What do we mean by the term “Qur’anic Arabic”?
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Should Qur’anic Arabic, as a language, be understood as a faithful reflection of what the language was at the time of the Prophet (S) within a geographical sphere more or less close to him, or only as a “dialect” of Mecca? Is it the “vernacular” language of Arabia, or the “poetic language” of this region? This vast debate, still relevant today, undoubtedly calls for more precision. What is certain is that the diversity of Arab tribes could correspond to more or less great variations in this language, as the tradition itself attests. The commentators of the Qur’an, for their part, saw in Qur’anic Arabic the language of the tribe of Quraysh, except that the divine Text adapted itself, the texts tell us, to the different local dialects. It is precisely for this reason that the tradition speaks of the “seven letters” (ahruf) of the Qur’an, which refers, in one interpretation, to seven dialectal variants. The recent discovery of certain ancient Qur’anic manuscripts further confirms this richness of the linguistic Qur’anic heritage at the very moment of revelation.
It must therefore be understood that Qur’anic Arabic was a truly living language — that is, a language involving a plurality of speakers and, consequently, a diversity of linguistic heritages and even of sensibilities in relation to the language. Once a language is codified and thus “fixed”, it inevitably excludes a number of possibilities. It should also be noted that most of the work of cataloguing the Arabic language took place in the second century of the Hijra, by which time a certain linguistic distance had already set in.
Between Qur’anic Arabic and Classical Arabic
Compared with medieval Classical Arabic, and even more so with modern Literary Arabic, Qur’anic Arabic presents a number of differences that are important to study in order to truly understand the sacred Text. These differences concern the lexicon, but also syntax and grammar.
It is worth noting here that the Qur’anic lexicon comprises only 1,726 roots (according to one count), which makes it a particularly focused linguistic corpus. This concentration is one of the reasons why mastering Qur’anic Arabic is more accessible than mastering the full classical literary tradition: the learner can quickly acquire a vocabulary base that opens the entire Qur’anic text.
It is therefore in no way surprising to find in the Qur’an particular syntactic usages, unusual agreements, and certain elements that classical Arab grammarians — who came after the Qur’an — could not fully account for within their grammatical frameworks, established a posteriori from a corpus that did not always reflect the full range of pre-classical and Qur’anic usage.
The Theological Dimension of Qur’anic Arabic
There is another dimension of Qur’anic Arabic that goes beyond purely linguistic questions. Certain theological schools, notably the Mu’tazilites, considered the Qur’an as a created speech. Most Sunni scholars, by contrast, affirm that the Word of God is uncreated — though the Ash’arites distinguish between the “essential Word” (kalâm nafsî), which is uncreated, and the “uttered word” (kalâm lafẓî), which they consider as created. The point of divergence with the Mu’tazilites therefore concerns the “essential Word” itself.
In this perspective, the divine Word extends across three levels: the eternal Word of God, the revealed Qur’an as uttered speech, and the written, recited Qur’an that reaches us today. All three are intimately linked, yet only the first is, for the Ash’arites, strictly uncreated.
This theological framework is essential because it shapes how Qur’anic Arabic itself is approached: not merely as a language to decode, but as a vehicle for a divine message whose form is inseparable from its content. The ancient manuscripts — even if they only confirm what the tradition already told us about the different “letters” (i.e., variants) of the Qur’an — bring to the fore of theological discussion, and within reach of all Muslims, these important questions that for centuries were the domain of commentators and specialists.
The study of Qur’anic Arabic must therefore not omit this reflective framework around the sacred Text, and must not ignore that the greatness of the Qur’an is like a drop meant to make us sense the ocean of the divine Word, for: “Say: If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my Lord were exhausted.” (18:109)
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