The meaning of the words of the Quran by a rational mathematical equation

[Iyyaka]

Salam,

I share with you a brief English summary of my "reasoned" approach for finding the meaning of the words of the Quran (A methodology that you will find at this link (https://reveniraucoran.fr/methodologie/ - in french or with google translation).

Understanding the quran is understanding a language, in what concerns us Quranic Arabic of the 7th century and its specificities.
So, to make it simple and basic, in a very overwhelming majority of cases, the meaning of a vocalised word from the Quran is tantamount to resolving the following equation (by taking into account the order of the terms of the equation) :

Formula = (1) deep sense of the root + (2) sense of the form + (3) sense of the context (textual and anthropological studies).

Three simple examples that help us to have a better overview of its practical application:

--- 1 --- First, the importance of the textual context :

The form "l-ʿafwa" appears in two verses: 2-219 and 7-199 (http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Efw#(2:219)
=> Literally, from the signifier, we obtain the word "Excess" in English. But, through the play of the textual context, the signified is different:
- In 2-219 it is an "Excess of goods"
- In 7-199 it is about an "Excess of the thing, action which exceeds the ordinary or allowed measure."

--- 2 --- Then, we have to take into account the importance of the deep meaning of a word for having a better understanding of the richness of the semantic field of the Arabic language:

Example with the word "jabīni" (37-103), a Quranic hapax. This word comes from the root "jīm bā nūn" which can take many forms and meanings:
"cheese, cowardice, the part above the temple, cemetery".
What is the common point of all these senses ? The deep meaning of this root focus on the act or the fact or the state of being "retract".

--- 3 --- Finally, the cultural and historical context of the Quranic revelation is important to take into account to avoid anachronism:

Words travel in time and space, imaginations and thoughts wander...In brief, societies change and so do their needs. So the language often reflects these changes. The word is still there but its meaning has changed.

For example, this is the case with the word "zakat" which, in a religious context after the Qur'anic time, has become synonymous with "legal alms" whose levy PURIFIES on the religious, sacred and moral level, the good of those who own it. In the minds of many people it carries an imaginative charge which corresponds to the "zakât al mâl" (literally: the Zakat on money) whose tax rate is 2.5%. This is an established fact for almost all the majority of traditionnal Muslims, and for standard translations: "the poor-due, poor-rate, welfare tax, pay alms-tax, the purifying alms etc."
However, the root refers not to the concept of purification but to that of "growth, increase, development" in an eminently positive sense.Moreover, its Qur'anic use easily shows that we cannot reduce this term to the narrow sense that it took later for those who read the text without reading bias or interpolation (NB : Probably the greatest danger for anyone who wants to translate or understand - I was and i am sure a victim of this myself : the work will never stop).

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Tools for helping non Arabist or Arabist (a great job):
- http://www.studyquran.co.uk/PRLonline.htm (a link to several dictionaries for each root word)
- http://corpus.quran.com/
- http://quranix.org/
- https://quranx.com/1.1
- http://www.haqeeqat.pk/roots/intro.htm
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Peace be upon you and may God help us to have a better detailed understanding of his last Holy Scripture (the main message is easily to understand).
God knows best.

[Mazhar]

Agreed without combination of these three the meanings derived by use of dictionary would be straight away erroneous.

http://haqeeqat.pk/TranslationTripletTheory.htm

Root: ع ف و

Words from this Root in the Grand Qur'ān:

a) Total occurrences: 35

b) No of constructions: 21

Noun: 4; Recurrence: 8; Verb: 17; Recurrence: 27 [Form-I]

Ibn Faris [died 1005] stated:

(مقاييس اللغة)

العين والفاء والحرف المعتلّ أصلان يدلُّ أحدهما على تركِ الشيء، والآخر على طَلَبِه. ثم يرجع إليه فروعٌ كثيرة لا تتفاوَتُ في المعنى.عفا عنه يعفُو عَفْواً.

That it leads to the perception of let go a thing; and secondly denotes its demand, claim.

Lane Lexicon: It was, or became, effaced, erased, rased, or obliterated; (S, Msb, K;) as also ↓ تعفّى : (K:) and it, or he, perished, came to nought or to an end, or died. (S, TA.) One says, عَفَا الأَثَرُ The trace, vestige, or footprint, was, or became, effaced,

http://haqeeqat.pk/roots/(989).htm

2:219

وَيَـسْئَلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنفِقُونَ قُلِ ٱلْعَفْوَۗ

And they ask you the Messenger [Sal'lallaa'hoalaih'wa'salam] as to what possession should they keep spending. You tell them; "You people spend that whichever you can efface-spare".

اورآپ(ﷺ)سے لوگ پوچھتے ہیں کہ وہ کن کی اور کیا فلاح و بہبود کے لئے خرچ کریں۔آپ(ﷺ)بتائیں''تم لوگ دوسروں کی فلاح و بہبود کے لئے جس قدر اور حاجت کے پہلو سے باآسانی الگ کر سکتے ہو وہ خرچ کرو''


خُذِ ٱلْعَفْوَ وَأْمُرْ بِٱلْعُـرْفِ

You the Messenger [Muhammad Sal'lallaa'hoalaih'wa'salam] keep holding the habit of forgivingly overlooking; and command with distinctly known cognizable facts.

وَأَعْـرِضْ عَنِ ٱلْجَـٟهِلِيـنَ .7:199١٩٩

However, you avoid confronting the emotionalists, passionate, traditionalists, vain talkers. [7:199]

[Iyyaka]

Agreed without combination of these three the meanings derived by use of dictionary would be straight away erroneous.
http://haqeeqat.pk/TranslationTripletTheory.htm
Root: ع ف و

Thank for sharing your knowledge.
Of course i put here a synthesis (easy to remember) of my methodology.

Many things have to be developed specially the knowledge of the author of the Quran : Allah himself (i will probably say the main subject of the Quran), and the first of its qualities (mother of all the others) : the root word r-H-m (already discuss here).

NB :synthesis (bring together/collect coherently) = the deep meaning of the triliteral root "qāf rā hamza (ق ر أ)" from which comes the word Quran.

[Mazhar]

Thank for sharing your knowledge.
Of course i put here a synthesis (easy to remember) of my methodology.

Many things have to be developed specially the knowledge of the author of the Quran : Allah himself (i will probably say the main subject of the Quran), and the first of its qualities (mother of all the others) : the root word r-H-m (already discuss here).

NB :synthesis (bring together/collect coherently) = the deep meaning of the triliteral root "qāf rā hamza (ق ر أ)" from which comes the word Quran.

Importance of the title of a book: Perception and meanings conveyed by the title:  The Qur'ān

Experts and educationists suggest that the first rule in critical and analytical reading is that you must know what kind of a book is in your hand; and they say that we should know this as early in the process as possible, preferably before we begin to read. Many readers ignore titles and prefaces because perhaps they do not think it important to classify the book they are about to read. However, the author of a book facilitates its reader to know the kind of book he is being given by assigning it a title. Obviously, a descriptive and illustrative title will be considered the best for a reader to facilitate him immediately classify the book in hand.

http://haqeeqat.pk/TranslationTitle.htm

[TellMeTheTruth]

Salam!
Agreed with Iyyaka regarding extracting meanings of Quranic words. However, my approach is a bit different. I believe that TERMS (not words) are a later development. I keep note of original meanings of the words and try to extract meanibgs which could fit for all other occurrences and forms of the words.
Zakat, for example, was a word understood by the then audience as they were familiar with it already. It became a TERM afterwards. There are a number of people who accept that Zakat is not an obligatory charity. It is growth of spiritual nature which is a result of good deeds or obligatory charity, i. E., Sadaqat.
Below is how I use the meaning of عفو. This word means something which is of no more use for the owner or something which can be spared while the others may still have use of it. I can use the word Spare/spare goods for English translation:
العفو is spare goods/items which should be spent or given to others.
خذ العفو may mean spare them or it may mean take what is spare (from them). The later meaning is also supported by یمنعون الماعون and other ayahs. So one english word can express the meaning of one arabic word in all occurrences and forms.
Similarily I use the word Back for all iccurrences and forms if the root word ظ ھ ر.
Hope you understand my point.
Peace!

