Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad
APPENDIX II
AL-MUQATTA’AT
ABOUT one-quarter of the Qur'anic surahs are preceded by mysterious
letter-symbols called muqatta’at ("disjointed
letters") or, occasionally, fawatih ("openings")
because they appear at the beginning of the relevant surahs.
Out of the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet, exactly one-half -
that is, fourteen - occur in this position, either singly or in varying
combinations of two, three, four or five letters. They are always pronounced
singly, by their designations and not as mere sounds - thus: alif lam mim, or ha
mim, etc.
The significance of these letter-symbols has perplexed the
commentators from the earliest times. There is no evidence of the Prophet's having ever referred to them in any of his
recorded utterances, nor of any of his Companions having ever asked him for an
explanation. None the less, it is established beyond any possibility of doubt
that all the Companions - obviously following the example of the Prophet -
regarded the muqatta’at as integral
parts of the surahs to which they are
prefixed, and used to recite them accordingly: a fact which disposes
effectively of the suggestion advanced by some Western orientalists
that these letters may be no more than the initials of the scribes who wrote
down the individual revelations at the Prophet's dictation, or of the
Companions who recorded them at the time of the final codification of the Qur'an during the reign of the first three Caliphs.
Some of the Companions as well as some of their immediate
successors and later Qur'an-commentators were
convinced that these letters are abbreviations of certain words or even phrases
relating to God and His attributes, and tried to "reconstruct" them
with much ingenuity: but since the possible combinations are practically
unlimited, all such interpretations are highly arbitrary and, therefore, devoid
of any real usefulness. Others have tried to link the muqatta’
at to the numerological values of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, and
have "derived" by this means all manner of esoteric indications and
prophecies.
Yet another, perhaps more plausible interpretation, based on
two sets of facts, has been advanced by some of the most outstanding Islamic
scholars throughout the centuries: Firstly, all words of the Arabic language,
without any exception, are composed of either one letter or a combination of
two, three, four or five letters, and never more than five: and, as already
mentioned, these are the forms in which the muqatta’at
appear.
Secondly, all surahs prefixed
by these letter-symbols open, directly or obliquely, with a reference to
revelation, either in its generic sense or its specific manifestation, the Qur'an. At first glance it might appear that three surahs (29, 30 and 68) are exceptions to this
rule; but this assumption is misleading. In the opening verse of surah 29 (Al-Ankabat),
a reference to revelation is obviously implied in the saying, "We have
attained to faith" (amanna), i.e., in God
and His messages. In surah
30 (Ar-Rum), divine revelation is unmistakably
stressed in the prediction of Byzantine victory in verses 2-4. In verse
l of surah 68 (Al-Qalam) the phenomenon of revelation
is clearly referred to in the evocative mention of "the pen" (see
note 2 on the first verse of that surah). Thus,
there are no "exceptions" in the surahs
prefixed by one or more of the muqatta’at:
each of them opens with a reference to divine revelation.
This, taken together with the fact that the muqatta’at mirror, as it were, all word-forms
of the Arabic language, has led scholars and thinkers like Al-Mubarrad, Ibn Hazm,
Zamakhshari, Razi, Baydawi, Ibn Taymiyyah,
Ibn Kathir - to mention
only a few of them - to the conclusion that the muqatta’at
are meant to illustrate the inimitable, wondrous nature of Qur'anic revelation, which, though originating in a realm
beyond the reach of human perception (al-ghayb), can
be and is conveyed to man by means of the very sounds (represented by letters)
of ordinary human speech.
However, even this very attractive interpretation is not
entirely satisfactory inasmuch as there are many surahs
which open with an explicit reference to divine revelation and are nevertheless
not preceded by any letter-symbol. Secondly – and this is the most weighty objection – the above explanation too is based on
no more than conjecture: andso, in the last resort, we
must content ourselves with the finding that a solution of this problem still remains
beyond our grasp. This was apparently the view of the four Right-Guided Caliphs
summarized in these words of Abu Bakr: "In every
divine writ (kitab) there is [an element of] mystery
– and the mystery of the Qur'an is [indicated] in the openings of [some of]
the surahs."