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Grammatical Error In The Reading Of Quran 5:69
Can someone explain this? The following example, in my opinion, is a case of where the standard reading is actually a scribal error that found its way into the canon, while a rare variant reading is the grammatically correct one.
Verse 69 of Surah al-Ma’idah reads:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالصَّابِؤُونَ وَالنَّصَارَى مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
“Indeed, those who have believed [in Prophet Muhammad] and those [before Him] who were Jews or Sabians or Christians — those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness — no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.”
The issue is with the word “Sabians” الصَّابِؤُونَ . The problem is its ‘grammatical case-ending’. It is written الصَّابِؤُونَ which is the nominative case (الرفع) when one would expect it to be in the accusative case (النصب) and so should be written الصَّابِئِينَ and not الصَّابِؤُونَ . That is because the word is governed by إِنَّ and that particle (due to the rule of إن وأخواتها ) makes its subject accusative.
For example one says:
إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Not:
إِنَّ الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ
This is emphasised by two almost identical verses where the word (Sabians) appears twice, governed by the particle إِنَّ and so is correctly declined in the accusative الصَّابِئِينَ The verses are: (2:62) & (22:17).
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالنَّصَارَى وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
“Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabians [before Prophet Muhammad] — those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness — will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.” (2:62)
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالصَّابِئِينَ وَالنَّصَارَى وَالْمَجُوسَ وَالَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْصِلُ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ
“Indeed, those who have believed and those who were Jews and the Sabians and the Christians and the Magians and those who associated with Allah — Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed Allah is, over all things, Witness.” (22:17)
In these two verses the word “Sabians” is governed by إِنَّ and so are correctly declined in the accusative as one would expect.
Of course grammarians and mufassirun immediately picked up on this anomaly — just as they have done for other anomalies — and did their best to explain it away in various ways, although revealingly they don’t agree on the explanation.
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Grammatical Error In The Reading Of Quran 5:69
updated 2 weeks, 4 days ago
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Language is prior to rules. Rules are derived from language. Qur’an has established its position as an expression of authentic clear Arabic language. Arabi mubeen.
The people who knew classic Arabic never objected to use of the words and styles in the Qur’an.
The problem is, grammarians could not record all the use of the words and styles. Therefore in every language the classic literature is considered in itself a standard, no matter if it conforms to the grammarians or not.
To understand the nuisances of apparently different use words in the Qur’an, Tafsir Tadqbbur e Qur’an is of great help.
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