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The Qur’an claims to be a book composed of a ‘pure Arabic’ – a language made ‘easy’ for still being accessible to those wishing to study the original language of revelation. However, many self-referential claims criticized the Quranic claim that it contains only Arabic words. It is not a text including various languages. The question of whether the Qur’an contains non-Arabic words has long been a subject of scholarly debate among Muslim and non-Muslim exegetes, linguists, and historians of the Qur’anic text. The Qur’an describes itself as a revelation in ﴿ بِلِسَانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُّبِينٍ﴾ [ سورة الشعراء: 195] “in clear Arabic language”, emphasizing its linguistic purity and accessibility to its initial Arab audience. Yet, many lexical studies have identified certain words within the Qur’an that appear to have roots in other languages, such as Syriac, Hebrew, Persian, Greek, and Abyssinian and other Aramaic languages, raising critical questions about the linguistic environment of pre-Islamic Arabia and the nature of Qur’anic revelation.

Early Scholarly Perspectives

Early Muslim scholars held various perspectives on this issue. Mainly, there are three different approaches in this matter:

1. Complete Rejection of Foreign Elements

     Firstly,  Famous scholars in the Shafi School of Thought, like Imam Shafi, Imam Suyuti, etc, strongly believed that the Quran contains no foreign words at all. They argued that if a word in the Qur’an was also found in another language, it didn’t mean that Arabic borrowed it — it could just as easily be that the other language borrowed it from Arabic, or that both languages shared it at the same time. In his book al-Risālah, al-Shāfiʿī strongly condemned those who claimed that the Qur'an contained non-Arabic words. Al-Ṭabarī, in his Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, took a similar stance. In his commentary on Q 16:103,وَلَقَدۡ نَعۡلَمُ أَنَّهُمۡ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّمَا يُعَلِّمُهُۥ بَشَرٞۗ لِّسَانُ ٱلَّذِي يُلۡحِدُونَ إِلَيۡهِ أَعۡجَمِيّٞ وَهَٰذَا لِسَانٌ عَرَبِيّٞ مُّبِينٌ“.This verse is a proof that the speech of the Qur’an is purely Arabic, revealed in the tongue of the Arabs, and there is no word within it except what the Arabs know and use in their speech.”The lexicographer and grammarian Aḥmad b. Fāris (d. 395/1004) reinforced this view in his linguistic treatise ‘’‏الصاحبي في فقه اللغة وسنن العرب في كلامها’. He wrote: If foreign words existed in the Qur’an, it would be unfair to challenge the native Arab speakers to produce a ‘chapter like it’ since the assumption is that there are words out of their lexicon contained within it. One of the ways of reconciling Ibn Faris’ contention is that because words were of foreign-language origin, it did not necessarily mean the words remained foreign to the Arabs who had adopted them into the Arabic language at the time of revelation. Their main reason was that the Qur’an itself repeatedly says it is revealed “in clear Arabic” (as in verses 16:103, 12:2, 42:7). So, they believed that admitting foreign words would contradict the Qur’an’s claim of being purely Arabic. They also reasoned that since the Qur’an says every prophet speaks the language of his people, an Arab prophet (Muhammad ﷺ) must have spoken to his people in Arabic only. Their core arguments are the Qurʾān’s self-description, Prophetic mission principle, Iʿjāz (linguistic miracle), and Linguistic sovereignty.

2.  Acceptance of Non-Arabic Vocabulary

Secondly, many others accepted that a limited number of such words existed — not as foreign interferences, but as Arabized borrowings that had already entered to common Arabic usage and vocabulary before revelation. Pioneering figures like Abd Allāh b. ʿAbbās [R.A], the famous companion of Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] and exegete,  the prolific polymath Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, and etc. Numerous narrations from Ibn ʿAbbās indicate his recognition of non-Arabic or Arabized words within the Qur’an. Although the authenticity of some chains is debated, these reports were widely cited by later exegetes such as al-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī, and al-Suyūṭī as evidence of early acceptance of muʿarrab. Some of the examples are given here: On the word سِجِّيل (sijjīl) in Q 105:4, Ibn ʿAbbās reportedly said:
— “It is from the Persian sang and gil, meaning stone and clay.”
[ al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān]

On طُور (ṭūr) in Q 52:1, he said:
— “It is a Syriac word meaning ‘mountain.’”
[ al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān]

On إِسْتَبْرَق (istabraq) in Q 18:31, he said:
 “It is a Persian word meaning thick brocade.”
 — [al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān]

These reports show that Ibn ʿAbbās recognized the foreign origin of some Qur’anic terms, yet did not consider this in any way as not matching with the Qur’an’s claim of being “in clear Arabic” — because, by his understanding, these words had already been naturalized into Arabic usage. Their core arguments are that Loanwords are natural in all languages, the Qurʾān’s “Arabic” nature refers to its grammar and style, and Foreign words were already understood by Arabs.

