The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Nūr – Verse 34

وَلَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ آيَاتٍ مُّبَيِّنَاتٍ وَمَثَلًا مِّنَ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلِكُمْ وَمَوْعِظَةً لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ

Certainly We have sent down to you manifest signs and a description of those who passed before you, and an advice for the God-wary.

EXEGESIS

Āyāt (signs) may here refer to either the verses of the Quran, or any other sign which God has sent as a reminder to mankind.

Mubayyināt (manifest) comes from tabyīn, from the root of bāna. Bāna means to become clear and distinguished after being unclear and vague.[1] Here the form bayyana carries with it a transitive property: to make other things clear.

Mathal (description) comes from mithl. Mithl refers to something which is similar to another in its distinct qualities,[2] in which case they are mithlayn. So a mathal or a mithāl is used for ‘an example’. Here it means that the examples of past nations and prophets and information about them have been given to the audience of the Quran.[3]

Mawʿiẓah (advice) is from waʿẓ, and means to guide someone towards truth and that which is right by providing him needed and useful reminders and advice.[4]

EXPOSITION

This verse acts as a sum up of what was said so far and a preamble and preparation for the coming central verse of the surah, the verse of light. The surah now transitions from practical rulings intended for the guidance of the Muslim community, to examine its central theme in a broader scope in terms of all of God’s creation and how His guidance has effused through all creation in all time. It begins by pointing out that God has similarly sent such guidance to previous nations, who were all sent their prophets. God has informed the Muslims that they are a continuation of this great chain and tradition. In the verses that follow, it speaks of how the guiding light of God is present through all of creation and how everything that exists follows the course of His ‘clear command’.[5]

Certainly We have sent down to you manifest signs: whereas the first verse of the surah described the āyāt of God as bayyināt,[6] which meant clear and unambivalent, here they are described as mubayyināt, meaning that which makes other things clear and unambiguous, in other words allows the recipient of those signs to understand matters clearly.

This is a great literary technique and it teases what is to come in the following verse of light, wherein, as we shall explain, light is that which is seen and manifest in itself, but also makes other things be seen and manifest. To put it in more practical terms, the commands of God not only clarify how we should behave and act and give order to our lives, but also give us clarity in purpose and meaning to our lives.

This is an explicit reminder of the central theme of the ‘clear command’ of God and a preparation for what is to come. God has clarified to the Muslim community what they need through three means. The first is through the signs that He has communicated to us. The second is: and a description of those who passed before you. History is a great teacher for those who heed it, Have they not travelled over the land so that they may have hearts by which they may apply reason, or ears by which they may hear? (22:46).

These examples of previous nations should hopefully teach mankind to be wary of committing the same mistakes and the examples of prophets should guide them and inspire them to do good.[7]

And an advice for the God-wary: the third sign mentioned here is the advice that God has given to the God-wary. It is said that the God-wary are specified because they are the ones who would benefit from such signs and examples, like in the verse, This is the book, there is no doubt in it, a guidance to the God-wary, who believe in the unseen (2:2-3).[8]

Advice by its nature only benefits if it is heeded. Since heeding it is a choice, this decision to heed God’s advice is by definition only made by the God-wary. To put it in terms of the example that follows in the next verse, the one who closes their eyes and blinds himself will not be aided by a guiding light, for their darkness is self-imposed. While the light of God can be found everywhere, Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth (verse 35), it is also found in specific places, In houses Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His name is celebrated (verse 36). That is because they are the God-wary that benefit from His light. In summary, taking heed of the advice is the internal quality of the God-wary, termed variously as fiṭrah (pure essence), nafs al-lawwāmah (self-blaming soul), rasūl al-bāṭin (internal messenger), and so on.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. From Ismāʿīl ibn Bishr ibn ʿAmmār, that the Abbasid caliph Hārūn wrote to Imam al-Kāẓim (a) asking him to give him a short advice (mawʿiẓah). The Imam wrote back: ‘There is nothing that your eyes look upon except that it is a mawʿiẓah.’[9]
  2. From Imam Ali (a), that in his final advice to his son, Imam al-Hasan (a), he mentioned: ‘Rejuvenate your heart through mawʿiẓah.’[10]
  3. From Imam Ali (a), that in his final advice to his son, Muhammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah, he mentioned: ‘The intelligent one is he who takes heed (mawʿiẓah) from the lessons of experience.’[11]

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Different opinions have been presented regarding manifest signs:

  1. That which has been made clear and specific by God.[12]
  2. It means these signs clarify the meaning of things and reveal their true nature.[13]
  3. That which makes truth clear and distinct from falsehood.[14]
  4. The rulings revealed in this surah.[15] Others have specified this to be rulings similar to the rulings revealed to the Jews and Christians.[16]
  5. Clarifying what is permissible and what is forbidden.[17]
  6. Clarifying what we need to know about religion.[18]

As is clear, these say approximately the same thing and can be seen as referring to different parts of what constitutes manifest signs.

Following the likes of Nöldeke and Schwally, Böwering claims that verses 34-45 and then 46-56 ‘appear to be digressions and which exhibit signs of textual revision or interpolation … Neither passage seems pertinent to the context of the sura as a whole. Their unexpected appearance in the sura may be due to editorial confusion or, what I suggest is more likely, may be the result of express editorial insertion during the text’s composition and final redaction’.[19] Such thinking and speculation unfortunately is all too often the hallmark of the orientalist approach to the Quran and much of Islamic studies. As we have attempted to point out throughout the surah and will continue to do, all the verses of the surah follow a central theme (as they do in all the surahs of the Quran) and nothing should be viewed as digression or irrelevant to its central theme. The reader who has been paying attention would have noticed this and there is no need to baselessly speculate about revision or editors (a claim which is also disproven by modern studies such as carbon dating).[20]

[1] Tahqiq, 1/395-396, b-y-n.
[2] Tahqiq, 11/24, m-th-l.
[3] Tibyan, 7/436.
[4] Tahqiq, 13/164, w-ʿ-ẓ.
[5] See the Introduction.
[6] Both terms have been translated as manifest.
[7] See Tibyan, 7/436.
[8] Tabrisi, 7/221.
[9] Amali.S, p. 599; Wasail, 15/196-197, h. 20263.
[10] