(p-55) Surah Al-Baqarah

Its purpose is to establish the proof that the Book is guidance to be followed in all that it says. The greatest thing it guides to is faith in the unseen, and its essence is faith in the Hereafter. Its core is the belief in resurrection, which is expressed in the story of the cow, the essence of which is faith in the unseen. For this reason, the Surah is named after it. (p-56) It is more deserving of this name than the story of Ibrahim, blessings and peace be upon him, because it pertains to the nature of humanity and what preceded it in the story of the Children of Israel regarding revival after death by striking. Likewise, what is similar to it, because the revival in the story of the cow is due to a seemingly weak cause through the direct action of one of the common people. Thus, it is a clearer proof of ability, especially since it has been followed by a description of hearts and stones, [which encompasses] the guided by the Book and the misguided. It described them with hardness that leads to misery, and the stones were described with fear that arises generally from piety, which grants assistance that extends in benefit to the servants of Allah. In it, there is an indication that this Book is within us as if there were a successor among the resolute messengers guiding us in every matter to the correctness of (p-57) the exit from it. Whoever turns away will fail, and whoever hesitates will nearly fall, and whoever responds will attain piety and excel.

And it is called Al-Zahra because of its illumination of the path of guidance and sufficiency in this world and the Hereafter. It necessitates the brightness of faces on the Day of Judgment for those who believe in the unseen and are not in doubt that would prevent them from what they desire. And it is called Al-Sanam because there is nothing in faith in the unseen after the Oneness, which is the foundation upon which all good is built, and the ultimate goal which is the end of the journey, and the highest above all else. (p-58) There is no greater consensus than faith in the Hereafter, and because the snout is the highest part of the back of the carrying beast, and the Book, which is its Surah, is the highest in the bearer of the command, which is the law that their messenger brought to them, blessings and peace be upon him.

'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' who established, along with His being, hidden signs of guidance until they became apparent. 'The Most Gracious' who bestowed His mercy upon all of His creation after creation by clarifying the path. 'The Most Merciful' who specifically granted His beloved ones success. The scholar Abu al-Hasan al-Harali said in the book 'The Connection to the Key of the Locked Door' regarding what he narrated from Ibn Wahb from the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, who said: 'The first book was revealed from one door upon one letter, while the Qur'an was revealed from seven doors upon seven letters: admonishing, commanding, lawful, unlawful, decisive, ambiguous, and examples. So, make lawful what it has made lawful, and make unlawful what it has made unlawful, and do what you have been commanded to do, and refrain from what you have been forbidden from, and take heed from its examples, and act upon its decisive verses, and believe in its ambiguous verses, and say: We believe in it, all of it is from our Lord.' This hadith was narrated by Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah in his Musnad, and Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili, and through him by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, all of them through the chain of Ibn Wahb from Haywah from 'Uqayl ibn Khalid from Salamah ibn Abi Salamah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf from his father from Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, and he mentioned it without mentioning the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him. The scholar, the hadith keeper Abu Shamah Abdul Rahman ibn Ismail al-Dimashqi [al-Shafi'i] in his book 'The Brief Guide to Sciences Related to the Noble Book' after he narrated this hadith from the narration of Salamah ibn Abi Salamah ibn Abd al-Rahman from his father from Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him: Abu 'Umar ibn Abd al-Barr said: This hadith has not been established among the people of hadith, and Abu Salamah did not meet Ibn Mas'ud, and his son Salamah is not among those whose narrations are accepted. This hadith is unanimously agreed upon as weak due to its chain of narration, and some of the scholars of opinion have rejected it, among them: Ahmad ibn Abi 'Imran, regarding what he heard from al-Tahawi from him, and it is narrated by al-Layth from 'Uqayl from Ibn Shihab from Umm Salamah [from Abu Salamah] from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, as an interrupted narration. Abu Shamah said: And thus al-Bayhaqi narrated it in his book 'The Entrance', and he said: This is a good interrupted narration; Abu Salamah did not reach Ibn Mas'ud. Then he narrated it connected and said: If it is authentic, then the meaning of his saying: seven letters, means seven aspects, and it is not intended by it the dialects that have been permitted for recitation upon them. What is meant by it are the types upon which the Qur'an was revealed, and Allah knows best.

