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THE
EXTRAORDINARY COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE
QURAN’S WORDING AND
MEANING
This
comes from the
comprehensiveness of the
Quran’s wording.
Certainly, this
comprehensiveness is
apparent in the previous
Words, as well as in the
verses whose meanings
are quoted in this Word.
As
pointed out in the hadith, Each verse
has outer meanings,
inner meanings, limits
and a point of
comprehension. And it
also has boughs,
branches and twigs,
the wording of the Quran
is such that each
phrase, word and letter,
even each diacritical
stop, has many aspects.
It gives to each of
those it addresses his
share through a
different door.
For
example, And
the mountains masts
(al-Naba’,
78.7) is a phrase
meaning, ‘I have
made the mountains
like masts and
stakes for that
earth of yours’.
The
share of an
ordinary man in
the meaning of
this phrase is
that he sees the
mountains that
seem as if driven
into the ground,
and thinking of
the benefits and
bounties thereof,
offers thanks to
his Creator.
The
share of a poet is
that he imagines
the earth as a
ground, on which
is pitched in a
sweeping ark the
dome of the
heavens as a
mighty blue tent
adorned with
electric lamps,
and he sees the
mountains skirting
the base of the
heavens as the
pegs of the tent.
He worships his
Majestic Creator
in amazement.
The
share of a
desert-dwelling
literary man is
that he imagines
the face of the
earth as a vast
desert, and the
mountain chains as
a great multitude
of nomads’
tents: as if the
soil layer had
been stretched
over high posts
and the pointed
tips of the posts
had raised up the
‘cloth’ of the
soil, which he
sees as the
habitation of
numerous different
creatures looking
one to the other.
He prostrates in
amazement before
his Majestic
Creator, Who
placed and set up
so easily those
imposing and
mighty things like
tents on the face
of the earth.
The
share of a
geographer with a
literary bent is
that he thinks of
the earth as a
ship sailing in
the ocean of air
or of ether, and
the mountains as
masts driven into
the ship for its
balance and
stability. Before
the All-Powerful
One of Perfection
Who has made that
vast earth like a
well-built,
orderly ship on
which He makes us
travel through the
regions of the
universe, he
declares: ‘Glory
be to You, how
magnificent Your
creation is!’
The
share of a
philosopher or
historian of
culture is that he
sees the earth as
a house, the
pillar of whose
life is animal
life in turn
supported by air,
water, and
earth--the
conditions of
life. Mountains
are essential for
air, water, and
earth, for they
are the reservoirs
for water, the
combs for the
air--by
precipitating the
noxious gases,
they purify the
atmosphere--and
the preserver of
earth--they
preserve it from
being transformed
into a swamp, and
against the
encroachment of
the sea. Mountains
are also
treasuries for
other necessities
of human life. In
perfect reverence
he offers praise
to the Maker of
Majesty and
Munificence, Who
has made those
great mountains as
masts for the
earth, which is
the house of our
life, and
appointed them as
the keepers of the
treasuries of our
livelihood.
The
share of a
naturalist
scientist is: The
quakes and tremors
which occurred as
the result of
certain formations
and fusions in the
heart of the earth
stabilized with
the emergence of
mountains. Their
emergence was also
the cause of the
earth’s
stability on its
axis and in its
orbit and its not
deviating in its
annual rotation as
a result of the
earthquakes. The
wrath and anger of
the earth is
quietened through
its breaking
through the vents
of mountains. The
scientist would
come to believe,
and would declare:
‘There is a
wisdom in
everything God
does.’
The
heavens and the earth
were of one piece, then
We parted them.
(21:30)
‘Of
one piece’ in
the verse would
mean to a learned
man who has not
studied
materialist
philosophy that
when the heavens
were clear and
without clouds,
and the earth, dry
and with no traces
of life, and
incapable of
giving birth, God
opened up the
heavens with rain
and the earth with
vegetation, and
created all living
beings through
some sort of
marriage and
impregnation. He
understands that
all these things
are the work of
such an
All-Powerful One
of Majesty that
the face of the
earth is merely a
small garden of
His and the
clouds, which veil
the face of the
skies, are sponges
for watering it,
and the learned
man therefore
prostrates before
the tremendousness
of His Power.
To
an exacting sage
it means: while at
the beginning of
the creation the
heavens and the
earth were a
formless mass,
each consisting of
matter like wet
dough with no
produce or
creatures, the
All-Wise Creator
separated them and
rolled them out,
and giving each a
comely shape and a
beneficial form,
made them the
origins of
multiform, adorned
creatures. The
sage is filled
with admiration at
the
comprehensiveness
of His Wisdom.
A
modern philosopher
or scientist
understands from
it that while at
first the sun, the
earth and other
planets which
comprise the solar
system were all
fused together
like a mass of
dough, the
All-Powerful and
Self-Subsistent
One rolled out the
dough and placed
the planets in
their respective
positions. He left
the sun where it
was and brought
the earth here,
and spreading soil
over the face of
the earth and
watering it with
the rain He poured
from the skies,
and illuminating
it with the light
of the sun, He
made the world
habitable by
living forms and
placed us in it.
The
philosopher-scientist
is saved from the
swamp of
naturalism, and
declares: ‘I
believe in God,
the One, the
Unique!’
The
sun runs its course to a
resting-place for it.
(36:38)
The
particle li (written
as the single
letter lam),
translated here as
‘to’,
expresses the
meanings of ‘toward,
in’, and ‘for’.
Ordinary readers
take it in the
meaning of ‘toward’
and understand
that the sun,
which is a moving
lamp providing
light and heat for
them, will
certainly conclude
its journeying
and, arriving at
its place of rest,
take on a form
which will no
longer be
beneficial for
them. Thinking of
the great bounties
which the Majestic
Creator bestows on
them through the
sun, they declare:
‘All glory be to
God! All praise be
to God!’
