Muqatta'at

For the Ottoman instrument for financing state expenses, see Muqata'ah.

Muqatta'at (Arabic: مقطعات‎) are unique letter combinations that appear in the beginning of 29 suras (chapters) of the Qur'an. Muqatta'at literally means abbreviated or shortened. Their meanings remain controversial and are considered by many Muslims to be divine secrets.

They are also known as fawātih (فواتح) or "openers" as they form the opening verse of their respective suras. Other names include the broken, dis-joined, initial, or isolated letters of the Qur'an.

Introduction

In the Arabic language, these letters are written together like a word, but each letter is pronounced separately. Muqatta'at have been and continue to be a topic of intense research and academic discussions in Islamic literature and Qur'anic studies.

A few examples of Muqatta'at:

  1. Alif Lām Mīm (الم) Sura Al Baqarah, Sura Al-Imran, etc.
  2. Alif Lām Rāʾ (الر) Sura Yunus and Surah Hud
  3. Alif Lam Mim Rāʾ (المر) Sura Ar Raa'd
  4. Kāf Hāʾ Yāʾ ‘Ayn Ṣād (كهيعص) Sura Maryam
  5. Yāʾ Sīn (يس) Sura Ya Seen
  6. Ḥāʾ Mīm (حم) Surat Fussilat

Of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, exactly one half appear as muqatta'at, either singly or in combinations of two, three, four or five letters. The fourteen letters are: أ ح ر س ص ط ع ق ك ل م ن هـ ي (alif, ha, ra, sin, sad, ta, ain, qaf, kaf, lam, mim, nun, ha, ya).

Context

Certain co-occurrence restrictions are observable in these letters; for instance, alif is invariably followed by lam. The substantial majority of the combinations begin either alif lam or ha mim. See the diagram for fuller information.

In all but 3 of the 29 cases, these letters are almost immediately followed by mention of the Qur'anic revelation itself (the exceptions are suras 29, 30, and 68); and some argue that even these three cases should be included, since mention of the revelation is made later on in the sura. More specifically, one may note that in 8 cases the following verse begins "These are the signs...", and in another 5 it begins "The Revelation..."; another 3 begin "By the Qur'an...", and another 2 "By the Book..." Additionally, all but 3 of these suras are Meccan suras (the exceptions are suras 2, 3, 13.)

The suras that contain these letters are: sura 2, sura 3, sura 7, sura 10, sura 11, sura 12, sura 13, sura 14, sura 15, sura 19, sura 20, sura 26, sura 27, sura 28, sura 29, sura 30, sura 31, sura 32, sura 36, sura 38, sura 40, sura 41, sura 42, sura 43, sura 44, sura 45, sura 46, sura 50, sura 68.

Laam and Meem are conjoined and both are written with prolongation sign/Mark. One letter is written in two styles. [Refer 19:01 and 20:01] Letter 20:01 is used only in the beginning and middle of a word and that in 19:01 is not used as such. الم is also the First Ayah of Sura 3, 29, 30, 31 and 32 [total 6].

Classical opinions

Tomes have been written over the centuries on the possible meanings and probable significance of these 'mystical letters' as they are sometimes called. Opinions have been numerous but a consensus elusive. There is no reliable report of Muhammad having used such expressions in his ordinary speech, or his having shed light on its usage in the Qur'an. And, more importantly, none of his Companions seemed to have asked him about it. This apparent lack of inquisitiveness is cited as proof that such abbreviations were well known to the Arabs of the time and were in vogue long before the advent of Islam.

One opinion is that these letters stand for words or phrases related to God and His Attributes. The Companions Ibn Abbas and Ibn Mas'ud are said to have favored this view, as cited by Abu Hayyan Al Gharnati in his Bahr Al Muhit. As plausible as it may sound, this opinion does not find favor among other classical commentators, because the possible combinations of letters are virtually infinite and the Attributes they represent seem to be chosen arbitrarily. For example, the translator Maulana Muhammad Ali translates these letters in his editions of the Holy Qur'an as follows:

