#EveryDayArabic January 17th 2024
The Use of "Qur’ānic Arabic" in Everyday Life
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The Use of "Qur’ānic Arabic" in Everyday Life
Jan 18
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I often hear from new, and even intermediate, students of Arabic, that there’s an infinite gap between the Arabic of the Qur’ān and that which is used by native speakers in their everyday lives. And while there certainly a grain of truth to this, especially in spoken Arabic, millions of native speakers however do read the newspaper, and other sources, which will undoubtedly contain words from the Qur’ān. Take for instance the following snippet from a news article about the recovery efforts in Libya after the devastating floods in 2023¹:
وشَدَّدَ المشاركون على أهميّة توحيد الجيش الليبيّ، والحِفاظِ على سِيادة ليبيا، والحرصِ على صرف الأموال لإعادة إعمار دِرْنَةَ والمناطق الأخرى المتضرَّرة من الْفَيَضَانَاتِ بشكل شفّاف، وَبِقِيادةِ خُبَراءِ وَبِدَعْمِ فَنِّيٍّ عَتيدٍ من المؤسّسات الدوليّة، بِحَسَبِ ما نَقَلَتْهُ السِّفارة الأميركيّة عَبْرَ حِسابِها على مِنَصَّةِ إكس
“The participants emphasized the importance of unifying the Libyan army, preserving Libya's sovereignty, and ensuring transparent spending of funds for the reconstruction of Derna and other flood-affected areas, under the leadership of experts and with substantial technical support from international institutions, according to the information shared by the U.S. Embassy via its account on the ‘X’ platform.”
This word, ‘atīd (عَتيد), can be found in the Qur’ān, Sūrah Qāf, verse 18:
مَّا يَلْفِظُ مِن قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌۭ
“Not a word does anyone utter save without having a vigilant observer.”
as well as the the 23rd verse:
وَقَالَ قَرِينُهُۥ هَـٰذَا مَا لَدَىَّ عَتِيدٌ
"And his companion will say, 'This is what I have prepared’."
In all three cases, from our article and from the Qur’ān, ‘atīd (عَتيد) conveys a sense of being prepared, ready, or vigilant, for a future event (in the case of Qur’ān 50: 18, that “companion” is ever-ready to record what it is we do) or being prepped and prepared like for a testimony on the Day of Judgment.
Likewise, in the above paragraph, you will find the word sā’iq (سائق) used in everyday language², and like the example above, it too is found in Sūrah Qāf:
فَشِلَ سَائِقُ قِطَارٍ ألمانيّ في مُلَاحَظَةِ أَنَّ العَدِيدَ مِنْ عَرَبَاتِ قِطَارِ إقْلِيمِيٍّ كَانَ يَقُودُهُ مِن بَرْلِينَ إلَى بُولَنْدَا انْفَصَلَتْ عَنِ القِطَارِ فِي مَحَطَّةٍ صَغِيرَةٍ خَارِجِ الْعَاصِمَةِ الألمانية وَوَاصَلَ رِحْلَتَهُ تَارَكًا خَلْفَهُ نَحْوَ 80 رَاكِبًا. وَانْفَصَلَ الْجُزْءُ الخَلْفِيُّ مِنْ القِطَارِ فِي مَحَطَّةِ "التي روزنتال" شَرْقَ بَرْلِينَ يَوْمَ الخَمِيسِ بِدُونِ مُلَاحَظَةِ السَّائِقِ، حَسَبَمَا أَكَّدَتْ شَرِكَةُ تَشْغِيلِ القِطَارِ يَوْمَ الجُمُعَةِ
“A German train driver failed to notice that several cars of a regional train he was operating from Berlin to Poland had detached from the train at a small station outside the German capital. The rear portion of the train separated at the "Altlandsberg" station east of Berlin on Thursday without the driver noticing, leaving behind approximately 80 passengers. The train continued its journey without the rear section, as confirmed by the train operating company on Friday.”
Sā’iq (سائق) can be used figuratively as well as in a straightforward way, as in our article above, to mean “driver”. As you might guess, it can be used in a figurative way to convey motivation in such words as “driven”. In Sūrah Qāf, verse 21, it is employed in a straightforward manner meaning “driver”:
وَجَآءَتْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍۢ مَّعَهَا سَآئِقٌۭ وَشَهِيدٌۭ
“Each soul will come forth with an angel to drive it and another to testify.”
Here are a few other uses as well:
السائق يُدير السيارة بالحرفية.
“The driver handles the car with precision.”
الرياح كانت السائقَ ِلاْنِتقال السفينة.
“The winds served as the driving force for the ship’s heading.”
الفقهاء يُعتبرون القاعدة الشرعية سائقا للأحكام الشرعية.
“Jurists consider legal principles as a driving force for legal rulings.”
With these examples, we can see that Qur’ānic Arabic indeed still has an impact on daily speakers of Arabic, albeit perhaps in a more literary sense, than oral.
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