What they said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
“The tongue of the Arabs is the widest of tongues in its ways and the richest in words; we know of no one but a prophet who encompasses all of it, yet none of it is lost to the Arabs as a whole, so that there is always someone among them who knows it.”
al-Shafi'i
d. 204 AH / 820 CE
Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i, founder of the Shafi'i school and of legal theory
The Arabic original
وَلِسانُ العَرَبِ أَوْسَعُ الأَلْسِنَةِ مَذْهَباً وَأَكْثَرُها أَلْفاظاً، وَلا نَعْلَمُهُ يُحِيطُ بِجَمِيعِ عِلْمِهِ إِنْسانٌ غَيْرُ نَبِيٍّ، وَلَكِنَّهُ لا يَذْهَبُ مِنْهُ شَئٌ عَلَى عامَّتِها حَتَّى لا يَكُونَ مَوْجُوداً فِيها مَنْ يَعْرِفُهُ
Source
al-Shafi'i, al-Risala, ed. Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, al-Halabi, Cairo, 1938, para. 138, p. 42
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
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