Alif (ا): an abbreviation for Ana (أنا, I am)
Ḥā (ح): an abbreviation for Al-Ḥamīd (الحميد, the Praised),
Rā (ر): an abbreviation for the Seeing (رائي / رأى / رؤيا / يرى / بصير )
Sīn (س): as either an abbreviation for Man or an abbreviation for As-Samī' (السميع, the Hearing),
Ṣād (ص): an abbreviation for As-Ṣādiq (الصادق, the Truthful),
Ṭā (ط): as either an abbreviation for the Benignant or an interjection equivalent to O (in dialect),
ʿAyn (ع): an abbreviation for Al-'Alīm (العليم, the Knowing),
Qāf (ق): an abbreviation for Al-Qādir (القادر, the Almighty),
Kāf (ك): an abbreviation for Al-Kāfi (كافي, the Sufficient),
Lām (ل): an abbreviation for Allāh (الله, using the second letter),
Mīm (م): as either an abbreviation for Al-'Alīm (العليم, the Knowing, using the ending letter) or for Al-Majīd (المجيد, the Glorious),
Nūn (ن): a word meaning Inkstand,
Hā (ه): as either an abbreviation for Al-Hādīy (الهادي, the Guide) or an abbreviation for Man (in dialect), and
Yā (ي): an interjection equivalent to O.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, a classical commentator of the Qur'an, has noted some twenty opinions regarding these letters, and mentions multiple opinions that these letters present the names of the Surahs as appointed by God. In addition, he mentions that Arabs would name things after such letters (for example, 'eye' as 'ع', clouds as 'غ', and whale as 'ن'). [1][2]

Modern research

Amin Ahsan Islahi, a renowned exegete of the Qur'an, has mentioned that since Arabs once used such letters in their poetry, it was only appropriate for the Qur'an to use that same style. He agrees with Razi and mentions that since these letters are names for Surahs, they are proper nouns. As such, they do not necessarily refer to other matters. At the same time, he cites research from Hamiduddin Farahi, a Quranic scholar from the Indian subcontinent, on how these letters must be appropriately chosen according to the content and theme of the surahs. Farahi links these letters back to the Abjad-ordered Arabic Alphabet, Hebrew Alphabet as well as Classical Akkadian philology, in the sense that all of these make use of alphanumerical correspondence, as in Greek and Latin (use of the letters "V" for "5",etc.). He also suggests that those letters not only represented phonetic sounds but also had symbolic meanings, and Qur'an perhaps uses the same meanings when choosing the letters for surahs. For instance, in support of his opinion, he presents the letter Nun (ن), which symbolizes fish and Surah Nun mentions Prophet Jonah as 'companion of the fish'. Similarly, the letter Ta or Tuay (ط) represents a serpent and all the Surahs that begin with this letter mention the story of Prophet Moses and serpents.[3]

The Hebrew Theory[4] refers to imports from the Torah. The two-letter group transliterated as A-L in Hebrew reading would be El (pronounced like “ale”). This was used to avoid saying out loud the four letters Y-H-W-H (see Masoretic Text ), the proper name of God. The Hebrew origin of AL is more likely than an Aramaic origin "EL" is a part word for God in Aramaic . Elijah is an affirmation of faith "My God is Yah" The suffix –M for a Hebrew speaker could be Malchut "kingdom",Masoretic, the definitive version of the Tanakh, mila meaning "word". The suffix –R would be ruach – “spirit”. Ta would logically be "Torah", though ta-ha could be the Hebrew letters ת·ח (techiyat hameitim) stand for "resurrection of the dead". Sad would be shebichtav, "written". Ha is likely to be the prestigious word hashem, which combines another Jewish word for God with the name of Mohammed's tribe.

Abbreviations from Aramaic or Greek are also possible. Luxenberg [5] argues that 20% of the Quran is better read in Aramaic. The letters Ta-Ha could mean "marvel" or "be amazed!" in Aramaic. The single letter Taf could be "Theodotion", a six-volume bible, and Ha could be "hallelujah".[6] The kaf-ha-ya-ayn-sad in Maryam is more likely to be from Greek, and start with kyrios ("Lord").

In 1973, it was proposed that the letters are the remnants of abbreviations for the Bismillah.[7] In 1996, Keith Massey proposed new evidence for an older theory that the "Mystery Letters" were the initials or monograms of the scribes who originally transcribed the suras .[8] As evidence for this, he demonstrated that the letters themselves occur in a specific order, suggesting a hierarchy of importance. A recent PhD thesis by Ahsan ur Rehman entitled "Morpho Phonemic Patterns in the Prefixed Chapters of the Qur'an: A Stylistic Approach" claims that there are phonological, syntactic and semantic links between the prefixed letters and the text of the chapters: accepted as twelfth theory of Muqatta’at. The article: A stylistic study of the consonant Șād (ﺹ) in three Qur’anic chapters:Șād (38), Maryam (19) and Al A‘rāf (7) provides substantial linguistic evidence to the claim made in the doctoral thesis. His Ms thesis is also on the same topic that covers six ALM chapters of the Qur'an "Morpho Phonemic templates in the Prefixed Chapters of the Qur'an", aik baab ka urdu iqtabass Also see in Arabic

