Diacritical Marks of the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

The word for “girl” is “bent” (بنت). The word is composed of three letters which are “Ba” (ب), “n” or noon” (ن), and “Ta” (ت). When these three letters are connected to each other without diacritical marks they will appear identical. They will look like three adjacent crescents facing upwards (بنت without dots). The difference between them is nothing. Only the diacritical marks (and the dots) can differentiate between them. Here is how it works:

*If you put one point below any one of them, it's "Ba" (ب)

*If you put two points below any one of them, it's "ya" (ي when written inside a word looks like ييي)

*If you put one point above any one of them, it's "non" (ن)

*If you put two points above any one of them, it's "Ta" (ت)

*If you put three points above any one of them, it's "Tha" (ث)

Therefore, there are a multitude of possible alternatives that could arise from the arrangements of diacritical marks on each of the letters (تتث, نتت, تنث...).  

Furthermore, if you put one mark below the first, two points below the second, and two above the third, the word "girl" (بنت, ''bint'') will become “Bayt” (بيت) which translates as “home” in English.

* If you put two points below the first, one below the second, and two above the third, it's "yabet" (يبت) which translates as "he makes a decision" in English.  

* If you put one point above the first, one below the second and two above the third, it's "nabat" (نبت) which translates as "'grew” (for something  planted) in English.  

* If you put one point below the first, two below the second and one above the third, it's "Bayn" (بين) which translates as "between" in English.  

* If you put one point below the first, three points above the second and two points above the third, it's "Bathat" (بثت) which translates as "she broadcast" in English.  

* If you put two points below the first, one below the second, and three above the third, it's "yaboth" (يبث) which translates as "he broadcasts" in English.   

Even after adding diacritical points above and below the Arabic letters, the meaning of the word will not be explicit with certainty except after adding the vocalization marks (بَ ba, بِ bi, بُ bu). Both the diacritical points and the vocalization marks were not used in the ancient Arabic writings during the time of Muhammad. Therefore, there would have been a wide range of problems and an enormous task for the interpreters to add diacritical points and vocalization marks on every letter in the Qur'an. Therefore there was a lot of opportunity to make mistakes that would have made it impossible to ensure the original word meanings of the Qur'an were unchanged.

{{Quote||I do not think an English reader will appreciate how big a problem this is without solid examples. Let me give a couple of examples. Take two Arabic words like “Sami” and “Shami”. The two words are written in Arabic the same way except for one minor thing: the word “Sami” has no dots on top of the letter “S” (س). the word “Shami” has three dots on the same first letter (ش). So the difference between the two words is just three dots on the first letter. Now, the difference in meaning is huge. The word “Sami” in Arabic can be a man’s name, but also means “High in position”. A man with “Sami” morals means a man with high moral values. The word “Shami”, on the other hand, means “Syrian”, or someone from “Sham” (could mean the from the city of Damascus, or from the country of Syria). Here is another example: take the word “Hal” in Arabic (with "heavy H" ح). It mean “situation”. In contrast, the word “Khal” may mean “Empty” or “Uncle-on the mother’s side”. Now the difference in writing in the Arabic language between the two words is just one dot on top of the first letter (خ) in the word “Khal”. The word “Hal” is not dotted at all. You see, one dot difference can make a huge difference in the meaning of the word in the Arabic language. This huge Qur’anic problem cannot be appreciated by an English reader without live examples. I tried to clarify this matter in the two examples I just mentioned.