On verses and signs congregated around the origin (Part 4)

In the previous post, we’ve seen how  the identification of signs is dependent on the sense of vision.

I would now like to analyze an Arabic root whose presence in this article I hope will allow me to prove that in order to know signs a special kind of knowledge is needed, a type of  knowledge that seems to be associated with vision.

The root is سمو (smu), whose main meanings in the Qur’an are those of sky and names.
A name is a sign in the form of a language unit by which a person or thing is known.

The root سمو also means a form or figure seen from a distance, and the aspect of anything – so basically, just like the others we’ve seen so far, a name is also a sign with its own shape. But besides this similarity, a name has one characteristic that makes it distinct from the others: names are signs that can be used to allude to someone or something that is not present, which means that the recognizance of names is not dependent on vision.

To put it in other words, if names are like forms that we see then either we identify those forms or we don’t, that is, either we know them or we don’t. It is not a question of not seeing them, but of recognizing them. In Latin, this verb is recognosco, and literally means to know again. Being used to denote the act of recalling to mind, this meaning to know again as a recollection in the mind is dependent on the thing being previously known – and this is probably why سمو is synonym with علم (‘lm), a root whose main occurrence in the Qur’an is to denote knowledge, as I’ve pointed out in the first part of this article.

We should now recall that ayat denotes both the signs and the verses in the Qur’an. In my opinion, this pair should to be looked at from the very peculiar aspect it assumes in the Qur’an, where those signs lead a sort of double-live, as they are both apparent and not immediately perceptible… To say it in other words, the concept of ayat in the Qur’an tells us of  the existence of an apparent thing that is inseparable from a thing not equally apparent, and it is only because we are capable of seeing or recognizing the former that we are able to infer, or deduce, the presence of the other. This is also coherent with علم and سمو connection with signs, allowing me to conclude that getting to know the signs and the verses of the Qur’an is, in fact, dependent not only on the ability of seeing them but also of conceiving them.

In order for a better understanding of what conceiving means, I would like to call your attention to the Latin verb from which it derives: concipio, to take or lay hold of. From this general meaning, a figurative one emerged: to take or seize something by the sense of sight, which in turn was used as meaning to comprehend intellectually. I think that this verb is the one that more explicitly shows us that there’s an equivalence between seeing and understanding, an equivalence that originates in the general metaphor of the eye of the intellect, that is, a sort of sixth sense that is responsible for the perception of unapparent things.

The fact that they’re intrinsically connected is made explicit in Arabic root بصر, that denotes both the sense of vision with the eye and the vision of the intellect, as demonstrated, for instance, in 24:44, “God alternates the night and the day. Indeed in that is an indication for those of vision”.

The alternation of night and day is an apparent sign susceptible of being caught by the eyes, and, at the same time, an unapparent one that can only be grasped by the intellect – which means that this sign is a concept, that is, it is a name given to the conjunction of all the characteristic features or particulars of the alternation that can only be seen by the other type of vision. But if we wish to understand even better this type of knowledge, I suggest taking a look at 3:190 “Indeed, in […] the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding.“, where understanding is denoted by لب, a root that clearly associates it with the edible heart of nuts, almonds, etc. In other words, this is the type of knowledge or understanding that has its origin on the capability of being able to look at the inside, at the center of something that is hidden – a notion that is rendered clear in English language through the noun insight, literally, a sight or view into the interior.

Inspired by the sense of names in سمو, in the next post I will try to explain how these units of language congregate around its own standard…

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