Seventh Matter
Eloquence finds its life in, or the wisdom of speech lies in, taking the laws that operate in nature as one’s guide. That is, there are laws upon which all the truths that are manifested as nature, or in nature, are dependent. These laws are unchanging, while their effects or results change either with their identities or nature. (That is, the flowers, leaves, and fruits of a tree in the present year are not the same in identity as those in the other years, but they are the same in nature.) Eloquence finds life by applying these laws to the meanings that arise in the mind, taking into consideration the changes undergone by their effects. This means that eloquence, like a mirror, dons and displays the rays of the truth that are reflected from the outer world. It is as if it wants to imitate creation and nature with the art of imagination and the embroidery of words. Even if a word or speech is not identical with the truth itself, it should receive help from the truth and the order it shapes in the outer world, and grow from the seed of truth. That is, a word or speech should use the basic truths that are manifested as nature, as the seeds to grow from. However, every seed grows into a shoot, plant, or tree peculiar to itself. A seed of wheat cannot grow to be a tree. For this reason, if the philosophy of speech is not considered, eloquence produces only superstition, and imagination only hallucination.
AN INDICATION
Like speech, grammar also has a philosophy. This philosophy, like nature, displays the Creator’s wisdom. The philosophy of grammar is based on the relationship between words explained in books of grammar. For example, in Arabic, any modifiable word is modified only by the modifier that is placed right in front of it. The interrogative particle, Hal, wants to immediately join the verb which it modifies. The word functioning as the subject is powerful and appropriates the vowel mark u, which is also powerful. In short, the laws operating in languages are like the reflections of the laws operating in nature.
A REMINDER
The wisdom in the relations mentioned concerning grammar is of great value, even though it is not as clear as the wisdom of eloquence or styles. At least, it has led the traditional, reported religious sciences, such as jurisprudence, that are basically based on the explicit and implicit Revelation— the Qur’an and the Sunnah—and have developed through such principles as deduction and induction, into forms of rational science.
Said Nursi