Deciphering the Qur'an one word at a time and the word سريا or Sariya in Surat Maryam 24! Part 3

Submitted by dhimmi no more, Mar 6, 2019 at 11:47

Dr Pipes,

The Quranic verse 19:24 says:

فَنَادَاهَا مِن تَحْتِهَا أَلَّا تَحْزَنِي قَدْ جَعَلَ رَبُّكِ تَحْتَكِ سَرِيًّا

This can be rendered as: And he (Gabriel) called from under her: You Lord has placed a Sariya below you

Notice that I left the word سَرِيًّا untranslated because it is not an Arabic word and al-Tabari tells us that this words means: جدول صغير بالسريانية Or small river (water stream) in Syriac! This is far from the truth

Luxenberg believes that the word Sariya is from Syriac ܫܪܝܐ or Shariya or "a verbal adjective in the sense of legitimate."

He reads it as: Do not be sad (Maryam) your Lord had made your delivery legitimate."

Notice that the Syriac letter Sh becomes Arabic S

And now the meaning of the verse is clear

How did this happen that by the 3rd century of Islam there was a total disconnect between 7th century Mecca and Medina and 9th century Mesopotamia where the tafsir was written? And the meaning of this word was lost

BTW: Small river (stream) in Syriac is ܢܗܪܘܢܐ or Nahruna compare with Arabic نهر or Nahr

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