The second error lies in their interpreting the sunna according to its later technical sense, heedless of its original legal meaning; and how often people stumble in the very issue before us because of just such heedlessness!

For this reason Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya, followed by his student Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on them both—frequently drew attention to the matter, insisting that when one explains juridical terms one must return to the language itself, not to current convention. In truth, this is the very foundation of what is nowadays called “the historical study of vocabulary.”

It is also fitting to note that one of the chief aims of the Arabic Language Academy in the United Arab Republic (Egypt) is “to compile a historical dictionary of the Arabic language and to publish rigorous studies on the history of certain words and the changes their meanings have undergone,” as stated in paragraph two of article two of Law No. 434 (1955) regulating the Academy (see Majallat al-Majmaʿ, vol. 8, p. 5). We therefore hope that the Academy will undertake this monumental task and entrust it to Muslim Arab hands, for the people of Mecca