Is the Qur’an Clear or Incomprehensible?

In one of his articles[1]

Mr. Jochen Katz has pointed out a contradiction in Al-Nahl 16: 103 and Aal

Imraan 3: 7.

Al-Nahl 16: 103 reads as:

And We know that they are saying that a person has taught this [Qur’an]

to him. The language of him, to whom they falsely ascribe it, is non-Arabic,

while this is a clear Arabic dialect.

Aal Imraan 3: 7 reads as:

It is Him, Who has revealed this book on you [O Prophet], in which there

are precise verses, which form the foundation of the book and there are

others, which are analogous [in nature]. As for those, whose hearts are

perverse, they are after the analogous among these verses, seeking discord and

seeking their reality. But [the fact is that] no one knows about their

reality, except God. And the firm in knowledge say: We believe in it. All

these [verses] are from our Lord. And no one shall be reminded [of the truth]

except men of understanding.

Mr. Katz writes:

Sura 16:103 states that the Qur’an is “clear Arabic speech.” If

it were really clear, why is this explanation even necessary? But it doesn’t

seem to be so clear after all when we read:

At this point, Mr. Katz has given A. Yusuf Ali’s translation of Aal

Imraan 3: 7, which reads as:

He it is Who has sent down to thee the Book: In it are verses basic or

fundamental (of established meaning); they are the foundation of the Book:

others are analogous. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part

thereof that is analogous, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden

meanings, but no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah.

And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in the

Book; the whole of it is from our Lord:” and none will grasp the

Message except men of understanding.

— Sura 3:7

Mr. Katz further writes:

In the same verse it says that ONLY Allah knows the meaning of these

difficult allegorical verses in the Qur’an … and then it goes on to tell

that “men of understanding” can grasp it. Is that a contradiction or

do we want to resolve it with the concept of “incarnation” [God

becoming man] which is so much looked down upon by Muslims? But Christianity

believes God became man only once. The Qur’an talks about men in the plural…

Actually Arberry translates “… desiring its interpretation; and none

knows its interpretation, save only Allah.” It does not talk about having

a plain clear meaning and also a hidden meaning, but that there are verses

which none knows at all what they mean, even though they desire its

explanation or interpretation.

In the above paragraphs, Mr. Katz has pointed out two contradictions. The

first contradiction is with reference to Al-Nahl 16: 103 (which states

that the Qur’an is in clear Arabic) and Aal Imraan 3: 7 (which states

that the meaning of the analogous verses is known only to God). While the second

contradiction is within Aal Imraan 3: 7 (which first states that the

meaning of the analogous verses is known only to God and then states that men of

understanding do grasp it).

As far as the first criticism is concerned, it is based on an incorrect

premise that clarity in language necessarily results in ease of comprehension.

This, as the readers will agree, is not always the case. A message may be

written in a clear and a pure dialect, yet it may not be easily comprehensible.

However, one may ask that if it is only God, who knows the reality of the

analogous verses, then why are such verses given in the Qur’an. What, after

all, is the utility of including such verses in the Qur’an, the true meaning

and implication of which is known only to God?

To fully comprehend the stated issue, it is important to understand that,

besides other things, the Qur’an has informed man about a yet non-existent

world — the hereafter. However, because the Qur’an wants to incite man to

work for the rewards of the hereafter and to warn him against the severe

punishment thereof, it has, therefore, given a broad concept of the rewards and

punishments of the hereafter. Nevertheless, due to an inherent weakness in human

language and comprehension, the Qur’an has referred to the rewards and

punishments in a way, which would give an overall concept of these concepts.

In one of my earlier articles[2],

I had explained the referred inherent weakness of human language and

comprehension in the following words:

Man can understand and develop physical concepts about things in primarily

two ways. Firstly, if something comes within the scope of man’s sense of

touch or his sense of sight; and secondly, by comparison to things that come

within the scope of man’s senses.

Take the example of the words ‘light bulb’. As soon as I speak the

words ‘light bulb’, I get a picture of a round or a pear-shaped glass

container for the filament of an electric light. The reason for such

spontaneous physical imaging of the words ‘light bulb’ is that whatever we

call a ‘light bulb’ in the English language is something that is within

the scope of our sense of touch and our sense of sight. In other words,

because we have already developed a physical image of a ‘light bulb’

through our sight or our touch, we can easily recall the already developed

image as soon as the words ‘light bulb’ are uttered in front of us. The

same is the case with most of the words of our languages that connote physical

entities. The words man, woman, child, horse, donkey, cat etc. all belong to

the same category.

Closely related to this category of words entailing physical concepts is

another category, which connotes imaginary physical entities. For instance,

the word ‘unicorn’ connotes an animal, which although does not exist in

reality, yet its image can be developed by explaining it. However, to develop

effective images of such imaginary physical entities, it is extremely

important that they be explained with reference to those physical entities

that we are already exposed to. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic

Dictionary describes the word ‘unicorn’ as:

A mythical animal resembling a horse, with a single straight horn

projecting from its forehead.

This explanation, if correctly understood, would help in developing a

physical image of a non-existent entity. However, it is important to note that

to be comprehendible the explanation had to resort to words, which already had

their respective physical images in our minds. Note the words ‘animal’, ‘horse’,

‘single’, ‘straight’, ‘horn’ and ‘forehead’. All

these words have their respective physical or abstract images in our minds. It

is only on the basis of these already existing images, that we can now form a

new physical image of a non-existent physical entity.

