Language is a technical habit

All languages are habits similar to crafts techniques. They are habits (located) in the tongue and serve the purpose of expressing ideas.

The good or inadequate (character of such expression) depends on the perfection or deficiency of the habit. This does not apply to individual words but to word combinations.

A speaker who possesses a perfect (linguistic) habit and is thus able to combine individual words so as to express the ideas he wants to express, and who is able to observe the form of composition that makes his speech conform to the requirements of the situation, is as well qualified as is (humanly) possible to convey to the listener what he wants to convey. This is what is meant by eloquence.

Habits result only from repeated action. 1329 An action is done first (once).

Thus, it contributes an attribute to the essence. With repetition it becomes a condition, which is an attribute that is not firmly established. After more repetition it becomes a habit, that is, a firmly established attribute.

As long as the habit of the Arabic language existed among the Arabs, an Arab speaker always heard the people of his generation (race) speak (Arabic). He hears their ways of address and how they express what they want to express. He is like a child hearing individual words employed in their proper meanings.

He learns them first.

Afterwards, he hears word combinations and learns them likewise. He hears something new each moment from every speaker, and his own practice is constantly repeated, until (use of proper speech) becomes a habit and a firmly established attribute.

Thus, (the child) becomes like one of (the Arabs). In this way, (Arab) languages and dialects have passed from generation to generation, and both non-Arabs and children have learned them. 1332

This is (what is) meant by the common saying= “The Arabs have (their) language from nature.” 1333 That is, they have it from (their own) original habit, and while (others) learned it from them, they themselves did not learn it from anyone else.

The (linguistic) habit of the Mudar became corrupt when they came into contact with non-Arabs. The reason for that corruption was that the generation growing up heard other ways of expressing the things they wanted to express than the Arab (ways). They used them to express what they wanted to express, because there were so many non-Arabs coming into contact with the Arabs. They also heard the ways in which the Arabs expressed themselves. As a result, matters became confused for them. They adopted (ways of expressing themselves) from both sides.

Thus, there originated a new habit which was inferior to the first one. This is what is meant by “corruption of the Arabic language.” 1334

Therefore, the dialect of the Quraysh was the most correct and purest Arabic dialect, because the Quraysh were on all sides far removed from the lands of the non-Arabs.

Next came (the tribes) around the Quraysh, the Thaqif, the Hudhayl, the Khuza’ah, the Banu Kinanah, the Ghatafan, the Banu Asad, and the Banu Tamim.

The Rabi’ah, the Lakhm, the Judham, the Ghassan, the Iyad, the Quda’ah, and theArabs of the Yemen lived farther away from the Quraysh, and were (variously) neighbors of the Persians, the Byzantines, and the Abyssinians. Because they had contact with non-Arabs, their linguistic habit was not perfect.

The Arabic dialects were used by Arab philologists as arguments for (linguistic) soundness or corruption according to the (degree of) remoteness of (the tribes speaking them) from the Quraysh.

46. Contemporary Arabic is an independent language different from the languages of the Mudar and the Himyar.

Arabic as it is spoken today follows the ways of the Mudar language.

The only loss is that of the vowels indicating the distinction between subject and object. Instead, one uses position within the sentence and syntactic combinations (qara’in) 1336 to indicate certain special meanings one wants to express. However, the clarity and eloquence of the Mudar language are greater and more firmly rooted (than those of present-day Arabic). The words themselves indicate the ideas. What still requires indication are the requirements of a particular situation, called “the spread of the situation.” 1337

Of necessity, every idea is surrounded by situations peculiar to it. Therefore, it is necessary to indicate those situations in conveying the meaning one wants to convey, because they belong to it as attributes. In all (other) languages, the situations are as a rule indicated by expressions restricted, by convention, to (those situations). But in the Arabic language, they are indicated by the conditions and possibilities of combining words (in a sentence), such as earlier or later position (of words in a sentence), ellipsis, or vowel endings. They are (also) indicated by letters that are not used independently.

Hence, the classes of speech in the Arabic language differ according to the different ways of indicating the possibilities, as we have stated before. Therefore, Arabic speech is more concise and uses fewer words and expressions than any other language. This is what was meant in the following remark by Muhammad: “I was given the most comprehensive words, and speech was made short for me.” 1338

One may compare the story of Isa b. ‘Umar. 1339 A grammarian said to him= “I find duplications in Arabic speech. The (three) sentences, ‘Zayd is standing,’ ‘Behold, Zayd is standing,’ and ‘Behold, Zayd is indeed standing,’ all mean the same.” Isa replied= “(No! All three) mean something different. The first (sentence) gives information to a person who has no previous knowledge as to whether Zayd is standing (or not). The second (sentence) gives information to a person who has heard about it but denies it. And the third (sentence) gives information to a person who knows it but persists in denying it. Thus, the meaning differs according to the different situations (one wants to express).”

Such eloquence and stylistic (precision) has continued to this day to be a part of Arab custom and method. No attention should be paid to the nonsensical talk of certain professional grammarians who are not capable of understanding the situation correctly and who think that eloquence no longer exists and that the Arabic language is corrupt. They draw this conclusion from the corruption of the vowel endings, the rules for which are their (particular) subject of study. But such a statement is inspired by both partisan attitude and lack of ability. Actually, we find that most Arabic words are still used today in their original meanings. Arabic speech can still today express what one wants to express with different degrees of clarity. In their speeches (the Arabs) still employ the methods and the different branches 1340 of the (old language of) prose and poetry. There still exist eloquent speakers at (Arab)parties and gatherings. There are poets who are gifted in all the ways of the Arabic language. (The existence of) a sound taste and healthy disposition (as far as linguistic matters are concerned) attests to the fact that (the Arabic language is still intact). 1341 The only part of the codified language that no longer exists is the i’rab, the vowel endings that were used in the language of the Mudar in a uniform and definite manner and that form part of the laws of (the Arabic) language.

Concern 1342 for the Mudar language was only felt when that language became corrupt through the contact of (Arabs) with non-Arabs, at the time when (the Arabs) gained control of the provinces of the Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and the Maghrib. (At that time) the (Arabic linguistic) habit took on a form different from the one it had had originally. The (Mudar language) was thus transformed into another language. (Now,) the Qur’an was revealed in (the language of the Mudar), and the Prophetical traditions were transmitted in it, and both the Qur’an and the traditions are the basis of Islam. It was feared that, as a result of the disappearance of the language in which they were revealed, they themselves might be forgotten and no longer be understood.

Therefore, a systematic treatment of its laws, a presentation of the analogical formations used in it, and the derivation of its rules were needed. (Knowledge of Arabic) thus became a science with subdivisions, chapters, premises, and problems. The scholars who cultivated that science called it grammar and Arabic philology. It became a discipline known by heart and fixed in writing, a ladder leading up to the understanding of the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Prophet.