The Power within Our Language?

Is there a Power Dynamic Present within our Language?

Pierre Bordieu *1 has it that language is a commodity, with consumate value and which is both bought and sold. It is most definitely a medium of exchange for ideas and thoughts, and therefore maybe more like a currency rather than a commodity.

However the obvious diffrence is that language does not diminsh neither with it's use, nor with it's being shared. In fact the opposite be true. That as Bordieu says, its value increases with each trade, each exchange.

As it is used more, the more valuable it becomes.

However, his theory is laden by the fact that he wrote it within the beginning milleu of our times, marked by free market promotion, and the power of money. But that does not mean that we can disregard it without considering it. For at the time of our Messenger (saw) we should remember that the busiest of markets within the whole of Arabian Penninsula were the Poetry fairs, where Poets gathered to tell their tales and be paid for their wares.

So he has it that a power dynamic exists within language and it's exchange. And it might be instructive to follow this train of thought to see to where it leads?

In that case we can find resonance within scripture if and when you interpret it in that way:

That the Angels were commanded to prostrate before Adam (as) not just after Adam had been given the names of things, but after his appropriation of the power of words had been made evident- by God asking for him to name the things whilst the angels were present, and then by the angels not being able to do in a likewise manner.

When we re-examine the theory of creation, mentioned in another of my blogs, where I had argued that creation is separation. (*Life from Death*2)

Then it is clear from the conversation that angels have language, since they are conversing with God, both before and after the creation of Adam. So then how does the language of Adam differ from the language of the angels; in essence what are the words?

It appears from looking at what has been related to us of experience and thought, that the speech of angels is thought transmission and it could be argued that that is the pinnacle of what the best languages are- the elimination of doubt, controversy and ambiguity. In simple terms the transmission of meaning.

So the difference is that the language of Adam is separation, for words and names exist separate from us.

And thoughts do not exist separate from us until and if they are brought to action, either through our words or our hands. That is potentially why we will not be taken to task for our thoughts, but the words we say and the mead of our hands is a completely other matter.

The act of naming then from the story contained in our scripture is then the bringing into existence of a separate entity, a thing that is separate from yourself and from the thing itself- it is a thing inbetween.

What then are the words of God, for He says in our scripture: The words of God will never be exhausted. This implies that our words are exhaustable, will be exhausted, are limited and that there are therefore limits to what we can know. That our knowledge is deficient, and that all glory belongs to God, the Most High, Greater than all things.

Then we come to consider the Quran, the literal word of God. So many times in that speech do we find God declaring that it is Arabic Quran. 

The fact that this is mentioned so many times should be intriguing, since it was revealed to an Arab Messenger, Muhammad (saw), it would thereby necessitate it coming down in Arabic.

One intepretation of this fact that is common amongst most Muslims is that there is something special about Arabic a language. 

Most definitely the Quran is an Arabic Quran and every effort to explain its meaning is deficient, and that is within even Arabic itself. 

As many commentators have said when they translate it into another language as a medium, that their work is an attempt to translate the meaning of the Quran, and that therefore the Arabic Quran cannot be translated. It is as it is.

That much is obvious, but many also stipulate that there is something special, even Godly, about the Arabic language. 

That it warrants a deeper study.

The idea of a lingua franca, never found any resonance within the Muslim sphere. 

Indeed the Abassids adopted Persian as the administrative language of their empire, and Muslims thereafter necessarily became multi-lingual.

The idea of a lingua franca, one language sufficient for everything, only found resonance within the European sphere. And that is the kernel of the power dynamic that Bordieu hints at.

Whereas within our religion, and book, God informs us of the reason as to why He sent it down as a Arabic Quran.. "So that you may better understand". 

Whilst many might interpret this to mean that there is something hidden and special about the Arabic Language, the truth is that on the face of it it does not.

That God tells us that it is an Arabic Quran because it was sent down to the Umiyoon, the unlettered people of the Arabian Peninsula, via an unlettered Messenger and Prophet, Muhammad (saw).

Then why emphasize it in so many places within our Scripture?

Indeed one such verse would have been sufficent for us to know that it is an Arabic Quran, and that it cannot be taken away from it's Arabic roots as the prior Christian Nation had done with their loss of Aramaic, and their now first sources being Greek.

To emphasize it so many times, means that there is something else far deeper going on here.

And then we recall that God says that He revealed it in simple Arabic, and He says this but once, because once is sufficient.

And that God Himself has protected the Arabic language down through the centuries, through the Qur'an. So that one who knows Modern Standard Arabic can read Tabari unhindered.

So then what is the hidden meaning .. "We revealed it as an Arabic Quran, so that you might be instructed"?

That it warrants such repititon?

That it matters not the medium of the revelation, other than to explain things and to get to the meaning of things.

That there is no power dynamic here. 

That the religion is open, and the truth is clear.

That God did not want to send down any authority.

That He is al-Batin, the hidden one, who wishes for you to believe not because of authority, but because your eyes are open to the reality of things.

How phenomenal is His religion?
That it mirrors the Cosmos in every detail.

That He chooses for you Islam, but does not compel you to it.
And this non-compulsion is even present within those things that are the roots of power- language itself.

That the language is solely a medium for you to better appreciate the meaning. And the meaning is apparent and clear.

To find the truth of you, your own truth-value?

Knowledge is sought through study, contemplation and action. 

Not lectures, nor this above. 

I do not quote verbatim because I want for you to think and deliberate for yourself. 

ADDENDUM 

This idea explains why there are words within the Quranic Speech whose origin is not purely Arabic, but which had been appropriated into and within the corpus of the Arabic language at that time. 

*1 Language and Symbolic Power, Pierre Bourdieu (1991)

*2 my blog “Life from Death” (24/2/21) https://shafeesthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/02/life-from-death.html?m=1