Studying Islam

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[quote][b] I am suprised that anyone would think that language shouldn't evolve. [/b]
<p align=justify> Of course laguages evolve and the words acquire new meanings but an author writes a word or a phrase only to convey a single meaning which is clear to the addressee. He cannot accept the new meaning the word has acquired and will never be comfortable with them for his message then will continuously be enriched with new implications thus distorting his message. So the actual meaning of the words are the one which the author has in his mind and he leaves many indicators in a piece of discourse to suggest the true meaning. I think this is a very well known principle of interpeting a text and it is indeed really surprizing that anyone should deny it. The Qur'an or any book cannot use a word a meaning of which are discovered centureies later and then claim to be 'a clear message'. How could it be one when even the primary addressees could not understand the meaning implied. Many opposed the messenger and his book the Qur'an but none ever said, 'How strange is the Book and how empty its claim to be a clear book.'  If the Qur'an uses the word alaq and the direct addressees knew that the word meant a leech then the only acceptable interpretation of the word is the one understood by the people it was sent to. We may have grown able to discover why did the Arabs and the Qur'an used the word but we cannot say that the actual meaning of the word were something different from what they took it to be. For then it remains no more clear to them.[/quote]

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