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The Philosophy of Language - Part One: The Essence of Language

Let me begin by saying; We have defaulted the Will of God by acting on defaultive impulses, embedded into our minds by the defaulter.



What… is … ‘default’? Have you ever stopped to consider what the word really means, and not just its definition in the dictionary, but what does it really mean? What is its essence? Its root origin?

See, language is something that is so deeply embedded into us, that we do not stop for a nanosecond to think it. It just comes, pours out, in whichever form accustomed. Letters come to form words, into phrases and sentences, and this we assume is ‘language’. We chiefly attribute it to communication, vocal or scripted, either in the form inherent to culture, ethnicity, or region, or in a form universally understood. But what is language really? Where does it come from? How does it relate to the essence of creation? Why does it exist?

The secular mind that believes in the evolutionary process, regards language as something that came about as human intellect developed, based, of course, on rudimentary studies of cave drawings, or other archaeological findings such as stone tablets, hieroglyphic markings, and the sorts. In that regard, the modern secular outlook towards ancestral inscriptions is archaic and doltish. The perception that previous civilizations could not read and write in the juxtaposition of modern norms is regarded as, quite crudely put, primitive and unintelligible. This is pure arrogance and ignorance. According to the world’s leading (do forgive me for being shamelessly sarcastic here) anthropologists, archaeologists, and every other ‘ist’ in that category, language was instilled in human intellect as a demand of evolution, when the bid to communicate intelligently was imminent. Notable names, highly educated individuals, including figures such as Noam Chomsky, state that “single chance mutation occurred in one individual in the order of 100,000 years ago, installing the language faculty (a component of the mid-brain) in "perfect" or "near-perfect" form.” (Chomsky, N. Powers and Prospects). Thus far, no scientist in the world can definitively conclude the origin of language, because no one can conclude the truth of evolution, which in itself is a false notion. Of course, there is the excuse that science is still progressing, and will eventually figure it out— eventually— but that is a redundant statement in and of itself. Without much deliberation, the modern world blindly claims that “science is the hallmark of civilization.” We beg to differ with strong opposition and a justification of our claim that; Language is the hallmark of human civilization, and science is but a language, among all other languages. This can be affirmed by the Holy Qur’an as it recounts the very pinnacle of the creation of man; وَإِذۡ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلۡمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَةِ إِنِّى جَاعِلٌ۬ فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ خَلِيفَةً۬‌ۖ … And when your Lord said to the Angels, ‘Verily! I will place on the earth, a vicegerent.’ (Baqarah 2:30) Look with with a metaphysical lens, and you will see ‘And when your Lord Said…’ Meaning, He spoke. Meaning, He relayed His intentions to the Angels through speech. Not through science. The Holy Qur’an continues this pattern of ‘He said’, ‘She said’, ‘They said’, ‘I said’, ‘We said’, both in literally terms and through implication, highlighting that above all other aspects, language is most dominant, because without it, all thoughts and intents are confined until a medium of relay is established. In other words, knowledge cannot be conveyed, from peer to peer, without language, whether it is spoken, gestured, or inscribed! What, then, is Language? Our default understanding of language is embroiled into letters and words. Over the last four centuries, following the colonial plague over mankind, western civilization has imposed the learning of a universal language for the purpose of communication, and English has taken over the minds of most, such that it does not give any respect to the race or cultural ethnicity one is descended from, and creates such an imposition that eventually we all think and dream in English, so we speak, write, study, learn, and discern in English. We relate with speech in letters and words that all bear roots in Latin and Greek. The very characters in this article are all scripts based on an ‘Alphabet’, and the word ‘Alphabet’ is predominant to Greek characters Alpha-Beta (A and B) followed by Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Theta, and so on. This is not to condemn the Greek or Latin languages, but it is to draw attention that the predominant language we think, dream, and understand in is not a pure language. It is an assembly of several other languages, and has no foundation in the inherent tongues, or source origin, or the language of the Heavens. Unknowingly, and at times unconsciously, the majority of attempts to decipher the Holy Qur’an end up being done from an English perspective or any other translative language, and not from the source origin. Do you see the problem? A little bit of history here; Westerners in the Arab lands were faced with a communicational problem, as is the case when anyone ventures into foreign lands. In this regard, western civilization judged eastern cultures as ‘backward’ in thought and philosophy. Where the eastern languages stemmed from one direction, with a unique flow, grammar and syntax, all western languages began from the opposite direction with a completely opposite flow and structure. English was scribed from left to right, but Arabic was scribed from right to left. This then resulted in an attempt to ‘Latinize’ eastern scripts for the purpose of comprehension. As such, the Arabic characters were narrowed down into Arabic ‘alphabets’ in order to match them with Greek and Latin alphabets, and that gave us the Alif-Baa-Taa-Thaa format (ا ب ت ث ج ح خ). In truth, the Arabic characters do not inherently use the latinized ا ب ت ث ج ح خ. It uses the ABJAD ابجد format of ا ب ج د ه و ز and so on. This same system of vocal characters is also used in Hebrew, Syriac, and Persian derived languages, as well as languages no longer in use such as Samaritan, Aramaic, Berber, Nabataean, Manichaean, Psalter, Phoenician, Parthian, Sabaean, Punic, Sinaitic, Canaanite, Ugaritic, Sogdian, and Thaana. Do you see the problem? By using the latinized format, sure it became easier to communicate by scripting and translating the language, and it is still the simpler method for a predominantly English-speaking individual to learn Arabic, but it also drew a veil over the source origin of the languages, such that the original utterance is forgotten and a modern interpretive is set as the new standard. This latinized form may suffice for general speech and communication, but there is still a major problem, and that arises when trying to understand Religion, including Islam and the original forms of Christianity and Judaism, both of which stem from Hebrew, but were latinized, which theologians believe is the root cause of all misunderstanding and misinterpretations in those religions. In this regard, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, and other eastern faiths may also have suffered the same fate simply due to a wrongful understanding of the language in which their revelations were brought down. You see, both the Qur’an and Hadith, and all other revelations in human history, are not and never have been scripted in their original forms. Meaning, they were never delivered, from the source, in written form. It suffices to state that the Qur’an and Hadith were spoken in their original forms. The Qur’an being a Recitation of what Jibril cited from Allah, and the Hadith being a Narration of what the Companions heard the Holy Prophet say. Revelation is raw and pure speech, reflective of the thoughts and intentions of the speakers themselves, the Qur’an being the Speech of Allah, and the Hadith being the Speech of the Prophet. In similar context, all other revelations in the past, followed the same theme. One was the Speech of God, relayed through his Messenger or Prophet to the people, and the other was the Speech of the Prophets or Messengers, relayed to the people from their Divinely inspired thoughts, knowledge, and wisdom. If this is the case, how do we, who want to draw knowledge and wisdom, relate with the Qur’an and Hadith? The standardized format of understanding both is through Tafseer تفسير, which is commonly misunderstood as ‘translation’, where as Tafseer is only an ‘explanation’, provided by someone who understood the script in his or her own capacity. It meets the fundamental requirements to explain and draw an explanation, enough to form a religious structure that can address the norm of life as it morphs over the ages. But what of a deeper understanding? For the Qur’an classifies itself in a ratio of two-thirds to one, the one being definite and literal to the point, and the other two thirds left to interpretation. Why?

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