[ms] Clarity and Ambiguity of the Meanings of Arabic Words in Mahabbah by Shahnon Ahmad

Abstract

The arrival of Islam in the Malay world has brought a great change in the life of the Malay community. These changes not only include the faith aspect, but also to the culture, arts, community, education, economy and others. The utilization of Arabic words in Malay vocabulary is one of the positive changes that contribute to the advancement of the Malay language. However, the utilization of Arabic words should be in line with the context of Malay sentences. In other words, the utilization should be compatible between the original meaning of words in Arabic with the meaning to be used in the Malay language according to the context of the sentence. Based on this understanding, this article analyzes some Arabic words used in the literary work of the National Laureate, Shahnon Ahmad entitled Mahabbah. Besides, several Arabic words used is the novel are also among the words found in the Qur’an. This is in line with the content of the novel that deals with Islamic values such as brotherhood, compassion, collaboration, forgiveness and others. The main purpose of this analysis is to identify the accuracy of Arabic words utilization based on the sentence contexts in Mahabbah. Based on the findings from the analysis, there are Arabic words used in the novel that do coincide with the context of the sentences. In addition, the use of Arabic words did not contribute to the understanding of the meaning of the sentence. The analysis also showed that the utilization of Arabic words in Mahabbah does not by significantly explain the storyline in Mahabbah, but in some circumstances it may complicate the reader to understand the message conveyed.

Keywords: Mahabbah; Arabic word; Arabic language; meaning; literary work

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/islamiyyat-2015-3701-07