When the humanistic study of religion succeeds, the alien seems less strange.
-Jacob Neusnerl
Close reading of Koran verses XXX.15/14:
... Fa-hum ft rawdatin yuhbaruna = ". . . they [viz. those who believe and do good works] will be yuhbaruna in a lovely2 garden"; and XLIII.70: 'udkhulu 1-jannata 'antum wa-' azwaju-kum tuhbaruna3 _ "Enter the Garden of Paradise, you [believing Muslims] and your wives, while you are tuhbaruna" leads us to suspect (as we have previously with ('khld, ZAL 18-88, 95-96) that this expression in its Qur'anic context is a Hebraism; the one here means "congregated together."
The commentators recognized the difficulty: al-Zamakhshari4 reports that Mujdhid thought that yuhbaruna means "they are honored"; Qatadah that it means "they are gladdened"; Ibn Kaysan: "they are pleased"; Abu Bakr ibn cAyyash: "crowns are upon their heads"; and Waki1: "[it refers to] listening to heavenly music in Paradise."
Al-Suyut-15 relegates this term to the "non-Hijazi dialect" of Qays Ghaylan [!], thus betraying his perplexity.
All of the numerous European language translations I have managed to check basically follow the accepted (mashur) "they are happy" theme.
The frequently occurring Qur'anic synonymous passives yuhsharuna and yuhdaruna for "they are mustered, made to be present, etc." (the latter with a negative connotation) are irrefragably indigenous Arabic.
E. Ullendorf6 explains the "bi-radical theory":
There exist certain simple bases which run through a large number of `roots' common to many Semitic languages, such as f l (or fr) `to divide', qt-qd `to cut ', etc. These bases were apt to be expanded, and the third consonant, in initial, medial, or final position, came to act as a modifier ...
The quotidian Hebraism was employed by the Prophet to complete this morphological and semantic "triplet," a term with a positive connotation for "they are congregated, etc." Its coincidence with the possibly7 indigenous Arabic root "hbr for "to be variegated; beautiful, etc." and its similarity in form and intended meaning to the two other Arabic roots catalyzed its infiltration into the Arabic system;8 it would appeal, at least on a subliminal level, to potential converts in his Jewish audience who would certainly be familiar with this commonplace Hebrew/Aramaic root.9
NOTES
1. J. Neusner, Take Judaism, For Example, Studies toward the Comparison of Religions (Chicago, 1983), p. xvii.
2. For'rwd -irdy vide infra. h i = triliteral roots ... , or triliteral radical .... or tri-consonantal root ...]
3. The grammatically "balanced" nature of this verset is a sine qua non for correct Arabicity apud al-Zamakhshari (J. P. Broch, ed., Al-Mufassal (Christia- niae, 1879), § 158, p. 50, in fine) and pace A. A. Bloch, Studies in Arabic Syntax and Semantics (Wiesbaden, 1986), pp. 1-13: "A Principle of Balancing." Cf. p. 3 in medio: "We are not, however dealing with a linguistic rule, since the reduplicating pronoun may be absent." [sic]-On the concept of "grammaticality" in Arabic, cf. M. G. Carter, " `Twenty Dirhams' in the Kitab of Sibawaih," BSOAS 35 (1972): 485-96; especially p. 494 in medio. Also see the same author's "An Arab Grammarian of the Eighth Century A.D." in JAOS 93 (1973): 146-57; and P. Abboud, "Sibawaih's Notion of Grammaticality," JAATA 12 (1979): 58-67. Cf. also 'Abu 1-Fadl Tabarsi, Majma` al-Bayan ft Tafsir al-Qur'an [GAL 14051 vol. 9-10 (Tehran, ca. 1965), p. 172 in initio: gala z-Zajjaju: w hadha la yajuzu 'illa ft sh-shi`ri li- 'anna - hum yastagbihuna istaway-tu wa Zaydun. AlZajjaj [the grammarian]: "This is not possible except in poetry: because it is ungrammatical to say: istaway-tu wa Zaydun = "1 and Zayd agree /are equal" [instead of istawaytu-tu 'and wa-Zaydun] Cf. also Z's Kashshaf ad loc. Koran 111.20: (wa -mani ttaba`a- ni) `utifa `ala t-ta' i ft "'aslam-tu" wa -hasuna li-l- fasili. [Likewise at Koran 111.20: land is omitted after "'aslam-tu. "]
4. Kashshaf ad.loc. Koran XXX.15[/ 14].
5. al-' Itgan ft `ulum alQur'an (Cairo, 1951), p. 134 in fine.
6. In C. T. Hodge, ed., Afro-Asiatic -A Survey (The Hague, 1971), p. 36.
7. Cf W. Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Gel ez (Wiesbaden, 1987), p. 224, col. 2 in medio: "considered by Fraenkel [Die aramaischen Fremdworter im Arabischen (Leiden, 1886), p. 247] an Aramaic loanword."
8. "Here we see that the interaction proceeded through a series of linked stages, as an initial period of `preparation' was followed by the Islamic 'domestication' of Judaism, leading to a period of `acceptance and independent growth' which in turn gave way to a long era of `appropriation' in which Jewish ideas became so securely embedded in Islamic thought and practice that their foreign origin and antagonistic premises were substantially obscured, with Judaism becoming an integral part of Islamic philosophical syncretism." -R. M. Somers, ed., in A. F. Wright, Studies in Chinese Buddhism (New Haven, 1990), p. x [I have merely substituted "Jewish" for "Buddhist" and "Islamic" for "Chinese" in the above quotation pour epouvanter the tenured and the comatose. (M.S.)]
9. "[They] mocked at etymology and slighted phonology. But what they did was the same as trying to cross the river without a boat and wanting to climb a mountain without ladders." Tai Chen, in A. Chin and M. Freeman, Tai Chen on Mencius (New Haven, 1990), p. 30.