Define the Words First

One word, two meanings: Many debates are only word-mix-ups. Two people use the same word but mean different things by it — and argue for hours about nothing. Before you answer a question, make sure you both mean the same thing by the important words.

Ask what they mean: When someone asks, "Is Tawassul shirk?", first ask: what do you mean by shirk? The Quran defines shirk precisely — worshipping something beside Allah. If tawassul is not worship, then it cannot be shirk. Defining the word first can end the debate before it begins.

One word can decide everything: In the Quran, the whole wudu question turns on one Arabic word — whether the feet are wiped or washed (5:6). The prayer-combining question turns on what "hardship" means. The khums question turns on one word — Ghanimtum — which in Arabic means more than just war booty. Words are small, but they carry whole arguments.

Example

The spicy dish: Two friends argue about a dish. One says, "It is spicy." The other says, "No, it is not spicy." Later they find out: one meant "hot with chillies", the other meant "full of taste". They were never disagreeing — they were using one word in two ways.

Ask first, argue later: Five minutes spent defining words can save an hour of useless argument. A careful debater always asks, "What do you mean by that word?"

Key Terms

• Ta'rif (تعریف) — a definition, fixing what a word means before the debate
• Mawla (مولیٰ) — a word with many meanings (friend, master, leader); its meaning at Ghadeer decides the argument
• I'rab (اعراب) — Arabic grammar, which can decide a whole ruling (as in Quran 5:6)

Quran or Hadith

Quran 5:6 — "O you who believe — when you rise for prayer — wash your faces and your hands to the elbows — and wipe your heads — and your feet to the ankles." — to be checked.

The entire wudu debate is in this one verse: does "your feet" join the washing or the wiping? The grammar decides — and both readings exist among the seven canonical reciters of the Quran.

Fresh diagram to be drawn: One word in the middle ("Mawla") with arrows pointing to three meanings — friend, master, leader — and the caption: "Define the word first."