Favours of the Gracious God — Page 126
126 not be achieved unless one learns the Arabic language and reaches a high degree of proficiency in it. Thus, it was to point this out that God Almighty placed the verse َ ض ُرْآ� ت عَلَّم َ ال�ْ [He taught the Qur’an] before the verse ُ عَلَّمَه َ ض َا� ی �َ ج ال�ْ [He taught man expression]. It is as if it is stated that there are two divine acts of beneficence: revealing the Holy Qur’an and investing Arabic with the qualities of eloquence and fluency, then, imparting the knowledge of Arabic to Adam, so that humans may derive benefit from it because Arabic is a repository of higher learning, and it contains eternal guidance from God Almighty, as is not hidden from those who reflect. Thus, the crux of the matter is that God Almighty first mentioned the divine favour of the Holy Qur’an; thereafter, He mentioned the second favour, which is like a foundation for the first one. And pointed to it by the use of the word ض ا� ی � ج � [ bay a n ], to make it known that it is Arabic which has all the characteristics of eloquence associated with it, because the Holy Qur’an has not pro - claimed the word ض ا� ی � ج � [ bay a n ] to be the characteristic of any language except Arabic. Thus, if you reflect, what proof can be stronger and more conclusive than this? Do you not see that the Holy Qur’an has named the other languages ی أَع�ْج َم�ِ [ a‘jam i ] ? Hence, it would be foolish to