The most systematic classical discussion of muʿarrab in the Qur’an is found in Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī’s famous treatises الإتقان في علوم القرآن and المهذب فيما وقع في القرآن من المعرب. He compiled approximately sixty examples of such words, tracing them to Persian, Syriac, Hebrew, Abyssinian, Greek, and Coptic sources. For al-Suyūtī, the few examples of non–Arabic words found in the Qur’ān did not negate its overall Arabic nature, nor did they challenge the Arabic authenticity of the Qur’an; hence, there was no conflict with this and the verses describing it as an Arabic revelation.
       
3. Reconciliation or Middle Position — The Theory of Taʿrīb

Thirdly, a group of scholars sought to reconcile the two positions mentioned earlier by claiming that there was an element of truth in both. They argued that some words in the Qur’an were originally foreign but had already been Arabized (taʿrīb) before revelation. These words had been adopted into Arabic speech and vocabulary, used by pre-Islamic Arabs in their poetry, trade, and daily language, and modified to fit Arabic pronunciation and grammar. Thus, by the time of the Qur’an’s revelation, these terms were fully integrated and rightfully considered as Arabic. Some of the famous scholars who took this position were Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām [Gharīb al-Ḥadīth], he is among the first known scholars to articulate this middle position clearly. Al-Zarkashī [al-Burhān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān], He was a leading figure in the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, an influential Andalusian scholar known for his significant work in Quranic exegesis (tafsīr) named المحرّر الوجيز في تفسير الكتاب العزيز. This middle view asserts that some Qur’anic words originated in other languages, but they had already become part of Arabic usage (muʿarrab) before revelation; therefore, the Qur’an is still completely Arabic, both linguistically and stylistically. This explanation preserves both linguistic integrity and the theological claim of the Qur’an as an “Arabic revelation”. This is the most dominant view among the three.

The sheer diversity in the provenance of those loanwords—spanning Greek, Syriac, Persian, and Ethiopic—underscores the highly internationalized environment of the Hijaz in the 6th and 7th centuries CE and the cosmopolitan character of the Qur’an. The vocabulary acts as a sophisticated historical timestamp, confirming the Qur'an’s emergence from a dynamic cultural and economic matrix.

3.1 Linguistic and Historical Evidence of Taʿrīb

Pre-Islamic Linguistic Environment: Long before the revelation of the Qurʾān, the Arabian Peninsula was far from linguistically isolated. It was surrounded by powerful civilizations — Persia in the east, Byzantium in the north, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) across the Red Sea, and Syriac- and Aramaic-speaking communities in the northwestern regions. Arabia served as a commercial and cultural bridge among these centres. Consequently, the Arabic language absorbed a number of words from neighboring tongues, a process known as taʿrīb — the adaptation or Arabization of foreign vocabulary in the Arabic language. This linguistic reality is reflected in pre-Islamic poetry, particularly in the Muʿallaqāt (The Seven Hanging Odes), which already contained several words of non-Arabic origin. The poets employed such words naturally, without any awareness that they were borrowed, demonstrating that these terms had become part of the living Arabic language even before Islam. Hence, when the Qurʾān used them, they were already familiar to the Arab audience.

Major causes for this process of linguistic reasoning are:

Trade and Cultural Exchange:

The Arabian Peninsula occupied a central position in ancient trade routes linking Yemen, Persia, India, the Levant, and Abyssinia. Caravans from Mecca and Medina frequently traveled to Syria and Yemen, exchanging goods and ideas. Through these interactions, Arabs adopted words related to commerce, textiles, metals, spices, and governance from Persian, Greek, and Syriac languages. For example, the Qurʾānic word istabraq (إِسْتَبْرَق), meaning “brocade,” was borrowed from Persian, reflecting trade in luxury goods.

Religious Interactions with Jews and Christians:

Before Islam, many Jewish tribes lived in Yathrib (Medina), Khaybar, and Taymāʾ, while Christian tribes and monks were present in Najrān and al-Ḥīrah. Contact with these communities introduced religious vocabulary from Hebrew, Syriac, and Aramaic. Terms such as Sijjīl (سِجِّيل), possibly derived from Persian or Aramaic for “baked clay” , appear in the Qurʾān in the story of the People of the Elephant (Q 105:4), reflecting exposure to Jewish-Christian scriptural traditions and terminology.