I said: Our Sheikh, the scholar, the reciter of his time, Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Jazari, the Damascene Shafi'i, attributed in the early part of his book "Al-Nashr in the Ten Readings" to al-Tabarani from the hadith of Umar ibn Abi Salamah al-Makhzumi, may Allah be pleased with them, that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said to Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him: "Indeed, the books used to descend from the heavens from one door, and the Quran was revealed from seven doors upon seven letters: lawful and unlawful, definitive and ambiguous, examples, and a command and a prohibition. So, make lawful what is lawful and prohibit what is unlawful, and act upon its definitive verses, and stop at its ambiguous ones, and consider its examples, for indeed, all of it is from Allah, and none will remember except those of understanding." And it was narrated by the scholar Abu Bakr ibn Abu Dawood in "The Book of Manuscripts" from another source from Abdullah, who said: "Indeed, the Quran was revealed to your Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, from seven doors upon seven letters - or: letters - and indeed, the book before you used to descend - or: descended - from one door upon one letter." And it was narrated by al-Bayhaqi in the virtue of the Quran from "Al-Shu'ab" from Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, with the wording: "The Quran was revealed upon five aspects: lawful and unlawful, definitive and ambiguous, and examples."

Al-Harali said: In another hadith through Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them: "Indeed, the books used to descend from one door, and indeed, this Quran was revealed from seven doors upon seven letters." And he said regarding the meaning of that: Know that the Quran is revealed at the end of creation and the completion of every matter, beginning with it, for the one who embodies it is gathering the end of every creation and the completion of every matter. Therefore, he, blessings and peace be upon him, is the essence of the universe - the complete gatherer - and for that reason, he was the Seal, and his book is the seal. The resurrection began from the time of his appearance; indeed, He initiates and brings back. Thus, he fulfilled the goodness of these three comprehensive matters that had passed in the earlier ones with their beginnings, and their ends were completed with him; "I was sent to perfect noble character," narrated by Ahmad from Mu'adh, may Allah be pleased with him, who raised it. And it is the goodness of this world, religion, and the Hereafter that he gathered in his saying, blessings and peace be upon him, in what Muslim narrated from Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him: "O Allah, rectify for me my religion which is the safeguard of my affair, and rectify for me my world in which is my livelihood, and rectify for me my Hereafter to which is my return." And in every goodness, there is advancement and hesitation, so the three comprehensive matters become six detailed ones, which are the six letters of the Quran that he did not cease to request from his Lord, letter by letter. When he fulfilled the six, his Lord granted him a seventh comprehensive letter that has no pair, so it was completed to be revealed upon seven letters.

So, the closest of those letters is the letter of reforming this world. It has two letters: one of them is the letter of the forbidden, which the soul and body cannot be rectified except by purifying from it due to its distance from their rectification; and the second is the letter of the lawful, which the soul and body can be rectified by it due to its conformity to their rectification. The origin of these two letters is in the Torah, and their completion is in the Qur'an.

Then follows these two letters of the rectification of the Hereafter: one of them is the letter of prohibition and negation, which the Hereafter cannot be rectified except by purifying from it due to its distance from its beauty; and the second is the letter of command, which the Hereafter can be rectified by it due to its pursuit of its beauty. And the condition of this world may be harmed by that, because it comes upon much of its lawful due to the necessity of preferring the Hereafter for its permanence and entirety over this world for its perishability and partiality. The good of this world is a part of one hundred, and the evil of this world is a part of seventy. And this lesser part should not be preferred for its presence over that greater whole for its absence, except for one who has foolishness towards himself and weakens in his faith. So, the purification of a person from the letter of the forbidden is his purity, and his purification from the prohibition is his goodness; and the origin of these two letters is in the Gospel, and their completion is in the Qur'an.

