Favours of the Gracious God — Page 10
10 a gesture of the hand which normally requires verbal expression. In other words, through subtle gestures he is able to convey meaning —these are the characteristics which are among the features of Arabic. Sometimes by the use of ا [ alif ] or ل [ l a m ], Arabic conveys a meaning that would need several words in other languages. Sometimes it uses tanw i n [nunation] to convey meaning which other languages cannot fully accomplish even by using long sentences. Likewise, diacritical marks such as kasrah [ ] , fat h ah [ ] and d ammah [ ]function like full words in such manner that it is not possible for any other languages to match this, save with some superflous sentences. Some of its words also, despite being very short, possess such lengthy meanings that one is amazed as to wherefrom these meanings have emerged. For instance, ُ ت �ْ ض عَر�َ [‘ ara d tu ] means “I visited Mecca, Medina and all their surrounding rural areas”, and ُ ت َل�ْ ض طَھ�َ [ t ahafaltu ] means “I am accustomed to eating bread made of millet cereal and have vowed to always eat bread made of millet cereal”, and َ َم �ج�َ ث [ jathama ] means “half the night has passed”, and َ ح�َی ْعَل [ h ai‘ala ] means “Come, offer Prayer; it is time for Prayer”. Likewise, there are many such words that are composed of a single letter but their definition consists of two or three words.