Political and Social Contact:

Arabia was also influenced politically by the great empires around it. The Ghassānid and Lakhmid Arab tribes acted as client states of Byzantium and Persia, respectively, serving as intermediaries between Arabs and these imperial cultures. Through diplomatic relations and administration, the Arabs absorbed technical and bureaucratic vocabulary from other languages. The Qurʾānic term qisṭās (قِسْطَاس), meaning “scales,” is of Greek origin (kíntos or zūgós), likely introduced through Byzantine channels. Similarly, sijill (سِجِلّ), meaning “record” or “scroll,” comes from the Latin sigillum, a term used for seals and documents in Roman administration.

The Linguistic Process of Taʿrīb:

Muslim linguists such as Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām and al-Suyūṭī describe taʿrīb as a natural process of assimilation, where a borrowed word undergoes phonetic and morphological modification to adapt to Arabic patterns. For example, Foreign sounds are replaced with their closest Arabic equivalents, Words are adjusted to fit known Arabic awzān (morphological patterns), and the new words are then used in poetry and speech, becoming indistinguishable from native terms. This process ensured that, by the time of the Qurʾānic revelation, these words were fully integrated into Arabic usage and understood by the Arabs without any sense of foreignness. Classical scholars conducted a precise study about this and recorded these linguistic borrowings. Al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505), in al-Muhadhdhab fīmā Waqaʿa fī al-Qurʾān min al-Muʿarrab, identified about 125 words of foreign origin in other languages that appear in 41 surahs of the Qurʾān. He traced them to 13 source languages, including Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, Abyssinian, Greek, Latin, Berber, and Indian languages. Al-Suyūṭī emphasized that, although these words are foreign in root, they had become “Arabized” and were part of the Arabs’ expressive vocabulary. So, it did not challenge any of the dimensions of the Qur’an. It’s preserving the Qurʾān’s Arabic identity.

Modern Scholarly Views

Modern Islamic scholarship largely champions the Taʿrīb (Arabization/assimilation) view concerning potentially non-Arabic words in the Qur'an. This perspective shifts the focus from the linguistic origins of individual terms to the Qur'an's sophisticated and comprehensive use of the Arabic language as a whole. Scholars argue that assimilated loanwords do not diminish the text's purity but rather demonstrate and increase its vitality and universal scope. Muḥammad ʿAbdullāh al-Darrāz emphasized that the uniqueness and singularity (Iʿjāz) of the Qur'an lies in its overall structural coherence, inimitable style, and the depth of its message—not merely in its vocabulary. He saw assimilated words as enriching the divine speech, thereby proving that the Qur'an utilized the full lexicon available in its contemporary setting. Subḥī al-Ṣāliḥ defined Taʿrīb as the naturalization of foreign words into Arabic. He argued that borrowing is a sign of a language's strength and dynamism, not its weakness. He reinforced that the text is "Arabic" because its message is structurally understandable to its audience, regardless of the etymologies of a few integrated terms. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd stated that the Qur'an's miraculous nature is rooted in its divine expressiveness and comprehensive message, extending beyond word choice. He viewed the presence of words from related sacred languages (such as Syriac or Hebrew) or major civilizations (such as Persian) as a positive indication of the Qur'an's universal reach and cosmopolitan nature. Other Modern Scholars (including Ibn ʿĀshūr and al-Būṭī) stress that Arabic, like all human languages, evolved through cultural interaction. They conclude that the Qur'an's masterful deployment of this dynamic, evolved language constitutes an unparalleled literary and theological milestone.  In essence, these scholars agree that the few borrowed words were fully integrated into Arabic, and their presence underscores the Qur'an's ability to convey a universal, comprehensive message using the most robust and sturdy vocabulary of the available language.

Conclusion
The debate on non-Arabic words in the Qur'an has evolved from a strict focus on etymological purity to an acceptance of linguistic reality. Early purists like al-Shāfiʿī gave way to the technical theory of Taʿrīb (Arabization), which became the established view through the work of most renowned scholars, such as al-Zarkashī and al-Suyūṭī. The modern consensus holds that all foreign words were fully integrated and naturalized into Arabic according to its rules before the revelation. Therefore, functionally, they are treated as native Arabic words within the text. This concept of Taʿrīb strengthens the doctrine of Qur'anic inimitability (Iʿjāz). The miraculous nature of the Qur'an is not based on the origin of its individual words, but on its unrivalled rhetorical elegance, excellent composition, and commanding comprehensiveness. Ultimately, this phenomenon emphasizes the global omnipresence of its divine message.

About the author

Swabeeh Karippur is an undergraduate student at Sabeelul Hidaya Islamic College, affiliated to  Darul Huda Islamic University. His academic focus includes Qur’anic studies and other areas of Islamic studies.


References

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