An Example of Eloquence in the Qur’an: The Preposition ‘of’ in Verse 42:43
There is no such thing as synonymity in the Qur’an. Each letter and word has its own fixed meaning which no other word can express as accurately, irrespective of their seeming similarity. If we consider thoughtfully the meticulous selectivity of the words in the above verses and their underlying meaning, we soon come to realize that there are two kinds of patience. In the first kind there is no direct adversary or person responsible for hardship or misfortune; for example a brick falling from a building under construction onto the head of an unsuspecting pedestrian, or the collapse of a newly-built house over peacefully sleeping tenants. In all incidents and mishaps of this nature no individual bears the responsibility for the victim’s misfortune. It is therefore easy for the unfortunate man to restrain his anger and accept his misfortune as an act of Allah. This kind of patience does not require a great deal of energy and can be easily achieved. But patience which is “ verily of the steadfast heart of things “ is that which involves an antagonist against whom a victim has the freedom to retaliate and avenge himself, but prefers to suppress his anger and vengeful tendencies and forgive him. This kind of patience is deemed by Allah to be worthier than the first, because in this kind the aggrieved is dominated by his instinctive anger and feelings of injustice, and has to exercise a great deal of self-restraint. He is restrained by his fear of Allah, and refrains from responding to evil with evil. In the above verses, Allah defines the merits of the two types of patience and their corresponding heavenly rewards. He also describes the human responses of retaliation that ought to be observed in each case by the faithful. Thus, in the first case they are commanded to accept what befalls them with humility and resignation to His will. In the second they are commanded to be forgiving and to maintain their faith in Allah’s justice.
The preposition ‘of’ has obviously been used to accentuate the distinction between the kind of patience in which forgiveness is not a necessity, and that in which forgiveness represents a test of endurance of injustice and of the believer’s trust in Allah’s providence and will. This shows how a single letter or preposition can bear such dept of meaning and discriminating power in the language of the Qur’an.
The above example clearly demonstrates just how very difficult it is to accurately translate even one short verse of the Qur’an with regard to the use of just a single preposition
’of’ within it, such is the supreme eloquence of the language used in the Qur’an.
As we can all imagine, it is therefore simply not possible to translate the over 6,000 verses of the entire Qur’an into another language without losing much of the accuracy of their true meaning.
First of all, no language has exact synonyms in it - all words are nuanced and convey a slightly different meaning (whether it be a different emphasis, connotation, whatever). Languages are by nature economical. And what you said about not being able to translate something conveying its exact meaning can be said of any text being translated into any language - languages are different from each other.
I can just as easily use an example from Latin just like the one you said about the Arabic used in the Qu’ran, concerning nuances:
Classical Latin has three different words meaning “from”:
de, which means “down from”
ex, which means “out from”
ab, which means “away from”
These are the nuanced meanings of three Latin words meaning “from”.
Therefore the Bible, having been written at one point in Latin, is the Word of God, because it used such a beautiful and nuanced language! Surely only God Himself could have written something that uses these three words!
Of course I believe that the Bible is the Word Of God, but not for a silly reason as the quality of the language used in it!
