"Alif. Lam. Mim. This is the Book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the reverent, who believe in the Unseen and perform the prayer and spend from that which We have provided them, and who believe in what was sent down unto thee, and what was sent down before thee, and who are certain of the Hereafter."
Quran 2:1-4
I'm sure it seems like I should be talking about the significance of the Quran as a "guidance for the reverent" (and maybe I will come back to that - like I said, there's never any plan) but instead I'd like to talk about the beginning of this passage. The second surah, al-Baqarah ("The Cow"), is, as we know, the longest surah. In addition it it is one of the 29 surahs (out of 114) that open with individual Arabic letters. So, what do they mean? Well, truthfully, nobody knows. Abu Bakr, one of the Prophet's closest companions and the first of the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, proposed, "Every book has a mystery, and the mystery of the Quran is the beginnings of the surahs." Is it possible that they mean nothing at all? Obviously, when you're talking about a book like the Quran that's a dangerous road to go down, not simply because if they're revelations from God (if you believe that) then it seems inexplicable that God would simply reveal things that mean nothing - and also because if some things in the Quran are meaningful and others are not meaningful that brings even more human opinion and inconsistency into the analysis. Ali, the Prophet's cousin, son-in-law and the fourth of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, said, "Every book has a quintessence, and the quintessence of this Book is the spelled-out letters." In this sense we have to believe that they mean something, and there are all sorts of theories that have been championed over the last fourteen centuries. As Nasr explains to us, if we are to understand the Quran as "a clear Book (5:15) or Wise Book (10:1) and as a guidance (2:2 in clear, Arabic tongue (16:103)" then the notion that there are parts that we simply can't understand is, on some level, problematical. As you might expect, some of the theories are very esoteric, so I won't chase them down that rabbit-hole (at least here). In the end many scholars try and fashion a middle path, by saying that there are some things that we are capable of knowing while there are others which we simply can't. The other night in class we were discussing surah 18, "The Cave," which is one of my favorites (and which I'll discuss , at length, later) and it deals wit the balancing act between exoteric and esoteric knowledge. As Muslims we are instructed to believe in the seen and the Unseen, and the separated letters definitely falls under that admonition.
Quran 2:1-4
I'm sure it seems like I should be talking about the significance of the Quran as a "guidance for the reverent" (and maybe I will come back to that - like I said, there's never any plan) but instead I'd like to talk about the beginning of this passage. The second surah, al-Baqarah ("The Cow"), is, as we know, the longest surah. In addition it it is one of the 29 surahs (out of 114) that open with individual Arabic letters. So, what do they mean? Well, truthfully, nobody knows. Abu Bakr, one of the Prophet's closest companions and the first of the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, proposed, "Every book has a mystery, and the mystery of the Quran is the beginnings of the surahs." Is it possible that they mean nothing at all? Obviously, when you're talking about a book like the Quran that's a dangerous road to go down, not simply because if they're revelations from God (if you believe that) then it seems inexplicable that God would simply reveal things that mean nothing - and also because if some things in the Quran are meaningful and others are not meaningful that brings even more human opinion and inconsistency into the analysis. Ali, the Prophet's cousin, son-in-law and the fourth of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, said, "Every book has a quintessence, and the quintessence of this Book is the spelled-out letters." In this sense we have to believe that they mean something, and there are all sorts of theories that have been championed over the last fourteen centuries. As Nasr explains to us, if we are to understand the Quran as "a clear Book (5:15) or Wise Book (10:1) and as a guidance (2:2 in clear, Arabic tongue (16:103)" then the notion that there are parts that we simply can't understand is, on some level, problematical. As you might expect, some of the theories are very esoteric, so I won't chase them down that rabbit-hole (at least here). In the end many scholars try and fashion a middle path, by saying that there are some things that we are capable of knowing while there are others which we simply can't. The other night in class we were discussing surah 18, "The Cave," which is one of my favorites (and which I'll discuss , at length, later) and it deals wit the balancing act between exoteric and esoteric knowledge. As Muslims we are instructed to believe in the seen and the Unseen, and the separated letters definitely falls under that admonition.
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