. In his, The Perfect Guide to the Science of the Qur’an, Al-Suyuti could not avoid referring to that reality. He even lists a hundred words in the Qur’an text borrowed from languages other than Arabic (e.g., Persian, Indian, Ethiopian, Syriac, and Hebrew).

In modern times, contrastive linguistic studies provide the research tools needed to examine the Qur’an. These studies reveal an enormous number of non-Arabic vocabulary in the Qur’an. We can detect words from languages like Syriac, Hebrew, Greek, Ethiopian, and Persian. Following are examples of Quranic words that are of foreign origins, some of which are still puzzling for scholars:

Syriac language with its derivatives:

“Abon” in Q 80:31 “And fruits and herbage” (rendered by the various English translations as herbage, grass, grasses, or fodder)

“Al-Toor” in Q 4:154 “And We lifted the mountain (Sainai) over them at Al-Toor" (Rendered by the various English translations as the mountain, or towering height)

The non-Arabic words listed by Al- Suyuti raise the question: Why did God have to borrow foreign words in the body of his Arabic Book despite the presence of their equivalent Arabic counterparts: such as Al-Toor “Mountain”? According to Muslims, the miracle of the Qur’an lies in its eloquent Arabic tongue. Was God unable to make a pure Arabic text?