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

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,^[6] which is mentioned in Quran 74:30 (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 in some cases used as the names for their respective 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.^[7]

Modern academic insights and interpretations

Daniel Beck observes that academic scholars commonly at first suppose that the letters conveyed textual information regarding the scribes or manuscripts used during the inital compilation process of the Quranic materials. Indeed, it is tempting to imagine the letters were the initals of scribes or an alphabetic index of small collections of surahs. Generally (like Noldeke), they abandon such a view when exposed to other considerations.^[4] The main motivation for preferring to view them instead as features of the original recitation is the one mentioned above - the observation that the letters almost always immediately precede mention of the Quran or revelation itself. Other reasons include the observation that the letter combinations tend to rhyme (or near-rhyme) with the rhyming schema of the verses which follow them.^[8]

Within this perspective, Beck explains that both early modern academic as well as Islamic scholars supposed that the letters were abbreviations for Arabic words whose referents were forgotten after Muhammad's death. The dominant view today among academic scholars is instead that the letters are not abbreviations for words (the "no referents" view), but rather convey the idea of Arabic letters or its alphabet in some mystical sense, a kind of mantic performance, akin to chanting "abracadabra" or ABC 123 in English. Beck challenges this view due to the lack of late antique precedent and the pattern noted above wherein there is a lack of diversity of combinations in the third Meccan period as well as other observations such as the strong concentration of occurances in that period and an almost complete cessation thereafter. Beck's own proposal is a referents theory associated with the needs of a certain period leading up to Muhammad's political ascendancy. Angelia Neuwirth believes these letters represent the smallest elements of the acoustic performance of the word of God.^[9]

Other observations by historical-critical academic scholars include:

1. The muqatta`āt are already present in the earliest Quranic manuscripts (as noted in more detail above).

2. The rasm of each of the muqatta`āt is unique.^[4] 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.

3. The final six letters of the Arabic alphabet (in the 'abjad' sequence) are not used.^[4]

4. The muqatta`āt are not distributed at random. 'Alif Lām Mīm occurs in two consecutive sets of surahs: 2-3 and 29-32 (and 'Alif Lām Mīm Ṣād in sura 7). Between these ranges, '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 non-consecutive surahs 26 and 28. However, if Ṭā' Sīn is really Ṭā' Sīn Mīm, then the latter also occurs in consecutive surahs.

These other points on their own would seem to be supportive of theories linking the letters to the initial compilation of the scripture; perhaps the initials of the scribes who worked to make the original copy of the complete Quran (a theory slightly complicated by the presence of two sets of muqatta`āt in Surah 42), or some kind of filing system for the source parchments, although it is to be noted that when the Quran was compiled into a single book a general sequence of longest to shortest surahs was used (a method employed also in other late antique literary compilations). The source materials for the muqatta'at surahs would not likely each have contained only surahs of similar size such that their sequences would be largely maintained in the compiled Quran. It has at the same time, however, been noted that the consecutive sequence of Ḥā' Mīm surahs (which are even consecutive in the reported non-standard surah sequences of early Companion codices) form a clear literally unit with similar themes.

See Also

• Textual History of the Qur'an

References