Arabiq Online - Arabic of the Qur'an

Sūra al-Rūm 30:20-28

Our Qur’anic word today is آَيَة (āyah), whose plural is آيَات (āyāt) and features extensively in Sūra al-Rūm between ayāt 20 and 28 all starting with وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ, when Allah talks about his various signs. 

The same word is also used by the Qur’an to refer to each of its individual units - what we translate in English as a ‘verse’. However, that translation is sorely lacking when you look at the root meaning of what an āyah actually is.

The root أيّ has many meanings: 

• something that inspires curiosity and makes you ask a question, 
• something that is valuable,
• something that points to a direction, 
• something amazing, 
• something that draws our attention. 
  

So an āyah encompasses all these things.

In the Qur’an Allah uses it to refer to natural phenomena: trees, mountains; revelation, the human body and all that it can do, our sleep and waking, marriage, and the lessons in history. 

So essentially the word āyah is used by Allah as a signpost for us to understand all realities. And that’s why translating as ‘verse’ or ‘sentence’ is so lacking, when it’s a signpost to much greater, real experiences.