Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 75
75 Nothing can be considered protected until it is protected in both ways. For example, if we save the skin, beak and legs of a bird and we stuff it with straw, we will have saved the external appearance of the bird, but we cannot say that the bird is safe and protected. Also, if the bird damages its beak or its feet or if it loses its feath - ers, it cannot be said to be safe and protected. In the same way, if there is a book that suffers interpolations or extrapolations, and its language is dead so that nobody can understand it, and it no longer serves the purpose for which it was revealed, it will not be considered as having been protected. Its words may be intact but its essence is lost. Words themselves are only there to preserve the meaning. The protection of the holy Quran, therefore, constitutes the protection of its form as well as its content. In order to fulfil one aspect of this promise, i. e. , the protection of the form of the Holy Quran, Allah has made some extraordi - nary provisions. At the time that the Holy Quran was revealed, the Arabic tongue had not been systematized; its grammar, its diction, and its idiom had not been fixed. The forms of speech and other linguistic criteria had not been formulated. Even the art of writing was in a nascent state. As soon as the Holy Quran was revealed, God stimulated people’s minds to organize these stud - ies. It was only to protect the Holy Quran that the foundation was laid for Arabic grammar, rhetoric, tajw i d or phonetics, dic - tion and idiom, history, and fiqh or law. These studies advanced in proportion to their importance for the protection of the Holy Quran. The science of Arabic grammar and diction were the most important for the protection of the Holy Quran. Present-day European scholars admit that Arabic grammar and Arabic lexi - cons are the most advanced and systematized of all languages.