Despite the complexity of this problem, research in cognitive psychology has become familiar with many secrets of human internal intellectual and mental activities and their precise relation with language.With the help of modern computer, it has been possible to set up simplified programs to clarify some of the methods followed by the human mind in classifying information. It has been found, for instance; that language is not only a human being’s means of address and communication, but also the basic system used in thinking.
Without the laws that control the way in which tangible and abstract meanings are conveyed through word symbols, human beings cannot develop abstract concepts. They cannot use either their sensory perception or their ability to imagine and remember in dealing with various types of experiences they underwent in the past, so that they can relate them to the present and deduce from them possible solutions to problems they are facing. Thinking, in fact, is using such symbols through cognitive processes.
Linguistic Relativity
Some researchers, like Whorf who formulated the ‘linguistic relativity’ hypothesis, consider the characteristics of the language spoken by a certain group of people to be the factor that denoted how they think and how they visualize the realities they live. The structure and other aspects of language are therefore considered to be basic factors in the way a given society visualize sthe world.
Importance of Language
Let us take a closer look at this idea of the importance of language.If it were wholly or even partly true, it would be most appropriate for us to consider the characteristics of the Arabic language, its impact on the Arab sand the reasons for the divine choice of this language as the means to revea lthe Qur’an and convey the message of Islam to the whole of humanity. God says in the Qur’an:
“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and we will assuredly guard it” (15:9).
This means that He guards Revelation and, consequently,also the Arabic language. In this connection, the Egyptian scholar, `AbbasMahmud al-`Aqqad, discusses some aspects of the Arabic language; its vocabulary, phonetic and phonemic aspects:
The human speech system is a superb musical instrument which no ancient or modern nation has used as perfectly as the Arab nation, as they have used the entire phonetic range in the distribution of its alphabet. Therefore, it is these qualities of the Arabic language that made Arabic poetry a perfect art, independent of other arts. [`Abbas Muhammad al-`Aqqad, al-LughahAl-Sha`irah (Cairo: Maktabat Gharib,n.d.)]
According to al-`Aqqad, these qualities are not found in any other language, for “Arabic eloquence has taken the human speech organs to the highest point ever reached by man in expressing himself by letters and words.”[Ibid., p. 70.]
In Al-Fusha: Lughat a/-Qur’an (Classical Arabic: The Language of the Qur’an), Anwar al-Jundi mentions the qualities of the Arabic language and its importance in propagating Islam:
It is most astonishing to see this robust language (Arabic) growing and reaching a stage of perfection in the midst of the desert, and in a nation of nomads. The language has superseded other languages by its wealth of vocabulary, precise meanings and perfect structure. This language was unknown to other nations. When it came to be known, it appeared to us in such perfection that it hardly underwent any change ever since. Of the stages of life, that language had neither childhood nor old age.We hardly know anything about that language beyond its unmatched conquests and victories. We cannot find any similar language that appeared to scholars so complete, and without gradation, keeping a structure so pure and flawless. The spread of the Arabic language covered the largest areas and remotest countries.[Anwar al Jundi, Al-Fusha:Lughata/-Qur’an (Beirut: Dar Al-Kitab Al-Lubnani,1982), p.27]
Source: islaam.com [External/non-QP]