Then follows these two letters of the rectification of religion: one of them is the letter of the decisive, in which the servant has made clear the address of his Lord regarding the conditions of his heart, the morals of his soul, and the actions of his body between him and his Lord without turning to the purpose of the soul in the immediate world or its ultimate. The second is the letter of the ambiguous, in which the servant does not make clear the address of his Lord due to the deficiency of his mind in understanding it and the necessity of glorifying his Lord from the representation of his servant until Allah supports him with His support. And the five letters are for use, and this sixth letter is for stopping, so that the servant may have stopped for Allah with his heart from letters just as he had previously advanced for Allah upon those letters. And let him erase by his incapacity and his faith at this sixth letter the end of what has preceded of his striving and knowledge in those letters from the beginning; and the origin of these two letters is in all the previous scriptures, and their completion is in the Qur'an.

So, these six letters are shared by the Qur'an with all other scriptures, and it increases upon them in their completion and the blessing of their gathering. And the Qur'an is distinguished by the seventh letter, which is the comprehensive one, clarifying the highest example and manifesting the greatest representation, the letter of praise specific to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. It is the letter of the example, and about its gathering and the perfection of its gathering for Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, in his heart and his reading upon his tongue and his expression in his essence, the special characteristics of his noble creation and his great character have appeared. And it is attained only as a gift from Allah, glorified and exalted is He, to His servant without intermediary. And the six letters descend through intermediaries from the balance of nature and the clarity of intellect, akin to the revelation of the Prophet and the inspiration of the saint.

And when the letter of praise is the seventh one that gathers, Allah, glorified and exalted is He, began the Opening with it, the Mother of the Qur'an and the Mother of the Book. He gathered in it the essentials of the seven letters that He spread throughout the Qur'an, just as He gathered in the Qur'an what He spread in all the previous books, like silver that weighs heavily on the one intending to travel. So he purchased gold with it, and that is like the Qur'an. Then gold became heavy upon him, so he purchased jewels with it, and that is like the Mother of the Qur'an. Therefore, the completeness of the letters upon which the Qur'an was revealed is present in the essentials of the Mother of the Qur'an.

The first verse includes the letter of praise, the second includes the letters of what is lawful and unlawful, by which the Merciful established the world. He means by saying - and Allah, glorified and exalted is He, knows best - that the Merciful has allowed the servants to enjoy the created blessings and good things that are in accordance with their natures and temperaments, and the acceptance of their souls in all aspects of enjoyment. Thus, there were two mercies in that: a mercy in permissibility, which is the removal of the hardship of prohibition, and a mercy that prevents the hardship of sin, or makes the permissible desirable to the nature.

As for the Merciful, it has purified them from the harms of their bodies and the filth of their souls and the ignorance of their hearts. In that, there is one mercy, which is the protection of the beloved from the harms of the beloved. Or he means - and Allah, the Exalted, knows best - that the Merciful established by His generality all that the Lordship encompasses from the pouring of blessings and the removal of afflictions in a manner that is pleasing or troublesome. The Merciful established by His specificity, as previously mentioned, what the Divinity is pleased with: the pouring of blessings and the removal of afflictions in a manner that is specifically pleasing. End.

The third verse includes the matter of the Sovereign, the Keeper, regarding the letters of command and prohibition, which seem to have their command in religion.

The fourth includes the letters of the decisive in His saying: 'You alone we worship' [Al-Fatiha: 5] and the ambiguous in His saying: 'And You alone we ask for help' [Al-Fatiha: 5]. And since it is a construction of a direct address, its question is not repeated in the surah. Thus, these two letters were distinguished from the supplication in them, and the question of the fifth verse returned to the letter of praise, and the question of the sixth verse returned to the verse of blessings from the letters of what is lawful and unlawful, and the question of the seventh verse returned to the verse of the Sovereign from the letters of command and prohibition. Therefore, the Opening gathered the essentials of the seven letters.

