Part of The Gentle Commentary (series completed)
· Lesson 19 of 117
The nice comment on the book of cards identifying the surahs of the Holy Qur’an | D. Muhammad Nassif | Surat Al-Alaq
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
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The concise commentary on the book *Identification Cards*
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*for the Surahs of the Noble Mus-haf*,
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by Dr. Muhammad ibn Abdulaziz ibn Umar Nasif,
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may Allah preserve him.
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Surah al-'Alaq.
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In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation.
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May peace and blessings be upon the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers,
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and upon all his family and Companions.
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We continue our concise commentary on the *Identification Cards*, focusing now on Surah al-'Alaq.
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Concerning it, we will make three reflective pauses.
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The first pause pertains to the chronological order of its revelation,
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which is well known: it was the very first to be revealed.
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What is specifically meant, as is recognized and stated in the book,
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is that its first five verses were the very first revelation given to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
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They truly deserve—
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nay, we deeply need to pause and reflect deliberately upon them.
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Indeed, some scholars suggested that they should be termed "the headline of the Qur'an."
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These five verses
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are the headline of the Qur'an,
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and through them, one comes to understand the entire Qur'an, and through it, the whole of Islam.
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Therefore, I strongly recommend pausing over them, reflecting on them, studying them, and discussing them together.
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Then we move to the second pause, which is closely related:
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namely, that the first section of the Surah—which was revealed first—
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contains a command to recite the Noble Qur'an.
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Notice this critical qualification: to recite *the Noble Qur'an*.
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Yet the verse does not explicitly mention "the Qur'an."
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“Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth,” (96:1)
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But the intended meaning is specifically the recitation of the Qur'an,
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contrary to the popular refrain echoed by many people who say:
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"We are the Ummah of 'Read!', yet we do not read,"
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urging people toward general reading.
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General reading is undoubtedly beneficial,
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and it is indeed a means of acquiring knowledge.
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However, there is a vast difference between reciting the Qur'an
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and reading anything else. What was commanded
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at the very inception of revelation
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was the recitation of the Qur'an itself.
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What corroborates this for you
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is that the Prophet, peace be upon him,
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was the very first person addressed by these words,
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and he was the foremost, most exalted, and finest exemplar
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who implemented this command;
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yet we never saw him reading anything other than the Qur'an.
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This is an essential point when reflecting upon
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the very first revelation:
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we must note this primordial command,
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which remained binding upon the Prophet, peace be upon him,
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never abrogated by anything until he passed away, peace and blessings be upon him.
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Twenty-three years
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governed by "Recite!"
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“Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth,” (96:1)
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The third pause
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concerns what is mentioned in the book regarding the thematic sections of the Surah.
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In the second section,
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the author states: "The deterrent opening."
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I may have pointed this out,
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or alluded to something like this, in
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earlier segments at the beginning
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of my commentary on
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this book,
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within this series,
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*The Concise Commentary*:
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namely,
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that
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sections
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open with specific rhetorical styles
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that require comprehensive gathering
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and inductive analysis. Among them
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is the style of deterrence (rad'),
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which occurs through the word *kalla* ("Nay!").
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So whenever you encounter "deterrent" (al-rad'i),
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it refers to the particle *kalla*.
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For the word *kalla*,
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by default, functions as a deterrent,
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and some scholars hold that it never departs from this core meaning.
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Deterrence
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may serve to repudiate something preceding it,
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or it may repudiate something that follows.
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There is also another well-known meaning
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mentioned by many scholars:
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that it signifies emphatic affirmation,
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in the sense of "truly" or "verily."
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Thus, it primarily functions as a deterrent, which is predominant,
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but it also serves as an emphatic particle
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whenever we do not find
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a preceding statement to be repudiated.
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In this verse,
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some scholars considered it a deterrence,
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while others did not treat it as such.
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They have detailed arguments that I do not fully recall
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at this exact moment,
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but the position indicated in the book is that it is
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a deterrence directed at what is mentioned after it.
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That is, the deterrence does not apply to the preceding speech,
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according to the view adopted in this book,
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but rather to the subsequent speech:
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◁the one who forbids a servant when he prays▷,
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so Allah rebukes him
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with this very word:
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◁Nay, man surely transgresses all bounds...▷, to the end of the passage.
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The point here is that
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the passages
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have their openings characterized in this book
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using stylistic descriptors
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rooted in the Arabic linguistic modes employed.
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For this reason, regarding the first
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section, he said: "The operative opening" (al-matla' al-insha'i),
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because an imperative is among the forms of demanding composition (insha' talabi),
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as is well established in rhetoric.
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I will suffice with this, and I invoke blessings upon the finest of all Messengers,
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and upon all his family and Companions together.
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And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation.