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Alleged Grammatical Mistakes in the Quran

We need to keep in mind the following points before delving into the reality of alleged grammatical mistakes:

  1. The Quran was revealed amongst the Arab nation. History testifies that the whole nation was initially against it because it was criticizing their religious dogmas. Therefore, the Arabs themselves were its biggest enemies. Isn’t it strange that the native enemies with Arabic as their mother tongue were not able to find these mistakes and now a non-Arab is able to see them? Had the mistakes pointed out by the author correct, it would have been natural to expect from Arabs to blow the Quranic claim of being God’s Word to bits. That’s why to point out grammatical errors is tantamount to rejecting the linguistic sense of the Arabs that spreads over 1400 years!
  2. This is an interesting fact that all the grammarians of Arabic language, whether Arab or non-Arab, declare Quran to be a flawless criterion for grammar. And today, a non-Arab non-grammarian has ventured to point out errors in Quran who himself does not know grammar! This will be evident when we point out his own mistakes later. A person like him pointing out grammatical mistakes in the Quran sufficiently proves that 1000mistakes.com is not an academic endeavor at all. In fact, nothing more than a negative propaganda!
  3. When Arabs or Muslims assert that the Arabic grammar has been developed from Quran they mean the following:
    1. The need to understand Quran, it being a book of guidance, kick started the process of understanding and writing grammar
    2. Quran was considered an authority over all Arabic corpora i.e. its sentences were considered the ultimate criteria.
    3. Although other Arabic corpora was considered while developing grammar but Quran remained the focal point.
    4. Every language has two broad eras of development. We can call them pre-grammar and post-grammar eras. The classical writings and literary masterpieces of the former era form the source of language. They are not judged on grammar. Instead grammar is judged on their basis. Quran enjoys the same classical position amongst Arabic corpora. Hence, it is a touchstone for grammar not vice versa. However, grammar becomes standard for the later era and language enters in its second era. Even in this era, exceptional authors are born that force the grammar to surrender before them.
  4. Grammar, of any language does serve as a tool to understand its structure and make non-speakers understand. It does become a standard for the second era. In spite of this, only a few percentage of the native speakers know the grammar of their mother tongue. Grammar is made by their speaking not vice versa. When a commoner speaks he does not take into account many intricacies of the grammar. Grammar depends upon the native speakers not the other way around!
  5. No grammar is capable of enlisting all possible rules of the language; it enlists only general rules and informs us that exceptions do exist. So, it is possible that the grammar you have studied might not have dealt with these exceptions. It is quite possible to embarrass yourself by criticizing  a well-acclaimed book based on your flawed and incomplete knowledge of grammar. As we shall see later, the author pointing out mistakes in the Quran is actually proving that he himself does not know Arabic and its grammar.
  6. The Prophet was a native Arab raised amongst the Arabs. Even a dull native cannot do these mistakes which a non-Arab without adequate knowledge of Arabic  is pointing out let alone a smart person like Muhammad (pbuh). Even if we suppose that the Quran has been written by Muhammad (pbuh) himself, it is improbable that a native makes some mistakes which go unnoticed by his contemporaries but picked by a non-Arab today.
  7. The author of 1000mistakes.com com has tried to hide a fact by making a small statement that the mistakes have been taken from the Internet. Most likely these are taken from answering-islam.org/Authors/Newton/grammar.html. Most of them have been answered. For example, see www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Grammar/gramrefut.html. Probably others have not been answered yet or we are not aware of it. Those who have been answered clearly prove the fault of  answering-islam.org. Probably that’s why the author of 1000mistakes.com didn’t want to give its reference. We shall the alleged mistakes in grammar in the next post.