Understanding signs and their meanings

The relation between ‘ilm (knowledge) and ‘lam (way sign) is particularly telling given the Arabian context in which the Quran was revealed. 

THERE are indeed strong grounds, as demonstrated in a number of serious studies undertaken by Toshihiko Izutsu and Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, for us to consider Islamised Arabic – the Arabic language after the revelation of the Quran, and as used in the Islamic religious, intellectual and scientific tradition – as a linguistic-conceptual system that eloquently projects a particular worldview, a particular way of understanding Truth-Reality.