The Sciences of Grammar, Lexicography and Qurʼanic Exegesis

( The Science of Grammar )

There is no harm in the grammarians, and their science is a good one and is needed. But when the grammarian goes deep into Arabic and is stripped bare of the science of the Book and the sunnah, he remains empty, idle, a trifler; and in that condition God Most High will not question him about his science in the next world. Rather it is like one of the crafts — like medicine and arithmetic and geometry — for which a man is neither rewarded nor punished, provided he has not been haughty toward men, nor borne down upon them, and has feared God Most High, and been humble, and kept himself clean.

( The Science of Lexicography )

The lexicographers have died out in our time. (1) You find the jurist not knowing the language, and the teacher of recitation not knowing the language of the Qur'an, and the hadith man taking no care for the language of hadith. This is neglect and ignorance. Care ought rather to be given to the language of the Book and the sunnah, so that the address may be understood.

( The Science of Exegesis )

Few today give their care to exegesis; rather the teachers pore over the commentary of al-Fakhr

— Notes —

[19] (1) In the author's own age there were composed such works as Lisān al-ʻArab, and Mukhtār al-Ṣiḥāḥ, and al-Miṣbāḥ, and other lexicons great and small still in circulation down to this day of ours; and al-Majd was on his way to compiling al-Qāmūs al-muḥīṭ. So he has no right to complain, unless what he meant was to rouse the resolve of those acquiring learning to give the language the care it deserves.