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I told an imam today that iqra in the #Quran doesn't mean "read", it means "gather!" according to the ahl al-lughah (Linguistic experts) of 7th century #arabic. He sent me this
I forget sometimes what it's like to be plugged into the copy-pasta tradition of tafsir, so here it goes... al-Isfahani says in the most authoritative work on the expressions in the #Quran "according to the authorities of the language...قرأ = جمع."
And Ibn Manzur corroborates this in the Lisan al-Arab "The meaning of the #Quran is الجمع (gathering)"
He continues making it crystal clear it means "gathering a thing", and euphemistically "getting pregnant"
Which is reminiscent of the Akkadian euphemism using the same root *qara'u*
You see, Semitic cognates can tell us a lot about the word in pre-Islamic Arabic. The primary meaning in Akkadian = invite, call out
Or in Amharic = to shout
of course in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac = call, invite
So it really surprises me the philological gymnastics Orientalist perform to root the word #Quran in a Syriac word Qeryana "Lectern" deliberately ignoring the phonological impossibility of palatal glide ي transmuting into a glottal stop ء. It is literally unprecedented.
The word qur'ān follows a distinctly and uniquely Arabic augmentative pattern fu'lān. #Quran = The Great Collection. Furthermore, the entire Chapter of the Clot speaks of assembling a body. The prophet's missions wasn't to "read/recite" but to gather. https://quran.com/96
So please do your own due diligence, or at least ask the ahl al-lughah. There's a very clear play on words for the 7th century Arab with خلق الانسان من علق. Literally assembling a body, thus the Prophet's mission
When you read this surah 96 where iqra = “gather” per its original meaning according to the ahl al-lughah, the surah becomes more coherent, cohesive, and historically contextualized to prophetic mission. Hint: qalam ≠ pen.
