The Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation pdf

The Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation

Hizb one of the Commentary on the Qur’ān by 1990 al-Baydāwi – Arabic Edition & English Translation

With introduction & notes by Gibril Fouad Haddad Foreword by Osman Bakar

THE LIGHTS OF REVELATION AND THE SECRETS OF INTERPRETATION

Some of the Book Contents

• Al-rabb originally means “nurturing” 177
• The Ghazalian microcosm of human beings 179
• Definitions of mālik, malik and din 181
• Din as “sacred law” and as “obedience” 184
• Addressing Allah as if seeing Him 186
• Who is the speaker in na’budu and nastaſin? 191
• Why iyyāka was put first before the verbs 192
• The quest for self-extinction in the object of worship 192
• Putting the means (wasila) first ensures fulfillment 194
• Varieties of divine guidance 195
• Prayer for guidance, self-extinction, and vision of Allah 197
• Meaning and variants of sirāț/şirāț 198
• Typology of the divine favors 201
• Divine favor is safety from wrath and misguidance 203
• Emotional and physical divine attributes are metaphorical 205
• Who are those who incur anger and those who are astray? 207
• Meaning and recitation of Amin 209
• Reports on the immense merits of the Fātiņa 212

SŪRAT AL-BAQARA 214-679

• Definition of the Disjointed Letters 214
• Interpretation of the Disjointed Letters 216
• Phonemes and their attributes 218
• Syllabic combinations of the Fawātiḥ and their significance 225
• Interpretation of the Opening Letters continued 227
• Seven other interpretations and their rebuttals 229
• The preferred interpretation 237
• More interpretations yet 238
• Sufi phonology of alif lām mim 239
• Declension of the Opening Letters 240
• Do the Opening Letters constitute integral verses? 242
• Why That is the Book instead of This is the Book? 243
• The Qur’ān’s rational invalidation of doubt 245
• The specific beneficiaries of Quranic hudā ‘guidance 247
• Levels of taqwā guarding oneself 248
• Parsing of verses 2:1-2 250
• Belief in the unseen is part and parcel of taqwā 255
• Various doctrines on what the integrals of belief are 259
• Ash’ari definition of belief as confirmation in the heart 260
• Meanings and types of ghayb (unseen’ 263
• Meanings of “establishing the prayer” 265
• The Mu’tazili claim that rizq can only be halál 268
• The meaning of infäq’spending 271
• Highlighting of the Jews and Christians who accept Islam 273
• Meaning of mā unzila ‘what was sent down 275
• The renouncing of Jewish and Christian eschatologies 277
• Meaning of yüqinūn they are certain 278
• Highlighting of the recipients of divine guidance 280
• Divine guidance is unfathomable, invaluable and direct 282
• The intense Quranic valorization of the muttaqin (wary’ 284
• A non-Sunni view that Muslim sinners are in hell forever 285
• Parsing of inna ‘verily’ and its function 286
• Definition of kufr and its vestimentary symbols 289
• The Mu’tazili (and Shiʻi) view that the Qur’ān is created 290
• Repeatedly warning them is the same as not warning at all 292
• The doctrine that Allah can task one beyond capacity 295
• Gradual sealing up and blinding of the heart and psyche 298
• Non-Sunni views of the divine “sealing” and “misguiding” 300
• More on how Allah seals the senses of the unbelievers 303
• Parsing of mass-transmitted and irregular readings 306
• Semantics of ‘adhāb’punishment 308
• The hypocrites exposed 310
• The delusions of the Israelites 313
• The unbelievers’ duplicity defines their identity 315
• “They deceive Allah” is not literal 317
• The unbelievers’ literal and figurative heart disease 323
• The prohibition of lying 327
• The spread of corruption in the land 329
• The corrupters protest they are in fact civilizers 330
• “Human beings” as types of belief or groups of converts 332
• Zendiks’ view that mere verbal profession is belief 334
• The difference between “knowing” and “realizing” 336
• The human devils 340
• Rhetorical difference between verbal and nominal clauses 341
• The scoffing of the hypocrites 341
• The divine scoffing 343
• Non-Sunni figurations of divine reinforcing of /ughyiin 345
• The purchase of ruin at the price of guidance 348
• Parables, similes and proverbs 353
• “The one” stands for a collective: analysis of al-ladhi 354
• How Allah takes away light 359
• Parables of error: hypocrites, atheists and false Sufis 362
• Loss of hearing, speech and sight as a simile of unbelief 364
• A cloud burst filled with darkness, thunder and lightning 369
• The meteorological cause of thunder 372
• Analysis of kada <it was almost fact> 377
• Linguistic precedents and the diachronic status of poets 380
• Effects are from causes yet befall only through divine will 382
• For Ash’aris the term shay’ applies only to existing entities 384
• Human enablement and divine omnipotence 386
• Multi-tiered allegories in the Qur’an and Arabic poetry 387
• Allegorical interpretation of the storm and its elements 391
• Stylistic alarm through iltifat <apostrophic redirection> 393
• The frequent Quranic summons ya ayyuhaa 395
• Belief, worship are universal duties, as Allah created all 396
• A worshipper’s taqwa is wariness between fear and hope 402
• Knowledge of Allah and of His rights over His creatures 404
• The Lights of Revelation (Anwar al-Tanzi): Hizb I
• Earth’s levelness and rotundity at one and the same time 406
• The divine paradigms of fecundation and growth 408
• Rain formation 409
• The plural of paucity standing for collectivity or abundance 4 I 0
• Worship entails faith in the omnipotence of the worshipped 413
• Why human beings are under obligation to worship Allah 416
• Quranic polysemy and the allegories of human creation 417
• Why the Qur’an was sectioned into suras 421
• Interpretations of the divine challenge 422
• Meanings of shah id in Arabic usage 424
• Meanings of dim in Arabic usage 425
• Truthfulness is to report accurately what one knows 429
• The meaning of the stones of hell 433
• Proofs of Prophethood in the divine challenge 437
• Meanings of the word janna and the names of paradise 443
• The rivers of paradise 447
• The fruits of paradise 449
• Allegorical interpretation of “similar fruits” of paradise 454
• The actual states of paradise are beyond comparison 456
• Sunni understanding of khulud as literally “a long time” 457
• Perfection of resurrected bodies & rebuttal of materialists 459
• Method, power of similes/proverbs even in divine speech 461
• Definition of shame; meaning of its attribution to Allah 464
• ”Additive” particles in the Qur’an play a stylistic role 468
• Sizes great and small are all relative in the divine sight 4 71
• Definition of Haqq 474
• Definitions of the divine will 476
• The three types of fasiq 480
• The Mu’tazilis’ intermediary damnation for sinful Muslims 481
• Types of divine covenants 484
• Types of breaches condemned by Allah 486
• The three different possible addressees in kayfa takfurun? 489