What they said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
Answering those who belittled the study of grammar:
“For it is known that words are locked upon their meanings until grammatical inflection opens them, that the intentions lie hidden in them until it brings them out, that it is the standard against which no speech shows its shortcoming or its excellence until it is measured, and the yardstick without which sound cannot be told from faulty.”
ʿAbd al-Qahir al-Jurjani
d. 471 AH / 1078 CE
Master of Arabic rhetoric and author of the theory of naẓm (composition), in Dalaʾil al-iʿjaz and Asrar al-balagha.
The Arabic original
إِذْ كانَ قَدْ عُلِمَ أَنَّ الأَلْفاظَ مُغْلَقَةٌ عَلَى مَعانِيها حَتَّى يَكُونَ الإِعْرابُ هُوَ الَّذِي يَفْتَحُها، وَأَنَّ الأَغْراضَ كامِنَةٌ فِيها حَتَّى يَكُونَ هُوَ المُسْتَخْرِجَ لَها، وَأَنَّهُ المِعْيارُ الَّذِي لا يَتَبَيَّنُ نُقْصانُ كَلامٍ وَرُجْحانُهُ حَتَّى يُعْرَضَ عَلَيْهِ، وَالمِقْياسُ الَّذِي لا يُعْرَفُ صَحِيحٌ مِنْ سَقِيمٍ حَتَّى يُرْجَعَ إِلَيْهِ.
Source
ʿAbd al-Qahir al-Jurjani, Dalaʾil al-iʿjaz, ed. ʿAbd al-Hamid Hindawi, Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2001, p. 30
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
Also in the Shakir edition, p. 28.
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