Diacritical Marks of the Qur'an
In this article we examine the use of diacritical marks and the problems they posed when they were added to the Arabic Qur'an.
Contents
The Quran's Dilemma
We would like to enlighten our readers on grammatical problems in the Arabic Qur'an, mainly diacritical marks. The Arabic writing system was still in development during the time of Muhammad, so the Qur'an was originally written without today's diacritical marks. These were added years after the final Qur'anic revelation and Muhammad's subsequent death. The problem with this is the addition or subtraction of diacritical marks radically alter the meaning of Arabic text, thereby potentially altering Allah’s book.
The Addition of Diacritical marks
As we stated earlier, the Qur'an was written without diacritical marks. At the time of Muhammad, Arabic orthography was yet to develop into what we have known for centuries. There was no distinction between letters of the Arabic alphabets of similar shape and there were no vowel marks. There were no dots above or below the letters either. For the interpretors who added diacritical marks, to read the Qur'an as it was originally written, would lead the reader to interpret and choose for themselves from the many possible meanings available in the Arabic without diacritical marks.
In order for non-Arabic speakers to understand what is being discussed here, we will look at several Arabic words and how the use of diacritical marks affect their meanings:
The word for “girl” is “bent”. The word is composed of three letters which are “Ba”, “n” or noon”, and “Ta”. When these three letters are connected to each other without diacritical marks they will appear identical. They will look like three adjacent crescents facing upwards. The difference between them is nothing. Only the diacritical marks (and the dots) can differentiate between them. Here is how it works:
- If you put one point below any one of them, it's "Ba"
- If you put two points below any one of them, it's "ya"
- If you put one point above any one of them, it's "non"
- If you put two points above any one of them, it's "Ta"
- If you put three points above any one of them, it's "Tha"
Therefore, there are a multitude of possible alternatives that could arise from the arrangements of diacritical marks on each of the letters.
Furthermore, if you put one mark below the first, two points below the second, and two above the third, the word "girl" will become “Bayt” which translates as “home” in English.
- If you put two points below the first, one below the second, and two above the third, it's "yabet" which translates as "he makes a decision" in English.
- If you put one point above the first, one below the second and two above the third, it's "nabat" which translates as "'grew” (for something planted) in English.
- If you put one point below the first, two below the second and one above the third, it's "Bayn" which translates as "between" in English.
- If you put one point below the first, three points above the second and two points above the third, it's "Bathat" which translates as "she broadcast" in English.
- If you put two points below the first, one below the second, and three above the third, it's "yaboth" which translates as "he broadcasts" in English.
Therefore even after adding diacritical points above and below the Arabic letters, the meaning of the word will not be explicit with certainty except after adding the vocalization marks. Both the diacritical points and the vocalization marks were not used in the ancient Arabic writings during the time of Muhammad. Therefore, there would have been a wide range of problems and an enormous task for the interpretors to add diacritical points and vocalization marks on every letter in the Qur'an. Therefore there was a lot of opportunity to make mistakes that would have made it impossible to ensure the original word meanings of the Qur'an were unchanged.
In order to better understand the meaning of this, we will quote Ibn Kammuna, a native Arabic speaker:
As if this is not enough, vowels presented another problem for the Muslims. Arabic script is consonantal. Vowels influence the meaning in the Arabic language. They are represented by orthographical signs above or below the letters. So, after settling the problems associated with consonants, Muslims had to decide on which vowels to employ in each case where there is a wording issue. Using different vowel renders a different meaning!
The above problems eventually led to the growth of different centers with their own traditions on how the Qur’anic texts should be pointed and vowelized. So, it is clear that Uthman did not succeed in getting rid of the older Qur’anic codices. Charles Adams observes about the Qur’an:
…far from being a single text passed down inviolate from the time of ‘Uthman’s commission, literally thousands of variant readings of particular verses were known in the first three (Muslim) centuries. Theses variants affected even the ‘Uthmanic’ codex, making it difficult to know what its true form may have been.”[1]In the book "The History of Islamic Law", the author Dr. Ahmad Shalabi, professor of Islamic history and civilization states:
Muslims Began Using Diacritical Marks Because Errors Began to Appear
According to Ibn Taymiyyah in "Sheik of the Muslims", Muslims began using diacritical marks because reading errors began to appear:
Ibn Taymiyyah also states:
This means more than one reading was accepted by Muhammad.
In his famous book, "al-Itqan Fi Ulum al-Qur’an" ("Adjusted Qur’anic Science"), Jalal-al-Din-al-Suyuti reiterates some of Ibn Taymiyyah’s statements about the creation of diacritical marks.
Al-Suyuti makes an important statement in which he says that the differences in reading has led to differences in Islamic law.[5] He illustrated this by the following example: He indicated that some scholars demanded of the worshipper that he wash himself again (perform ablution) before he prays if he shook hands with a woman. Yet other scholars require him to do so only in the case of sexual intercourse and not just because he shook hands with her or touched her hand.
The reason for this disagreement is because of one word found in the Chapter of Women (verse 43) and whether it has a long vowel a or not. Scholars Jalalayn and Badawi record that both ibn ’Umar and al-Shafi’i seriously disagree with ibn ’Abbas in the way they interpret this verse because ibn ’Abbas insisted that the meaning intended here is actual intercourse while the former said no, it is enough for a man to touch the skin of a woman or her hand to require having his ablution (washing) repeated.
Other Vocalization Marks
In addition to the diacritical marks, there are other forms of vocalization marks that change the pronunciation and meaning of a given word. These marks include Damma, Fathha, kassra, shadda, scoon, madda, etc. They are put above or below the letter to affect its pronunciation.
For example:
- The word "bent" will become "banat" by putting "Fathha" on the second letter, which means "she built" in English.
- The word "bayn" ( which translates as “between” in English) will become "bayyan" if we add "shadda" on the first and the second letters, which means "He manifests" in English.
- The word "nabat" (which translates as “grew” in English, for something that was planted) will become "nabott" if we add "damma” to the second letter, which means "we make a decision" in English.
Conclusion
Due to diacritical marks not being included in the original Qur'an and their use being so complex, and also because Muhammad allowed for more than one reading of each word, there is no way to determine the original meaning of the text. Through the abundance of opportunities to make mistakes and of the impossibility of the interpretors getting the correct word it is most likely the Qur'an's had been altered, meaning the version we have with us today is not Allah’s word, to the letter as Muslims claim.
See Also
- Corruption of Qur'an - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Corruption of the Qur'an
External Links
- Variants in the Qur'an - Dr. William Campbell
- Qur'anic Language and Grammatical Mistakes - Answering Islam
- Diacritical Markings in the Quran Change the Meanings - FFI Forum
References
- ↑ Ibn Kammuna - Collection of the Quran Part 2 - Faith Freedom International, February 12, 2009
- ↑ Dr. Ahmad Shalabi, "The History of Islamic Law", p. 43
- ↑ Ibn Taymiyyah, "Sheik of the Muslims", vol. XII, pp. 576 and 586
- ↑ Ibn Taymiyyah, "Sheik of the Muslims", p. 100
- ↑ Jalal-al-Din-al-Suyuti, "al-Itqan Fi Ulum al-Qur’an" (Adjusted Qur’anic Science), part 1, p. 226