Speaking in tongues: language diversity and its symbolic significance within the Islamic linguistic tradition

This paper explores the theoretical and symbolic significance of language diversity within the Islamic linguistic tradition. While Arabic holds a central, sacred status as the language of the Koranic revelation, the Holy Book itself explicitly presents the multiplicity of human tongues and ethnicities as a natural event and a providential sign of God's design. Through the analysis of works by Islamic philosophers, historians, poets, and Sufi masters—such as al-Fārābī, Rūmī, and Ibn 'Arabī—the study illustrates how linguistic variation is understood as the consequence of natural adaptations by different peoples to their specific environments. In this context, language diversity frequently serves as a powerful metaphor for religious diversity, suggesting that different linguistic and religious forms are merely diverse symbolic expressions of the same ultimate, universal truth. Ultimately, the paper highlights how the acquisition of multiple languages (plurilingualism) was conceived by some Islamic thinkers not only as a tool for a more totalizing understanding of reality and human nature, but also as a profound path toward knowledge and spiritual realization.