Mathematical Structure based on 19 [74:30] within Initialed Suras (Chapters with Muqatta'at)

In 1974, an Egyptian biochemist named Rashad Khalifa claimed to have discovered a mathematical code in the Qur'an based on these initials and the number 19,[9] which is mentioned in Sura 74:30[10] of the Qur'an. According to his claims, these initials, which prefix 29 chapters of the Qur'an, occur throughout their respective chapters in multiples of nineteen. He has noted other mathematical phenomena throughout the Qur'an, all related to what he describes as the "mathematical miracle of the Qur'an." Some of his findings relating to Sura (Chapters) with initials (Muqatta'ats) are:

1. Between the first initialed sura (Sura 2) and the last initialed sura (Sura 68) there are 38 = 19 x 2 un-initialed suras.[11]

2. Between the first and last initialed sura there are 19 sets of alternating "initialed" and "uninitialed" suras.[11]

This view isn't however widely accepted due to the controversy around Rashad Khalifa's claim of messengership and the notion that the Qur'an in its current written form should be tweaked in certain places in order to come to this conclusion. For example, according to Rashad Khalifa, the initial Muqatta'at Nun (ن) in Sura 68 should be written as 'Nun Waw Nun' (نؤن).[12]

The complete Muqatta'at letters and their appearance in the Quran

  1. Chapter 2, Surah Al-Baqara  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm
  2. Chapter 3, Surah Āl-Imran  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm
  3. Chapter 7, Surah Al-Aʿarāf  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm Ṣād
  4. Chapter 10, Surah Yunus  : ʾAlif Lām Rāʾ
  5. Chapter 11, Surah Al-Hud  : ʾAlif Lām Rāʾ
  6. Chapter 12, Surah Yusuf  : ʾAlif Lām Rāʾ
  7. Chapter 13, Surah Al-Raʿd  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm Rāʾ
  8. Chapter 14, Surah Ibrahim  : ʾAlif Lām Rāʾ
  9. Chapter 15, Surah Al-Ḥijr  : ʾAlif Lām Rāʾ
  10. Chapter 19, Surah Maryam  : Kāf Hāʾ Yāʾ ʿAin Ṣād
  11. Chapter 20, Surah Ṭāʾ-Hāʾ  : Ṭāʾ Hāʾ
  12. Chapter 26, Surah Al-Shua'ra (The Poets)  : Ṭāʾ Sīn Mīm
  13. Chapter 27, Surah Al-Naml (The Ant)  : Ṭāʾ Sīn
  14. Chapter 28, Surah Al-Qaṣaṣ  : Ṭāʾ Sīn Mīm
  15. Chapter 29, Surah Al-Ankabut (The Spider)  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm
  16. Chapter 30, Surah Al-Rum (The Romans)  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm
  17. Chapter 31, Surah Luqmān  : ʾAlif Lām Mīm
  18. Chapter 32, Surah Al-Sajda (The Adoration) : ʾAlif Lām Mīm
  19. Chapter 36, Surah Yāʾ-Sīn  : Yāʾ Sīn
  20. Chapter 38, Surah Ṣād  : Ṣād
  21. Chapter 40, Ghafir (The Forgiver) : Ḥāʾ Mīm
  22. Chapter 41, Surah Fuṣṣilat  : Ḥāʾ Mīm
  23. Chapter 42, Surah Al-Shūrā  : Ḥāʾ Mīm; ʿAin Sīn Qāf
  24. Chapter 43, Surah Al-Zukruf (The Embellishment) : Ḥāʾ Mīm
  25. Chapter 44, Surah Al-Dukhan (The Smoke)  : Ḥāʾ Mīm
  26. Chapter 45, Surah Al-Jathiya (The Kneeling)  : Ḥāʾ Mīm
  27. Chapter 46, Surah Al-Ahqaf (The Sandhills)  : Ḥāʾ Mīm
  28. Chapter 50, Surah Qāf  : Qāf
  29. Chapter 68, Surah Al-Qalam (The Pen)  : Nūn

In the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths

The Báb, whom Bahá'ís see as the immediate forerunner of their religion, uses Muqatta'at in his Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'.[13][14] He writes in an early commentary and in his Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs) about a hadith from Muhammad al-Baqir (the fifth Shia Imam) where it is stated that the first seven sets of Muqatta'at (Sura 2 through 13) have a numerical value of 1267, from which the year 1844 AD (the year of the Báb's declaration) can be derived.[15][16]

