Learning and studying poetry - how important is it?

[Abu_Dahdah]

Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah,

This is a question for all the tullab ul-'ilm on this forum inshaAllah.

How important would you consider studying poetry (e.g. mu'allaqaat, Diwaan Ali, Diwaan Shafi'i, Mutanabbi) etc. in understanding and appreciating the 'ijaaz of the Quran? Do you think that it is indispensable for someone learning Arabic to understand the Quran?

A have an Iraqi friend who mashaAllah is big on his lugha. He has studied linguistic tafaaseer and some famous diwaans in Egypt. His line of thought:

> When you study poetry, you get to appreciate the beauty of the Arabic language.
> But you also learn to do naqd (i.e. literary criticism). So you can find faults in poetry e.g. "If only he did this instead of that it would have been better" or "This is really good but he bent a few grammatical rules".
> Once you learn naqd, you then come to the Quran and try to apply the same criticism. This is when you become come ma'jooz (i.e. completely and utterly defeated and incapable). That's when you truly realise that the Quran is a mu'jizah and it's not the word of man.
> You also realise that the Quran doesn't fit the famous poetic meters and it's completely a different genre of "literature" (if you call it that).

Has anyone else gone through this line of thinking?

Jazak Allah Khair

[Abu_Dahdah]

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