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Linguistic Structure of the Quran
Hamza
Tzortzis vs. Ali Sina
2006/03/07
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...is unacademic, does not reflect current
research, is inaccurate, wrong and a poor attempt to convince the
"unread" Muslim.
I challenge you to discuss with me (in a honest
and frank manner) the following topic:
"The Qur'an is inimitable and a unique
genre"
I am looking forward to your email.
You have written:
"First of all the Quran is not poetry therefore
such statement is absurd. It is to a certain extend rhyming prose.
The fact that the Quran does not fall into any established
category of Arabic writing is no miracle. It just shows that
Muhammad was ignorant of the Arabic grammar. A man who makes
incoherent speeches that is disorganized and nonsensical is a stupid
man not a prophet. There is nothing intelligent in the Quran. A painter,
a dancer, a musician or a poet can challenge his competitors to
produce something as good as his, but the Quran is a hodgepodge of
gibberish and cogitations of a sick mind. Only another mad man can
create such nonsense. What miracle is there in that collection of
inanities? Only a fool or someone who is brainwashed by faith would
think that the Quran is a work of art and inimitable."
Your above statement requires justification. You
have just made statements. I suggest you do not discuss like this if
you accept my challenge. Everything you say must be backed by
evidence.
Regards,
Hamza Tzortzis
Webmaster of the new website www.theinimitablequran.com
(currently under construction).
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Please see this
for my response.
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Hamza Tzortzis <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hello Ali Sina,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
The reason for my initial email was to engage in a frank and honest
dialogue.
What you have done is sent me articles, sites etc that I have
already read. That is the reason why I wanted to discuss with you.
The surah like site is just the most poorest attempt to challenge
the Qur'an. Hussein Abdur-Raof a contemporary Qur'anic scholar who
has refuted all the works on the ijaz (proving the Qur'an to be
unique and unmatched) deals with these intellectually bankrupt sites
very well. For example if we accept these claims, the school rhyme
below would have been taken as a good challenge to the Qur'an (I
have provided the English translation as you obviously do not know
anything about Arabic):
"The beautiful nightingale, is singing on the branches, with
the most beautiful melodies..."
(on history of challenge:
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/ABriefHistoryOfTheQuranicChallenge.html)
What needs to be recongised here is the fact that although the above
rhymed prose has provided structures with sweet assonance, it
seriously fails to provide any propositional content. It fails
(just like the surah like it site) fails to use complex linguistic
and literary devices. Throughout the Quran we encounter many
linguistic features which can be taken as evidence of its inimitable
linguistic nature; among these linguistic features are (there
are many more):
Architectural and Textual features
Consonance
Nummerical Symmetry
Sensitive Genre - Co-text
Syntactic Features
Chandelier Structures
Multi-Tiered Structures
Long Argumentative Structures
Information Listing Structures
details
obligations
conditional clauses
Tail-Head/Head-Tail Structures
Structural Ambiguity
Semantic Ambiguity
Hysteron and Proteron
Ellipsis
ellipted lexical items
ellipted clauses
Shift
person and number shift
word order shift
voice shift
Lexical Compression
Lexical Repetition
Syntactic Chunking
Syntactico-Rhetorical Interfertilization
Pronominal Non-Correspondence
Cryptic Letters
Recursive Ties
Phrasal Ties
Zero Cohesive Ties
Parallelistic Structures
Recursive Modification
Qur'anic Structure-Final Epithets
Qur'anic Oath
Numerical Symmetry
Hyponyms, Co-Hyponyms and Superordinates
Homonymy
Verbal Idioms
Deletion of Prepositions
Intimate Relation Between Structure,
Sound, and Meaning
Past Tense with a Future Meaning
Reiteration
Phonetic/Prosodic Features
Rhetorical Features
alliteration
assonance
chiasmus
euphemism
isocolon
metaphor
Paronomasia
Polyptoton
simile
synecdoche
Dealing with your sites claims:
Grammar:
http://www.bringbackjustice.com/GrammaticalErrorsInTheQuran.pdf
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=1
Uniqueness, subjective, western persepective, dynamic
style, historical context, phonetics etc:
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/IntroLinguisticLiteraryExcellenceQuran.html
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/QuranicStyle.html
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/NumericalSymmetryInTheQuran.html
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/ConciseMinimumWording.html
http://www.theinimitablequran.com/Phonetics.html
Linguistic errors and inconsistency:
The assumption that the Quran contains linguistic inconsistency and
errors can be proved to be no more than a misconception on the part
of the Quran critics who do not take into account the linguistic
notion of co-text and its influence on the configuration of
linguistic elements within a particular linguistic structure.
