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MAIN BOARD (You must register to post) => ISLAMIC DISCUSSIONS | GOD | QURAN | QURAN CANON & HISTORY | HADITHS & SUNNA => Quran History, Text, Compilation, and alleged Contradictions => Topic started by: Mohammad Shoumik Saad on November 02, 2016, 04:17:52 AM

Title: Qur'anic etymologies and etymological connections
Post by: Mohammad Shoumik Saad on November 02, 2016, 04:17:52 AM
As salamu 'alaikum,

Based on Qur'anic exegeses, works of arabic and other semitic languages' linguists, and your personal opinions / theories (backed by linguistic and historical proofs) what is the arabic etymology and arabic meaning of "Ibraaheem"? Plz keep aside the majority scholarly and anti-Islamic (and quite possibly correct) opinion that it's just  a transliteration of Hebrew אַבְרָהָם (pronunciation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:He-Avraham.ogg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:He-Avraham.ogg)) or more likely aramaic (and also syriac I think - correct me if I'm wrong) ܐܒܪܗܡ (pronunciation something like "owrraahim"* - correct me if I'm wrong).

This should refute "...Biblical names are also misunderstood in the Qur’an, and their meanings lost... Abraham ‘Father of many’ (cf Genesis 17:5) might have been better represented as something like Aburahim ‘father of mercy’ instead of Ibrahim, which has no meaning in Arabic at all." - Mark Durie, 'Isa, the Muslim Jesus (http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/durie/islamic_jesus.html), AnsweringIslam.

Quite interestingly, the site StudyQuran in their Project Root List (http://www.studyquran.co.uk/PRLonline.htm) gives "Abraham" as one of the meanings of the root "alif-ba-ra" but also lists "a needle, a thing pointed" - can needles or pointed things possibly relate to the name "Ibraaheem" in any way?

More interestingly, the Project Root List gives "go away, depart, withdraw, to give up or leave/cease/quit, angry, annoy/distress/difficulty/adversity, hurt/fatigue" as meanings of the root "ba-ra-ha" - and immediatedly I can connect these to the Qur'anic accounts of Ibraaheem (peace be upon him) going away from his people's idol worship; was angry with this; annoyed them in their worship; faced distress for this by being threatened with stoning, killing or burning and was finally thrown into a fire; and fatigued the faulty reasoning of his people's support of their idol worship, and of the one he argued with mentioned in Qur'an 2:258.

On a side note is the name "Abraha" (as in Abraha al Ashram) related to "Abraham" or "Ibraaheem"?

*This pronunciation is as given in "Jesus uses the word Muslim in Luke 6:40" on this site. Can u give a better link, preferably for an audio or video?

Title: Re: Qur'anic etymologies and etymological connections
Post by: submit on November 02, 2016, 11:40:38 AM
the language used during the time of Abraham was not modern Hebrew nor modern Arab.

as for the meaning of name Abram its beloved father (sumerian)
as for the name Abraham its most affectionate father