Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

القُرْآنُ

Root: قرأ

Full Definition

القُرْآنُ is said by some of the erudite to be originally an Verbal.Noun of قَرَأْتُ الشَّىْءَ meaning “ I collected together the thing, ” or of قَرَأْتُ الكِتَابَ meaning “ I read, or recited, the book, or Scripture; ” and then conventionally applied to signify The Book of God that was revealed to Mo- hammad: it is [also expl. as signifying] the revelation, meaning that which is termed العَزِيز [the mighty, or inimitable, &c.], which is read, or recited, and written in books, or volumes: used as a subst., and unrestrictedly, it is applied in the language of the law to the substance itself [whereof the Kur-án consists], and lexically to the alphabetical letters [in which it is written] for these are what are read; as when one says, كَتَبْتُ القُرْآنَ [I wrote the Kur-án], and مَسِسْتُهُ [I touched it]: [and without the article ال, it is applied to any portion of the Kur-án:] accord. to AO, and Zj, it is thus called because it collects and comprises the سُوَر [or chapters]: and IAth says that the original meaning of the word is the collection; and that the قُرْآن is so called because it has collected the histories [of the prophets &c.], and commands and prohibitions, and promises and threats, [and the like is said in the O,] and the آيَات [i. e. verses, or signs], and the سُوَر [or chapters]: but Ismá'eel Ibn-Kustan- teen, to whom, as a disciple to his preceptor, EshSháfi'ee read, or recited, the Kur-án, is related on the latter's authority to have said that القُرَانُ is a subst., and with hemz, and not taken from قَرَأْتُ, but is a name for the Book of God, like التَّوْرَاةُ [the Book of the Law revealed to Moses] and الإِنْجِيلُ [the Gospel]: and it is related that Aboo-'Amr Ibn-El-'Alà used to pronounce القران without hemz [like many others, but it is, and always has been, pronounced by most with hemz].
2 It is also applied to The divinely appointed act of prayer (الصَّلَاةُ) because it comprises recitation [of words of the Kur-án].


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