A
learned person
also takes li
in the meaning of
‘toward’.
However, he thinks
of the sun not
only as a lamp,
but also as a
shuttle for the
textiles of the
Lord to be woven
in the loom of
spring and summer,
as an ink-pot
whose ink is light
for the letters of
the
Eternally-Besought-of-All
inscribed on the
pages of night and
day. He also
reflects on the
order of the
world, of which
the apparent
movement of the
sun is a sign and
to which it
points. Then he
would declare
before the
All-Wise Maker’s
art: ‘What
wonders God has
willed!’, and
before His Wisdom:
‘May God bless
it!’, and
prostrate.
For
a
geographer-philosopher
li means
‘in’ and
suggests: through
Divine command and
with a spring-like
movement on its
own axis, the sun
orders and propels
its system. Before
his Majestic
Creator, Who
created and set in
order a mighty ‘clock’
like the solar
system, he would
exclaim in perfect
amazement and
admiration: ‘All
greatness is God’s,
and all power!’,
and abandoning
materialistic
philosophy,
embrace the wisdom
of the Quran.
A
precise and wise
scholar considers li
as both causal and
adverbial in
meaning, and
understands that
since the All-Wise
Maker operates
behind the veil of
apparent
causality, He has
tied the planets
to the sun by a
law of His called
gravity, and
causes them to
revolve with
distinct but
regular motions in
accordance with
His universal
wisdom, and in
order to produce
gravity, He has
made the sun’s
movement on its
own axis an
apparent cause.
That is, the
meaning of a
resting-place is
that ‘the sun
moves in the place
determined for it
for the order and
stability of its
own (solar) system’.
For like the
Divine laws, that
motion produces
heat, and heat
produces force,
and force gravity,
the sun’s is a
law of Divine
Lordship. Thus, on
understanding such
an instance of
wisdom from a
single letter of
the Quran, the
wise scholar would
declare: ‘All
praise be to God!
It is in the Quran
that true wisdom
is to be found.
Human philosophy
is worth almost
nothing.’
The
following idea
occurs to a
thinker of poetic
bent from this li
and the
stability
mentioned: ‘The
sun is a
light-diffusing
tree, with the
planets being its
moving fruits.
However, unlike
trees, the sun is
shaken so that the
fruits do not
fall. If it was
not shaken, they
would fall and be
scattered.’ He
may also imagine
the sun to be an
ecstatic leader of
a circle reciting
God’s Names. He
recites in ecstasy
in the center of
the circle and
leads the others
to recite. In
another treatise
of mine, I
expressed this
meaning as
follows:
The
sun is a
fruit-bearing
tree; it is shaken
so that its
traveling fruits
do not fall.
If
it rested, no
longer shaken, the
attraction would
cease, and those
attracted to it
would weep through
space.
They
are those who will
prosper. (2:5)
This
verse is general and
unspecified, it does
not specify in what
way they will
prosper, so that
each person may find
what he pursues in
it. The sense is
compact, so that it
may be
comprehensive. For
the aim of some of
those whom it
addresses is to be
saved from the Fire.
Others think only of
Paradise, some
desire eternal
happiness. Yet
others seek only God’s
good pleasure, while
others pursue the
vision of God. And
so on. In numerous
other places also,
the Quran does not
narrow or specify
the sense so that it
can be inclusive. It
leaves certain
things unsaid, so
that it can express
many meanings. Thus
it says, who will
prosper. By not
specifying in what
way they will
prosper, it means:
Muslims!
Good tidings to you!
God-fearing one! You
will be saved from
Hell.
righteous one! You
will enter Paradise.
one with knowledge
of God! You will
gain God’s good
pleasure.
lover of God! You
will be rewarded
with vision of God.
And
so on. This is only
one of numerous
examples of the
comprehensiveness of
meaning of each of
the Quran’s
phrases, words, and
even single letters.
Question:
How
do you know that
the Quran
contains and
intends all
those meanings?
Answer:
Since the Quran
is an eternal
discourse
speaking to, and
teaching, all
mankind, coming
as they do
through all ages
and of different
levels and
capacity, it
will certainly
contain and
intend all those
numerous
meanings
according to
each capacity
and level, and
make allusions
to them. In
Signs of (the
Quran’s)
Miraculousness,
it is proved,
according to the
rules of Arabic
grammar and the
principles of
the sciences of
rhetoric and
semantics and
eloquence, that
the words of the
Quran include
and intend
various meanings
as in the
examples above.
According to the
consensus of
Muslim jurists,
interpreters of
the Quran, and
scholars of
religious
methodology, and
as their own
differences of
interpretation
bear witness,
all the aspects
and meanings
understood from
the Quran are
acceptable as
among the
meanings of the
Quran provided
they are in
accordance with
the rules of the
Arabic language
and the
principles of
religion, and in
conformity with
the sciences of
semantics,
rhetoric and
eloquence. The
Quran has placed
a sign for each
of those
meanings
according to its
degree. It is
either literal
or allusive. If
allusive, there
is another sign
from either the
preceding
context or the
following
context or
another verse to
point to the
meaning.
Thousands of
commentaries on
the Quran
written in
volumes from
twenty to eighty
are decisive
evidence for the
extraordinary
comprehensiveness
of the Quran’s
wording. Anyway,
if in this Word
we were to show
how each type of
meaning works
according to
certain rules,
the discussion
would be
extremely
lengthy.
Referring the
reader to Signs
of
Miraculousness
for a part of
such discussion,
I will not go
into it any
further here.
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