The Quran

Preface

وَلَو جَعَلناهُ قُرآنًا أَعجَمِيًّا لَقالوا لَولا فُصِّلَت آياتُهُ ۖ أَأَعجَمِيٌّ وَعَرَبِيٌّ ۗ قُل هُوَ لِلَّذينَ آمَنوا هُدًى وَشِفاءٌ ۖ وَالَّذينَ لا يُؤمِنونَ في آذانِهِم وَقرٌ وَهُوَ عَلَيهِم عَمًى ۚ أُولٰئِكَ يُنادَونَ مِن مَكانٍ بَعيدٍ

Yusuf Ali

Had We sent this as a Qur-ān (in the language)¹ other than Arabic, they would have said: “Why are not its verses explained in detail? What! (a Book) not in Arabic and (a Messenger an Arab?” Say: “It is a Guide and a Healing to those who believe; and for those who believe not, there is a deafness in their ears,² and it is blindness in their (eyes): They are (as it were) being called from a place far distant!”

Cf. 16:103-105; 12:2; etc. It was most natural and reasonable that the Messenger being Arab, the Message should be in his own tongue, that he might explain it in every detail, with the greatest power and eloquence. Even though it was to be for the whole world, its initial exposition was thus to be in Arabic. But if people had no faith and were spiritually deaf or blind, it would not matter in what language it came.
Cf. 41:5, and 6:25. They pretended that it was too deep for them, when they meant that they were superior to it! The fact was that by putting themselves in an artificially false position, they rendered themselves impervious to the Message. The voice of Revelation or the voice of conscience sounded to them as if it came from a far-off place! They themselves made themselves strangers to it.