Does God not understand other languages, if He is the Creator ? More over, I have visited muslim countries like Malaysia, Pakistan and Indonesia, and people there knows to read arabic but does not knows the meaning of a single word.!
2007-02-13 18:39:35 · 17 answers · asked by Tom Sayer 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Allah has created similarity between all bondsman by giving them prayers in one language. An alive language.
We worship in same Allah in same way. It is miracle of Islam.
other people worship ghosts and other creatures in other ways.
2007-02-13 18:42:44 · answer #1 · answered by Punter 2 · 5⤊ 2⤋
Because arabic is the language of Heaven and God. God understands any language. We preserve arabic since the Quran, etc. was first revealed in arabic. Mistranslation of the Quran could and will lead to (as we have seen) misunderstandings. I originally did not speak arabic but learning the language i learned that there are many different ways of pronouncing a same letter word in english. Arabic is a beautiful and a much complex language (in my opinion) than English. so translating into english or in any other language will do no justice to it.
2007-02-14 15:59:05 · answer #2 · answered by ... 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
basically the non arab speakers are expected to understand what they are reciting. Doesnt' have to be a word for word memorization, but get the jist of what is being said in arabic.
Basically its the way to keep it pure...in its original form.
Sorta like how church services are done in latin at some parts.
Sermons are alwasy given in the native language.
Anyways, arab speakers dont' really understand it either. Its in a dialect and languages as a whoel chagnes over time.
You need scholars to help out with the language change. If you look, the non arabic korans are not "translated" ,but "transliterated". Its not a direct word for word translation. But the meaning of the verse is said....most of the orignal words try to be kept though There usually is a commentary too to help explain too.
Basically one verse says a man can beat his wife...under certain circumstances. . The commentary explains the word beat isn't the same as it is today. The word means to inflict humilitaion through an act of beating rather than pain. Then it goes to reccomend the device used to beat your wife is a toothbrush. Yeah it'll sting, but wont' leave a mark. Comes to the point isn't to hurt your wife, but to let her know....you got to this point because of what she's doing.
Sorta liek the difference between murder and kill. Both acts are takign someone's life, but they ahve different meanings.
2007-02-13 20:53:25 · answer #3 · answered by My name is not bruce 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well for Two major reasons in my opinion!
1. Unity of faith. It brings us together. No matter where you go in the world from the deserts or bushes of africa to the provinces of china... Where ever you hear the call for prayer or stand behind an Imam (Cleric) in a congrugation you know what he is reading.
2. Arabic Language was completed, in grammer and structure when Quran was revelated to Mohammad (Peace be upon him). So no change comes. when we talk about translations in other languages you would have noticed that languages change their original form so the meaning would have changes aswell. Even though the common spoken Arabic language has changed (i would say deteriorated) drastically Quran remains unchanged and has kept the official language at its peak.
With translations you get problems like with the bible... Where if you look at them on the time scale they say different things at times.
As for Allah "God" knowing languages ofcourse he does! we say our personal prayers after the five time prayers in our own languages and the "we" includes prople from almost all languages spoken in the world.
If you look at the history of Islam you might find far more great religious scholors in the non arab societies as compared to the arab societies but as Allah pormises in the Quran " We have sent to you the Quran and we shall safeguard it (Against changes made by humans) There have been no changes in the script not even an elphabit. Check them if you may
One other point! if you study islam you will find that islam has set rules or should we say guidelines (very wise rules) that apply to all times. some of them you wont know why as people before us didn't but with the passage of time you start to learn and see that it was a good rule.
One other proof of Islam as being a sustainable and complete religion for all humanity to come.
jac tms : Your last line fits you well. But its irelevent to us what you have instead of your brain.
2007-02-13 19:02:49 · answer #4 · answered by chessman259 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Who says the prayers can't be in different languages,it is Just the quran that must be read in arabic (it is the words of god can't be altered even a single letter,you want to change the whole language?.)
2007-02-13 18:53:25 · answer #5 · answered by shockoshocko 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I completely respect Muslims in this manner. They know that to understand the Koran they must be able to speak and read the original language that it was written in. How could they possibly know how to read arabic without knowing the meaning?
Translations lead to error.. There are many things that I do no agree with when it comes to Muslims but this is one of the things that makes sense.
2007-02-13 18:45:14 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
because arabic is the language of God and in heaven. of course God understands other language, even when you're not speaking. its more like an 'official language'. thats the language that muslims will speak to their God and the language they have to answer to the questions in grave and the language that we will speak in heaven..
thats why when we dont understand the language, we are encouraged to read al-Quran and know the translation. from arabic itself evolved numerous languages like latin.
(i live in malaysia)
2007-02-13 18:49:43 · answer #7 · answered by farina m 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Praise be to Allah.
Because Allah revealed the Qur'aan to prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in arabic language and muslims are asked to recite (QUR'AAN) in thier prayers so books that translate the Qur'aan into other languages are not considered as a Qur'aan [the Holy book revealed to prophet Muhammed (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)] but they are considereda as books of explanation for the Qur'aan. that's why we should pray in arabic.
But when you want to ask Allah about any thing in Duaa' outside the prayer , you can say it in any language, nothing in that.
See Allah understand all languages.
May Allah guide you to his straight path and The true religion: Islam. Ameen.
2007-02-14 02:48:07 · answer #8 · answered by Khalid H 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Qura'n is preserved as it is since it is revealed to Prophet Muhammad(pbuh).
No one can change a single word from it, It is a promise of Almighty God.
It is a word of God that even non Arabic people can recite Qura'n in Arabic and even can memorize it word by word , cover to cover.
It is a miracle isn’t it?
Amazing.
Translation may leads to diversion and can mislead from original message.
We can use translation but always keep original as first and most important reference to adhere with original message.
Is this not a simple but effective science to preserve original message .
2007-02-13 18:46:03 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
arabic is the language in heaven as well...
what do you think? if we muslim... can't communicate using the same language we can still 'communicate' in the way of we recite the al-Quran... the do'a..the prayer.. so that there will be no gap between us...it also symbolized the muslim as one ummah... ALLAH does understand everything included everything in your heart although you don't say it... how can ALLAH doesn't understand what HE had created....????
2007-02-13 19:22:40 · answer #10 · answered by uci 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That is miracle, right?
You r not the 1st person ask like that. Because before this, an Arabian ask to someone ( Malay ) about why she cannot speaking Arabic but she is very good in reading Quran? What she answered? That is one of the miracle of the Quran.
Why Islam ask to pray ( solat ) in Arabic? Because in islam everybody are same. there is no king, no richer, no poorer, no singer, no ministry... everybody are same in the 'eye' of God ( i didnot mean Allah got eyes like us... ). That is the unite of Muslim in islam. Either u r Shiah or Sunni, we will unite in solat. Same 'kiblat', same action, same time, same doa, same language. But, you also can read in ur language. But it is more better if you read in ur language.
you know the meaning or not, that is not important... as good as u r sincere in ur doa...
2007-02-13 18:51:51 · answer #11 · answered by lazuardi.sepi 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