And when the Opening, the Mother of the Qur'an, began with the seventh letter, the comprehensive gift; the Qur'an began with the sixth letter, which is the letter of the ambiguous; because it is about the manifestation of inability and pure faith, the gift and support were given. So that the servant may begin the Qur'an with faith in an ambiguous matter in His saying: 'Alif Lam' and thus be most completely submissive to what follows and free from the claim in what he is capable of in all the letters. Then the sixth, with which the Qur'an is opened, is the fifth, which is the clear from one aspect in His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿And they establish prayer and from what We have provided them, they spend﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 3]. Because whoever acts upon it with a heart of faith and knowledge, it is for him from the clear, and whoever acts upon it out of obligation and compulsion, and faith has not entered his heart, it is for him a letter of command. ﴿And if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not deprive you of your deeds of anything﴾ [Al-Hujurat: 14]. And this is how its arrangement occurred in the recited Qur'an. As for its revelation in the arrangement of the statement; the first that was revealed to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, is the letter of the clear, which is His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿Read in the name of your Lord who created﴾ [Al-‘Alaq: 1] ﴿Created man from a clot﴾ [Al-‘Alaq: 2] ﴿Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous﴾ [Al-‘Alaq: 3], the five verses. And the first that was revealed to the nation in the arrangement of the statement is from the letter of prohibition and command, which is His saying, glorified and exalted is He: ﴿O you who covers himself with a garment﴾ [Al-Muddathir: 1] ﴿Arise and warn﴾ [Al-Muddathir: 2] [that is] a warner for you before a severe punishment, informing them of what they fear the consequence of in the Hereafter, even if they have taken in this world affection for their idols. And He said, exalted is He: ﴿Indeed, you have taken besides Allah idols, affection between you in the worldly life; then on the Day of Resurrection, some of you will disavow others﴾ [Al-‘Ankabut: 25]. So He, glorified and exalted is He, began the rectification of the most important return because upon it the affairs of this world are rectified. Whoever is independent in his Hereafter, Allah will suffice him in the affairs of his world. And He began with the letter of prohibition and command, which is the beginning in the speech, and the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, repeated the wording of prohibition with the wording of command because the intent of both is one, which is the deterrence from what harms in the Hereafter. However, the deterrence is in two forms: a speech to one who turns away, which is called prohibition, as it is called in the case of animals, and a speech to one who is inclined towards understanding, which is called command. So it is as if the prohibition spreads the nature, and the command spreads the intellect. This is concluded. And from this, the secret of beginning Al-Baqarah with the disjointed letters has become clear. And when what the surahs began with is from that half of the letters of the alphabet; it is as if it was said: Whoever claims that the Qur'an is not the speech of Allah, let him take the other half and compose upon it words to oppose it. This was reported by Al-Zarkashi in 'Al-Burhan' from Qadi Abu Bakr. He said: And some of the people of truths have known this, and Al-Zarkashi gathered it in his saying: (A wise text, decisive, has a secret).

And from Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him: In every book, there is a secret, and the secret of Allah in the Qur'an is the beginnings of the surahs.

And from Ali, may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him and honor his face: Indeed, every book has a selection, and the selection of this book is the letters of the alphabet.

And when the letters of the alphabet are twenty-nine letters with the hamzah, and one half of them is difficult to articulate, they were divided into fifteen and fourteen, and the lesser was taken from the aspect of halves and distributed among twenty-nine surahs according to the number of letters, and it was challenged in this manner.

And Imam Shams al-Din Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah al-Dimashqi al-Hanbali stated in a book of his, similar to a reminder, which he named "Bada'i al-Fara'id," a strange secret regarding the beginning of the Qur'an with His saying: ﴿Alif Lam Mim﴾. Its essence is that its three letters encompass the three articulatory points: the throat, the tongue, and the lips, in their order. This indicates the beginning, which is the start of creation, and the end, which is the return, and the middle, which is the livelihood from the legislation of commands and prohibitions; and in that, there is a reminder that this book, which is composed of these letters that do not exceed the three articulatory points by which all nations are addressed, encompasses what rectifies them from the states of the beginning of creation and its resurrection and what is between that. And every surah that begins with these letters mentions the three states.

