Life of Ahmad — Page 831
as REMOVES A MISCONCEPTION 831 Before examining the argument any further I should like to say a few words about the general principle of Lexicology. To ascertain the true meaning of a word or a phrase, it is not always sufficient to refer to a lexicon. It is sometimes necessary to make an appeal to the actual use of the word by the people who speak the language. Mistakes also occur because some lexicologists were not sound grammarians. 202 So far as classical Arabic is concerned it is decided by common consent that no poet nor any other person should be taken as an absolute and an unquestionable authority with respect to words or their significations unless he is one who died before the promulgation of Islam or who had lived partly before and partly after that event. Lane says that the Quran is held by the Arabs to be the highest of all authorities with respect to the words and the significations of the classical language. 'The traditions of Muhammad sa are also generally held to be absolute authorities with respect to everything relating to the prose of the classical language'. 203 In determining the meaning of the verses of the Quran, therefore, it would not be sufficient to take for granted the interpretations put upon them by later lexicologists without referring to an absolute authority on the point. 202 Lane’s Preface , p. 8. 203 Ibid , p. 9.