All sayings · What They Said About the Arabs and Arabic

What they said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic

“The science most deserving to be learned and most worthy of being memorised, after knowledge of God, is the science of rhetoric and the knowledge of eloquence, by which the inimitability of God's Book is known.”

Abu Hilal al-'Askari
d. 395 AH / 1005 CE
al-Hasan ibn 'Abd Allah, literary critic and rhetorician

The Arabic original

اعْلَمْ- عَلَّمَكَ اللَّهُ الخَيْرَ، وَدَلَّكَ عَلَيْهِ، وَقَيَّضَهُ لَكَ، وَجَعَلَكَ مِنْ أَهْلِهِ- أَنَّ أَحَقَّ العُلُومِ بِالتَّعَلُّمِ، وَأَوْلاها بِالتَّحَفُّظِ- بَعْدَ المَعْرِفَةِ بِاللَّهِ جَلَّ ثَناؤُهُ- عِلْمُ البَلاغَةِ، وَمَعْرِفَةُ الفَصاحَةِ، الَّذى بِهِ يُعْرَفُ إِعْجازُ كِتابِ اللَّهِ تَعالَى

Source

Abu Hilal al-'Askari, Kitab al-Sina'atayn, ed. al-Bajawi and Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim, al-Maktaba al-'Unsuriyya, Beirut, 1998, p. 1
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.

The opening of his book, addressed to a friend.

Tap a card to see it full size; each has a download button below it for sharing.