[Iyyaka]

Salam TellMeTheTruth,

Thanks for sharing your method.

Having a "reasoned" methodology is a prerequesite for the one who wants to limit the personal veils of belief that can obscure a direct access to the textual meaning of the text and that correspond to the author's intention.

To do this, we must not mix two things:
1) What says a text which was addressed first to people who are not us (language, way of life, religious and political environment ..). Indeed, the first recipients of the Quranic message were Arabs from the north-west Arabian coast of the 7th century. And not only for literate Arabs but for the common people too. A revolution...
2) The rules, the limits of living together, the lessons and the universal principles that we draw from the text that make it alive, today and tomorrow, in brief universal. This is our responsibility.

Personally, I am afraid of betraying the meaning wanted by God and making it public...But in the end, the vision of God (basmala) as God gives himself to be known in the quran is my ultimate refuge.

Peace and may God guide you to the right path.

[jkhan]

Agreed without combination of these three the meanings derived by use of dictionary would be straight away erroneous.

Formula = (1) deep sense of the root + (2) sense of the form + (3) sense of the context (textual and anthropological studies).

Peace both Mazhar and Iyykaka and rest...

May I know from both of you since both of you agree that this the formula to get the meaning of quran,  What is the meaning of the verse where Makka appears in quran..

Pls respond to see whether both of you give the same reply... Just for my knowledge... Coz you may be knowing I am not someone who depend on dictionary but depend on the tone of the verse

[Iyyaka]

Formula = (1) deep sense of the root + (2) sense of the form + (3) sense of the context (textual and anthropological studies).

Peace both Mazhar and Iyykaka and rest...

May I know from both of you since both of you agree that this the formula to get the meaning of quran,  What is the meaning of the verse where Makka appears in quran..

Pls respond to see whether both of you give the same reply... Just for my knowledge... Coz you may be knowing I am not someone who depend on dictionary but depend on the tone of the verse

Peace Jkhan,

This formula is a synthesis. Simple doesn't means easy. If you look at the member 3 of the equation it is not only depend on dictionary.
So I will use your intervention to detail a little more my reasonned methodology and the part 3 of the equation.

I have a SYNCHRONIC and HOLISTIC APPROACH to the Quran. it is an important and decisive part of the resolution of the meaning. The Quran is our superior and absolute criterion and it is the best of dictionaries.
The holistic approach (which I call "textual and anthropological context" in the formula) is different from the atomist approach which isolates the verses from each other while everything is interdependent and coherent (without contradictions).
It's like with a flower: beauty is in the vision of this flower, its color, the shape of its petals, but beauty is also found by zooming in and taking into account the landscape that surrounds it at different levels. Your understanding widens then. These two aspects are necessary to fully appreciate this flower.

The textual context has two levels:
- inter-textuality (the quran is not an isolated text but interacts explicitly or implicitly with other texts from the historical period that historians call "late antiquity")
- intra-textuality: internal references to the text. At this end I use the tools of the "Semitic rhetoric" analysis (or also called "rhetorical analysis" - I should have added it as a tool to my first post but the documentation in English is light). If you are interested you can download the summary sheet on my site and translate it into english:
https://reveniraucoran.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Niveaux-et-figures-de-composition-rh%C3%A9torique.pdf
This tool allows me to best render the principle of symmetry and binarity at work throughout the Quran (there is no better artist than God even in the structuring of his text which plays with time and chronology).

Finally, i am embarrassed to answer your question on the word "makkata" in [48-24] because it is not the purpose of this post to debate on each word of the quran.
From my understanding, it is a proper name which indicates a place, a territory of residence of the tribe of Quraych.
But like the proper names allah or l-raḥmān they also have a meaning-function(s) that we can study.

NB : If Allah wills i will share with you the structuring of suras according to the principles of Semitic rhetoric.

[Mazhar]

Formula = (1) deep sense of the root + (2) sense of the form + (3) sense of the context (textual and anthropological studies).

Peace both Mazhar and Iyykaka and rest...

May I know from both of you since both of you agree that this the formula to get the meaning of quran,  What is the meaning of the verse where Makka appears in quran..

