The Discourse on the Language In Which the Qur'an Was Revealed From Among the Dialects of the Arabs

Abū Jaʿfar said: We have demonstrated, with sufficient proof for whoever is granted success in understanding it, (1) that God, exalted be His praise, revealed the entire Qur'an in the language of the Arabs to the exclusion of the languages of all other nations, and the falsity of the statement of whoever claimed that part of it is in a tongue and dialects other than those of the Arabs.

So we say now—since that is correct—regarding the indication of which of the dialects of the Arabs it was revealed in: Was it revealed in the dialects of all of them, or in the dialects of some of them? For although the name that they are Arabs encompasses all of them, they differ in dialects in expression and vary in speech and discourse. Since that is so—and God, exalted be His mention, has informed His servants that He made the Qur'an Arabic and that He revealed it in a clear Arabic tongue, while its apparent meaning admits both specificity and generality—there was no way for us to know what God, exalted be His mention, intended by its specificity and generality except through the explanation of the one to whom the explanation of the Qur'an was entrusted, namely the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him.

Since that is so—(2) and the reports from him, peace and blessings of God be upon him, have continuously supported one another—

7 - As Khallād ibn Aslam narrated to us, saying: Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ narrated to us, from Abū Ḥāzim, from Abū Salama, who said—I know it only from Abū Hurayra—that the Messenger of