Huruf Muqatta'at (Disjointed Letters in the Qur'an): Difference between revisions

Possible, non-dogmatic perspective

The classical Muslim scholars considered the text of the Qur'an to be unchanged. Thus, they do not consider that the muqattā'at may possibly have been added after the prophets lifetime, accounting for the general absence of narrations where companions inquire regarding the meaning of these letters (where mention of the letter does appear, it is usually a companion discussing a surah that begins with these letters, rather than asking about the letters themselves. Critical scholars have suggested, however, that the reference to these surahs by their muqatta'at letters is likely not reflective of conversations that actually took place during the prophet's life time, but was something introduced to these narrations many decades and multiple centuries after the prophet's death. Even the versions of the narrations recorded in the hadith books seem to dis-include these letters at times.)

This possibility is, however, not without its difficulties, and is elaborated later in this article.

Modern Islamic Research

In 1974, an Egyptian biochemist named Rashad Khalifa announced he had discovered a mathematical code in the Qur'an based on these initials and the number 19^[2], which is mentioned in Surah 74:30^[3] of the Qur'an. (However, Günter Lüling claims that the number is really 7, as in the 7 gates of the Christian Hell. See "Above it are neither nineteen nor seventeen.") According to his research, these initials which prefix 29 chapters of the Qur'an occur throughout their respective chapters in multiples of this very number, nineteen. He has noted other mathematical phenomena throughout the Quran, all related to what he describes as the "mathematical miracle of the Qur'an." Although subsequently dismissed as a heretic by Muslim scholars, his work did receive some acclaim by notable sources:

Scientific American of September 1980, p. 22. Martin Gardner wrote of Khalifa's initial publication in the West: "It's an ingenious study of the Quran,...Nineteen is an unusual prime. For example, it's the sum of the first powers of 9 and 10 and the difference between the second powers of 9 and 10."

Three years later the Canadian Council on the Study of Religion reported in its Quarterly Review of April 1983 that the code Khalifa discovered is "an authenticating proof of the divine origin of the Quran." Since 1983, little notice has been taken of this work.

Amin Ahsan Islahi stated that Arabs used to use such letters in their poetry and since Qur'an addressed them in their own linguistic style, it was only appropriate for Qur'an to use the same style. He agrees with Rāzi and mentions that since these letters are names for Surahs, being proper nouns they are not bound to have a meaning. At the same time, he cites research from Hamiduddin Farahi, a Qur'anic 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 Hebrew alphabet and suggests that those letters not only represented phonetic sounds but also contained a symbolic meaning to them, 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 Jonah as 'companion of the fish'. Similarly, the letter Ṭa (ط) represents a serpent and all the Surahs that begin with this letter mention the story of Moses and serpents.^[4]

Yūsuf `Alī in Appendix 1 of his translation of the Qur'an<sup>[5]</sup> adduced some statistics regarding the Muqatta`āt (p. 124).

Yūsuf `Alī's evidence can be summarized in the table below.

Possible Critical Perspective

The critical perspective is typically developed as follows:

1. The rasm of each of the muqatta`āt is unique. In the case of ي, it is only found initially, so its rasm is unique, too. Except for ي and ن, each letter has no dots. In the case of ن, the dot is usually omitted in handwriting in the final and isolated cases.

2. The muqatta`āt are not mentioned in an early Muslim writings, notably, the ahadith and sirat.

3. The muqatta`āt are not distributed at random. 'Alif Lām Mīm occurs in two consecutive sets of surahs: 2-3 and 29-32. 'Alif Lām Rā' occurs in the consecutive surahs 10-15. Ḥā' Mīm occurs in the consecutive surahs 40-46. Ṭā' Sīn Mīm occurs in the nonconsecutive surahs 26 and 28. However, if Ṭā' Sīn is really Ṭā' Sīn Mīm, then the latter also occurs in consecutive surahs.

From 1 and 2, it appears that the muqatta`āt were written in the original, defective (dot-free) Arabic script without any diacritics to distinguish consonants or vowels. Moreover, they were possibly written after the Ahadith and Sirat were compiled, or, perhaps, were unknown to the writers of those works.

From 3, we can conclude that the muqatta`āt date to after the recension of the Qur'an that produced its modern, longest-to-shortest organization.

The question now becomes what do the muqatta`āt represent? two hypotheses exist:

1. A relic of a now lost filing system

2. Scribal initials

If either were true, we would expect no muqatta`āt between the ranges of other muqatta`āt and no overlaps. This is apparently dis-confirmed by:

1. The presence of 'Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād (sura 7) and 'Alif Lām Rā' (suras 10-15) between the ranges of 'Alif Lām Mīm (suras 2-3 and 29-32). Even if 'Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād is really 'Alif Lām Mīm, the presence of 'Alif Lām Rā' dis-confirms the hypothesis.

and

2. The presence of two sets of muqatta`āt in Surah 42. (Though, perhaps this indicates the work of two scribes.)

Still, some hold that the muqatta`āt to be scribal initials rather than components of the surahs. The consecutive appearances of some sets indicates that some scribes were given consecutive surahs to copy.

See Also

• The Origins of the Qur'an
• Al-Fatiha

References