A Book Sheikh Salih Recommended Reading 30 Times

Another question asks about Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani's books.

Like Asrar al-Balaghah and Dala'il al-I'jaz.

Can a student with little grounding in rhetoric read them?

And which books would be suitable as a key to understanding them?

First, Asrar al-Balaghah: you can skip it; it is more about bayan.

As for Dala'il al-I'jaz, read it ten, twenty, or thirty times.

You will not tire of it. It stirs love for Qur'an and grasp of its meanings.

For 'ilm al-ma'ani, brothers, is a very, very important science.

For example: "You alone we worship."

See 'ilm al-ma'ani: You alone we worship.

Asked what "You alone we worship" means, "We worship You, glory to You."

But one versed in 'ilm al-ma'ani sees what Arabs grasp naturally:

Meaning, we worship none but You.

Because 'You' is fronted, though it is the verb's object.

Placing the object before the verb indicates exclusivity.

Like: "We only worship them that they may bring us nearer to Allah."

This is restriction. But restriction has two types.

One is restriction by reversal. The other is another kind. Here: reversal.

Meaning, it turns it back on them: we only worship them for one cause.

And that is that they bring us nearer to Allah.

For example: al-laff wa-al-nashr.

Al-laff wa-al-nashr.

It means gathering, then separating.

This too is a branch of the science of meanings; it has benefits.

These benefits lie beyond what the wording denotes.

They are other benefits, like restriction.

Exclusivity, reversal, emphasis, and annexation.

And this is known from Arab speech. For example, we say.

In grammar, for example, we say.

"The lesson is standing." "The lesson is standing."

All right: "The lesson is standing." Subject and predicate; any emphasis?

"The lesson is standing": predicate and subject. That is all.

Now, if we phrased it this way.

"The lesson is surely standing," we emphasized it with the lam.

This is one emphasis. "The lesson is surely standing."

Meaning, he emphasizes it when he says.

What does that mean? "Indeed, the lesson is surely standing."

This now has two emphases. That means it is stronger.

If we come to a free exception from the broadest cases, with la.

Then we bring in illa. What does that indicate? "There is no god but Allah."

"Indeed, I am Allah; there is no deity except Me."

"There is no deity except ..." With lam plus illa, it is stronger.

All this is in ilm al-ma'ani. You learn it from transmitted tafsir.

But a seeker of knowledge can grow in it through knowing the science of meanings.

So the science of meanings is the most important in Arabic for Quran tafsir.

And it reveals the great aspects of meaning in the Quran, Allah's speech.