And al-Harali said in his tafsir: "Alif" is a name for the highest standing that encompasses, then for every representative in standing like Adam and the Ka'bah. "Mim" is a name for the highest apparent, from whose appearance is the King of the Day of Judgment, and a name for the complete apparent given the comprehensive words of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, then for every apparent below that like the sky, the cosmos, and the earth. "Lam" is a name for what is between the hidden divine essence, which is the limits of intellects, and the apparent kingdom, which is manifested on the Day of Judgment from the requirements of the beautiful names and the exalted attributes that are connections that bring down what is between them like the subtle and similar. Then for the connection that is like the angels and what they undertake from the affairs of the kingdom. And these words, when the meaning of them is intertwined, are called letters, and the letter is the end of a thing that is not taken individually and the end of a saying that is not understood alone. And the most deserving of being called letters is when viewed in their forms and their occurrence as parts of words, and they do not have a clear meaning, so a part of a comprehensible word is added to them, which is then called letters. And when pronounced, it is like this: Alif Lam Mim. It should be said that they are names even if their meaning is not known, like the letters "Alif Ba Ta," for they are all names according to what al-Khalil understood. And they are only called letters when they are parts of a word that is articulated for the beginning or is silent for the stopping and ending.

As for its reality, it is the comprehensive essence of its origin in the first mention of the words of Allah, glorified and exalted is He. It descended to the Arabic words and was translated by them. From them, this clear Arabic Qur'an was composed. It is in the lofty, angelic books that are arranged in collection and detail, a verse and a word and the essence of a book. When it descended to the ultimate detailed part of the Qur'an, it was preserved in its beginning to serve as a sign for its transmission for the detail from that book. This is because it is more complete and concise in indicating the collection than the detailed part of it. Its indication encompasses all existence, from the innermost of its values to the most apparent, and the most apparent of its status and what lies between them from the connection. It is the comprehensive indication of the visible universe to the eye by the eye and the heard revelation. Due to what it necessitated from the collection, it did not descend in an earlier book because the book of every time corresponds to the state of existence in it. Existence had not yet been completed, so its books and pages were according to it. When existence was completed at the time of our master Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, his book was complete and comprehensive. Therefore, the emergence of these comprehensives in it was necessary to match the conclusion with the beginning, for they are two sides of perfection, and what lies between them is a progression towards it. There had been a promise to reveal them in some of those books, so their descent was a fulfillment of that promise. It has ended.

As for the relevance of what follows to the Opening (Al-Fatiha), it is that when He, glorified and exalted is He, informed that His sincere servants asked in the Opening for guidance to the straight path, which is not the path of the doomed, He guided them in the first of what follows to the fact that the sought guidance is indeed in this book. He clarified to them the attributes of the two groups granted guidance, urging them to embody it, and the ones prevented from it, warning them against approaching it. Thus, this was one of the greatest relevances for following the Opening with Al-Baqarah, for it was directed to negate doubt from this book. It is guidance for the righteous, and for describing the righteous and what they will be rewarded with in the three verses, and for describing the disbelievers who do not believe due to the seal upon their hearts and the certainty of their punishment. This is to make it known that what the righteous are characterized by is the straight path, which must be adhered to, and what those other than them are characterized by is the path of the doomed, which must be abandoned. In the description of righteousness after mentioning those who have incurred wrath and the misguided, there is an indication that the status is one of fear.

And if you wish, you may say: The purpose of this surah is solely to describe the Book, and anything beyond that is merely its consequences and necessities. It will not be established that it is guidance except by proving that it is true in meaning and structure. Since the meaning is more important, he prioritized the evidence for it. He informed about their persistence in disbelief, which would be their denial of it as a confirmation of it. He followed that by mentioning the hypocrites, indicating that the faith denied is in the heart, and that there is no consideration for the tongue if it is devoid of it. And he presented this in a way that they would know that it is the truth by what he uncovered of their secrets and revealed of their innermost thoughts. When this was completed, and the purpose of it was to call to Allah, that opportunity was seized with His saying: 'O mankind, worship your Lord' [Al-Baqarah: 21], due to what was established for it from encouragement through intimidation. Then, evidence was established for the truth of its structure by their failure to reach the extent of its aim. The result of this returned to proving it by their inability to oppose it in its meaning by producing what he informed of its denial and in its structure by bringing forth something like it. When this was established, it was confirmed that it is from Allah, thus confirming its qualification for teaching the laws. He included it in the debate with the People of the Book regarding what they know to be true without any doubt, calling to what they concealed of the five pillars upon which Islam is built.