عجم

Core meaning

What does not speak clearly: a tongue whose articulation is not limpid. The word qualifies a tongue, not a people, and stands against عَرَبِيّ, "flawless".

Uses

1. أَعْجَمِىّ → "confused" : said of a tongue, or of a Recitation that would not be limpid.

   • «لِّسَانُ ٱلَّذِى يُلْحِدُونَ إِلَيْهِ أَعْجَمِىٌّۭ» — "Yet the tongue of the one to whom they allude is confused" (16:103)
   • «ءَا۬عْجَمِىٌّۭ وَعَرَبِىٌّۭ» — "Confused and flawless at once?" (41:44)

2. ٱلْأَعْجَمِين → "those whose tongue is not flawless" : those who speak such a tongue.

   • «وَلَوْ نَزَّلْنَٰهُ عَلَىٰ بَعْضِ ٱلْأَعْجَمِينَ» — "And if We had sent it down upon one of those whose tongue is not flawless" (26:198)

Evidence from the text

The opposition is set in the same verse: "the tongue of the one to whom they allude is confused, whereas this tongue is flawless, explicit" (16:103). In 41:44, the question that answers "a confused Recitation" makes sense only if both words name a quality of speech: one and the same message cannot be both.

In 26:198-199, what would have prevented belief is a Recitation recited in a tongue that is not flawless, not the origin of the one who recites it.

Distinctions

• عرب — flawless: the clear tongue, without defect, that عجم denies

See also

لسن (the tongue)