Dictionary

Ijtihad from the Qur'an and Hadith can have two approaches: One: The conditions that individuals need to reach the stage and power of ijtihad. Two: the conditions that mujtahids face for ijtihad in a religious context; that is, the existence or non-existence is the ground of the possibility of definitive ijtihad from the religious text. A healthy and acceptable ijtihad must fully meet the requirements of both approaches; and disruption in any of these circumstances can overshadow the certainty of religious ijtihad. The current interpretation of the propositions of the Qur'an and Hadith relies heavily on the ijtihad of lexicographers two centuries after the life of the Prophet. Thus, in spite of this historical rupture of the word and the absence of numerous all-contemporary dictionaries of the Prophet, there is no requirement that the lexical ijtihad of two centuries after the Prophet, as we now use it, be one with the spiritual reality of the language of early Islam. Therefore, even if the mujtahids of religious texts are correct in their personal ijtihad, because the conditions for interpreting the text are not available. The current interpretation of the text and propositions of the Qur'an and their hadith is basically uncertain; and at most, it is suspicious. 

Among the authoritative dictionaries of Persian language, Borhān-i Qāti’ (lit. ‘Conclusive Proof’) is considered a turning point in the field of dictionary production, and it provides attractive data for applied linguistics studies in the field of lexicography. Borhān-i Qāti’, compiled in India in the 17th century by Moḥammad-Ḥosayn Khalaf Tabrīzī, is remarkable in several respects, but one of its features which does not seem to have received a proper attention, is its method of providing the pronunciation of its entries. In this reference, almost half of the entries have been given a pronunciation based on analogy, in which the entry word is echoed with a second-well known one, having the same phonotactics (distribution and arrangement of vowels and consonants), and distribution of vowels, and prosody pattern. This method was successfully practiced later on in another important but unfinished reference: Āsaf al-Loghāt (1906-1921). In This article, this pattern of presenting pronunciation is introduced and explained. Also it provides the readers with a list of the reference words which have been used to recognize the pronunciation of the other words, and the frequency of them will also be given and analyzed. The final list of this article presents those words which were believed to be “basic” or “core” by the compiler of Borhān-i Qāti’.