Co-text is the linguistic environment in which a word or a sentence
occurs. Each word or sentence is usually surrounded by other words
or sentences. The co-text of a word is the set of other words used
in the same phrase or sentence. Word meaning can only be arrived at
through the study of a words linguistic environment. Please see Yule
(1999)
and
Bell
(1991).
The study of co-text provides an answer to the assumed linguistic
inconsistencies and errors in the Quran. The employment of a given
word order, singular or plural, or a specific particle is all
decided by the co-text in which one form of a linguistic structure
appears in one Aya but a different structure with a with a slightly
different configuration of elements appears in another Aya. For
detailed examples please see Abdur Raof "Exploring the
Quran".(this also highlights the Qurans sensitivity which also
provides amazing research on cohesion and provides a key to the
Authorship question.)
I realise that this has been a lengthy email. But if after reading
all the material you wish to discuss
further than please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.
Also, if you can not answer any of the information provided above
then you have a responsibility to remove the material related to the
Quran from your site.
I am looking forward to your reply.
Iqra. Read.
Regards,
Hamza Tzortzis
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Dear
Mr. Hamza Tzortzis
The
mind of a believer is structured in a peculiar way. He wants to see
miracles in his religion. All these miracles that he sees are subjective
and none of them can be proven to be true.
This
long list of “linguistic features” that you have prepared actually
makes no sense. You can make a list of linguistic features for any book
that are unique to it, but yours makes no sense. What do Chandelier
Structures, Multi-Tiered Structures, Long Argumentative Structures,
Hysteron and Proteron and other gobbledygook you enumerated here have to
do with literature? Let us go over this list one item at a time. Explain
to us what does Chandelier Structure mean and why the Quran is unmatched
in that sense. The only thing clear to me in this list is the Structural
and Semantic Ambiguity. Yes indeed, everything in the Quran is ambiguous
and unintelligible except when it talks about violence and killing.
Despite its claim the Quran is far from being clear. It is more like the
cogitation of a sick mind.
Unless
you don’t explain what you are talking about, this list is gibberish. I
can imagine the throng of brain numbed Muslims sitting at the foot of the manbar
(pulpit) listening to this list, not understanding a word of it while
they are filled with awe thinking to themselves how great is the Quran
that they can’t even understand what you are telling them. The less they
understand the more their faiths increase. Islam is based on ignorance. It
is enshrouded in mystery and it is this mystery that gives Islam it s
appeal. That is why when we used to study the Quran we were never taught
the meaning of the verses but the correct way to read them and how to
memorize them. These tricks do not work on me my respected Sir. When you
say something I want proof. Please explain each and every one of these
“linguistic features” that you say are unique to the Quran and tell us
why.
As
far as I can see, you are engaging in demagogy. You are trying to impress
your readers with things that make no sense and no doubt you yourself have
difficulty explaining them.
When
I say the Quran is a stupid book, I can bring hundreds of examples, that
are clear and everyone can understand. One example of that is the error
in adding up simple fractions. There
is no escape from this. This is mathematics and very elemental.
Now
before we start discussing the errors of the Quran that are many, I want
you to explain to me what this list means.
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