Counting and Statistics in the Holy Quran: A Semantic Study

Abstract

Identifying the linguistic root is of great importance as it reveals semantic, morphological, and phonetic meaning. The linguistic material has a dictionary meaning as well as contextual textual meanings. The problem of this study lies in clarifying the semantic difference between counting and statistics. This study aims to uncover meanings
of the (ح،ص,ى)  and (ع،د،د) in the Quran, in addition to explaining the semantic difference between the two roots, and revealing the purposes arising from the construction related to order and sequencing in counting and statistics in the Quranic context. This study relied on the descriptive-analytical method based on extracting the meaning
 of “counting” and “statistics” from dictionaries and tafsirs. It reached results including: the meanings of counting indicated sequential narration and calculation, preparation abundance, and the meaning of “statistics” indicated comprehensiveness, inclusion, entirety, and preservation, and that statistics is broader than counting because it is more comprehensive, wider, and more general.