Despite the complexity of this problem, research in cognitive
psychology has become familiar with many secrets of human internal intellectual
and mental activities and their precise relation with language. With the help of
modern computer, it has been possible to set up simplified programs to clarify
some of the methods followed by the human mind in classifying information. It
has been found, for instance, that language is not only a human being's means of
address and communication, but also the basic system used in thinking. Without
the laws that control the way in which tangible and abstract meanings are
conveyed through word symbols, human beings cannot develop abstract concepts.
They cannot use either their sensory perception or their ability to imagine and
remember in dealing with various types of experiences they underwent in the
past, so that they can relate them to the present and deduce from them possible
solutions to p.roblems they are facing. Thinking, in fact, is using such symbols
through cognitive processes.
Some researchers, like Whorf who formulated the 'linguistic
relativity' hypothesis, consider the characteristics of the language spoken by a
certain group of people to be the factor that denoted how they think and how
they visualize the realities they live. The structure and other aspects of
language are therefore considered to be basic factors in the way a given society
visualizes the world.
Let us take a closer look at this idea of the importance of
language. If it were wholly or even partly true, it would be most appropriate
for us to consider the characteristics of the Arabic language, its impact on the
Arabs and the reasons for the divine choice of this language as the means to
reveal the Qur'an and convey the message of Islam to the whole of humanity. God
says in the Qur'an: "We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and we
will assuredly guard it" (15:9). This means that He guards Revelation and,
consequently, also the Arabic language. In this connection, the Egyptian
scholar, `Abbas Mahmud al-`Aqqad, discusses some aspects of the Arabic language:
its vocabulary, phonetic and phonemic aspects:
The human speech system is a superb musical instrument which
no ancient or modern nation has used as perfectly as the Arab nation, as they
have used the entire phonetic range in the distribution of its alphabet.
Therefore, it is these qualities of the Arabic language that made Arabic poetry
a perfect art, independent of other arts. [`Abbas Muhammad al-`Aqqad, al-Lughah
Al-Sha`irah (Cairo: Maktabat Gharib, n.d.)]
According to al-`Aqqad, these qualities are not found in any
other language, for "Arabic eloquence has taken the human speech organs to
the highest point ever reached by man in expressing himself by letters and
words." [Ibid., p. 70.]
In Al-Fusha: Lughat a/-Qur'an (Classical Arabic: The
Language of the Qur'an), Anwar al-Jundi mentions the qualities of the Arabic
language and its importance in propagating Islam:
It is most astonishing to see this robust language (Arabic)
growing and reaching a stage of perfection in the midst of the desert, and in a
nation of nomads. The language has superseded other languages by its wealth of
vocabulary, precise meanings and perfect structure. This language was unknown to
other nations. But when it came to be known, it appeared to us in such
perfection that it hardly underwent any change ever since. Of the stages of
life, that language had neither childhood nor old age. We hardly know anything
about that language beyond its unmatched conquests and victories. We cannot find
any similar language that appeared to scholars so complete, and without
gradation, keeping a structure so pure and flawless. The spread of the Arabic
language covered the largest areas and remotest countries. [Anwar al Jundi, Al-Fusha:Lughat
a/-Qur'an (Beirut: Dar Al-Kitab Al-Lubnani, 1982), p.27]