In 1857-58, Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'í Faith, wrote his Commentary on the Isolated Letters (Tafsír-i-Hurúfát-i-Muqatta'ih, also known as Lawh-i-Áyiy-i-Núr, Tablet of the Light Verse).[17][18] In it, he describes how God created the letters. A black teardrop fell down from the Primordial Pen on the "Perspicuous, Snow-white Tablet", by which the Point was created. The Point then turned into an Alif (vertical stroke), which was again transformed, after which the Muqatta'at appeared. These letters were then differentiated, separated and then again gathered and linked together, appearing as the "names and attributes" of creation. Bahá'u'lláh gives various interpretations of the letters "alif, lam, mim", mostly relating to Allah, trusteeship (wilayah) and the prophethood (nubuwwah) of Muhammad. He emphasizes the central role of the alif in all the worlds of God.[17]

See also: Hurufi and Nuqtavi

In Nestorianism

In Christianity, Catholicos Patriarch Timothy I of Baghdad, who confirmed Muhammad as Elijah for the Nestorians, believed they were mystical references to qualities and attributes of three names of the one and only indivisible Godhead as unique persons: namely God, his Word and his Spirit.[19] The letters may be scribal abbreviations in the Aramaic language, which Timothy would have spoken. AL is the abbreviation for God in Aramaic bibles.

References

  1. ↑ Michael R. Rose; Casandra L. Rauser; Laurence D. Mueller; Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, Shehzad Saleem (July 2003). "Al-Baqarah (1-7)". Renaissance. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
  2. ↑ Amatul Rahman Omar and Abdul Mannan Omar, "Derivation of Vocabulary from its Root Alphabets", Exegesis of the Holy Qur'an - Commentary and Reflections, 2015
  3. ↑ Islahi, Amin Ahsan (2004). Taddabur-i-Quran. Faraan Foundation. pp. 82–85.
  4. ↑ "Muqatta'at". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  5. ↑ Luxenberg, Christoph (2009). The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran 1st Edition.
  6. ↑ Payne Smith, J and Payne Smith, Jessie (1999). A Compendious Syriac Dictionary: (Ancient Language Resources).
  7. ↑ Bellamy, James A. (1973) The Mysterious Letters of the Koran: Old Abbreviations of the Basmalah. Journal of the American Oriental Society 93 (3), 267-285.
  8. ↑ Massey, Keith (1996). "A New Investigation into the "Mystery Letters" of the Qur'an" in 'Arabica', Vol. 43 No. 3. pp. 497–501.
  9. ↑ Rashad Khalifa, Quran: Visual Presentation of the Miracle, Islamic Productions International, 1982. ISBN 0-934894-30-2
  10. ↑ Quran 74:30
  11. 1 2 Quran the final Testament, Translated from the Original, by Rashad Khalifa, ISBN 978-1-890825-00-3, Library of Congress: 2007938221, Simple Facts
  12. ↑ Submission.org, "The initial Noon must be written as NunWawNun"
  13. ↑ Lawson, Todd. "Reading Reading Itself: The Bab's `Sura of the Bees,' A Commentary on Qur'an 12:93 from the Sura of Joseph". Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  14. ↑ See the following source for more about Bábí letter symbolism: Editors (2009). "Letters of the Living (Hurúf-i-Hayy)". Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project. Evanston, IL: National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States.
  15. ↑ Lambden, Stephen N. A note upon the messianic year 1260 / 1844 and the Bābī-Bahā'ī interpretation of the isolated letters of the Qur'an.
  16. ↑ Saiedi, Nader (2008). Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Báb. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 109–110. ISBN 978-1-55458-035-4.
  17. 1 2 Marshall, Alison. "What on earth is a disconnected letter? - Baha'u'llah's commentary on the disconnected letters". Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  18. ↑ Lambden, Stephen N. "Tafsír-al-Hurúfát al-Muqatta'át (Commentary on the Isolated Letters) or Lawh-i Áyah-yi Núr (Tablet of the Light Verse) of Mírzá Husayn 'Alí Núrí Bahá'-Alláh (1817-1892)". Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  19. ↑ Timothy I, Apology for Christianity

Sources

  • Rehman, Ahsan (2012). Morpho Phonemic Patterns in the Prefixed Chapters of the Qur'an; A Stylistic Approach. PhD Thesis. Islamabad: International Islamic University
  • Rehman, Ahsan. The Consonant Saad in three Qur'anic Chapters. International Journal of Academic Research; Jan 2011, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p1006

External links

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