From the above explanation, it should also be clear that human languages,

normally, are a collection of words connoting such physical or abstract

entities, which the particular group of human beings has either been exposed

to or has a clear concept of. Thus, it is obvious, that centuries ago, none of

the human languages could have contained the word ‘airplane’ or ‘computer’. These words came in vogue only after the entities that they

connote became clear in the minds of the speakers of that language — even if

such entities were only conceptual and not physical in the beginning. Now

suppose, someone living about fifteen hundred years ago, somehow, had a

visualization of an airplane and wanted to explain to the people living around

him that hundreds of years down the road, people would use high speed

airplanes for traveling long distances. How would he do that? Simple!! He

would say: ‘People would start using airplanes for traveling’. Well, not

so simple after all. We forgot that the word ‘airplane’ would be

non-existent. What then would he say? Keeping in mind the limitations of human

languages mentioned above, it is obvious that whatever the person says, would

likely be within the frame of reference of his own times. He may say: soon

there will be a time when people start using ‘flying horses’ or ‘huge

birds’ or ‘big mechanical birds’ etc. for traveling from one place to

another. This explanation, however, unclear it may seem, is probably the

closest that a person living fifteen hundred years ago is likely to able to

give and his listeners able to comprehend (even if such comprehension is not

likely to be very accurate).

In the above example of communicating the ‘visualization’, we see, once

again, that a relatively unknown concept (whether physical or abstract) can

only be communicated in human languages by using references from what those

human beings are already exposed to.

Thus, to summarize the preceding discussion, a person can comprehend a

physical or an abstract concept if:

• Such physical or abstract concept enters the scope of man’s senses; or
• Such physical or abstract concept is explained to man with reference to

  what has already entered the scope of his senses. However, this is only

  possible if the concept is explainable by referring to any existing

  concepts or if the listener is exposed to the concepts to which reference

  is being made. Thus, a ‘unicorn’ is only explainable if the listener

  is aware of what the words ‘animal’, ‘horse’, ‘single’, ‘straight’, ‘horn’ and

  ‘forehead’ imply.

Thus, the Qur’an has referred to Fire and Boiling Water and the Tree of Zaqqoom

to communicate the severity of the punishment in the hereafter and has referred

to Fruits and rivers of honey and perfected partners to give an idea of the

rewards of the hereafter. All these references are actually to communicate the

concept of the reward and punishment that man shall be subjected to in the

hereafter and because the human languages do not have words to communicate the

reality of these concepts, the Qur’an has, therefore, introduced them by

drawing analogy with things, which man is aware of.

The concepts communicated through analogous verses, even though they are in

pure and clear Arabic, are understandably slightly vague, only conveying the

general idea of the concepts thus communicated. The reality and the details of

these concepts are known only to God, till the time that man comes face to face

with these concepts, on the Day of Judgment.

As far as the second criticism is concerned, it is a classical example of the

fact that because most of the modern day critics of the Qur’an are absolutely

ignorant of the Arabic language, they have to completely rely on the various

translations of the Qur’an. It is due this reason that most of the times their

criticism is actually on the translation, rather than the Qur’an itself.

This should also remind my readers of the vulnerability of the books of which

the original text is no longer available. If the original text of a book is no

longer existent and only translations thereof are available, then all we have

left is one or more interpretations of the book, which — in all fairness — cannot be considered as the book itself.

Nevertheless, I congratulate Mr. Katz on having very successfully criticized

Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s translation of Aal Imraan 3: 7. However, as far as

the verses of the Qur’an are concerned, because we still have their original

text, we can easily check to see whether the stated criticism applies to them or

not.

Mr. Katz writes:

Sura 16:103 states that the Qur’an is “clear Arabic speech.” If

it were really clear, why is this explanation even necessary?

Mr. Katz should take another look at Al-Nahl 16: 103 and see that in

this verse, the Qur’an has, in fact, not ‘explained’ that it

is in ‘Clear Arabic’; one the contrary, it has actually referred to this

fact to refute an unfounded claim of its rejecters, who used to say that the

Qur’an is not revealed by God, but is actually dictated to Mohammed (pbuh) by

a foreigner. To refute this point, the verse has pointed toward the quality of

the Qur’anic language, stating that how can these rejecters make such an

unfounded allegation. Do these people not see that this book is in a dialect,

which is so pure and clear that it is impossible even for the proud Arabs to

produce anything like it, and yet these idiots want people to believe that it

has been dictated by a foreigner.

Mr. Katz’s further writes:

In the same verse [i.e. Aal Imraan 3: 7] it says that ONLY Allah

knows the meaning of these difficult analogous verses in the Qur’an… and

then it goes on to tell that “men of understanding” can grasp it.

Those who know the Arabic language, can easily see that the stated objection

does not even remotely apply to the text of the Qur’an. The verse does not say

that men of understanding can grasp “it”. On the contrary, the verse ends

with the words: “only men of understanding shall take admonition/be

reminded”. It is clear that Mr. Katz has based his objection on the

translation of Yusuf Ali, who has translated the related part of the verse as: “and none will grasp the Message except men of understanding.” Mr. Katz has

mistakenly taken the phrase ‘the Message’ to refer to the unknown reality of

the analogous verses, while, it seems that Yusuf Ali had intended these words to

imply the overall message of the Qur’an. Whatever the case, the point remains

that the text of the Qur’an cannot, in any way, be interpreted to imply that ‘Men of understanding do understand the reality of the stated analogous

verses.’

© Copyright December 2000. All Rights Reserved with the Author