Pls respond to see whether both of you give the same reply... Just for my knowledge... Coz you may be knowing I am not someone who depend on dictionary but depend on the tone of the verse

An excerpt from Intro of Quran Corpus, one of my on going projects:

May I tell you that otherwise an old book it has prescribed in its contents its decoding - synthesis method matching synthesis of protein encoding genes? Decoding of protein encoding genes ensures sustaining healthy life, and the book I am referring proclaims it is the sustainer of life to immortal truly living life. It is ever living book, the Grand Qur'ān.

Grand Qur'ān discarded both the theories of translation, i.e. "word by word (also termed as "literal translation" - translating meaning of each lexical item in sequence)" and "Sense-for sense translation - translating the meaning of each whole sentence before moving on to the next", prevalent in the days of its serial publication for translating it to any language of Non-Arab lands. It not only indicated method of its translation but also mentioned keys to evaluate the accuracy of translated target language text. Considering the genealogy and operating system of Arabic language, a little that I have come to know about it, I have named this Theory as Triplet Theory of Translation, exoterically matching it with triplet method of translation of protein encoding genes conveyed by the Messenger (mRNA) in Human Genome.

http://haqeeqat.pk/Quran.Corpus-1.htm

To understand any book in totality it is prerequite:
For making the Chewing and Digesting the Life Sustainer Book easy for everyone we firstly need Comprehensive Corpus that breaks it to "molecular" level as under:

1. Segmentation of Text into Semantic Frames; (I have attempted; just 906 frames)

2. Segmentation of Semantic Frame into Sentences (resembling a Gene in Human genome);

3. Segmentation of Sentences into Grammatical Units (equivalent Codon): Words and Phrases;

4. Segmentation of Grammatical Unit (Phrases) to granular level of Word; (unique words (nouns and verbs) are around 16700)

5. Breaking the Word to molecular level, or we can say try emptying the word semantically as much as we can (Qur'ān defines word and text as a Container); in the manner of complementary anti-codon in Human Genome:

   (i) Dictionary of Roots (in fact like seed containing DNA of complete embryonic plant -Concept)- they are just 1646.

   (ii) Morphological segmentation; (semantic added to Root)

   (iii) By Syntax, (semantic added by function and role)

6. Complying with command of: تَدَبُّرٌ bottom-top compilation of Frames by Concept.

7. Segmentation of Text by Type, like Injunctive, Narrative, Expository, Argumentative, etc. The largest content of text is Narrative; Second largest text is about philosophy and sciences; used as argument to prove Thesis Statement; the last is Informative and Injunctive for personality and society development.

8. Segmentation of Sentences by structure, simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.

9. Segmentation of Text by Rhetorical Devices.

................
The Ayah you referred wherein the word occurs only once in the Frame 5 of Chapter named meaning "The Victory".

Frame has Ayah 24 to 27. After overpowering an army in the battlefield the triumphant army captures the main/capital city to establish its reign. There is always possibility of resistance and hand to hand fight in the midst of city. The text itself shows that it is the name of City. Her other particular feature is also mentioned.

[jkhan]

Peace Jkhan,


Finally, i am embarrassed to answer your question on the word "makkata" in [48-24] because it is not the purpose of this post to debate on each word of the quran.
From my understanding, it is a proper name which indicates a place, a territory of residence of the tribe of Quraych.
But like the proper names allah or l-raḥmān they also have a meaning-function(s) that we can study.

NB : If Allah wills i will share with you the structuring of suras according to the principles of Semitic rhetoric.

Peace...
I won't ask each and every word.. don't worry dude..  but you have to study each and every word according to what you accepted (formula).... Isn't it? No need to be embarrassed ... we all are learning and students of quran...when we call us students.. needless to say further.. Btw thank you for your reply... So you take makka as Proper noun while it has other derived meaning...okay...What made you to give priority to take makka as proper noun based on your formula? Why it should be proper noun according to formula? Once you have taken a word as proper noun in quran it can only be a proper noun for that place.... I don't want to distort your topic, but hope at least relevant what I am asking...

Do you think those who didn't take the word makka as proper noun and still follow your formula went astray or went something seriously wrong for them?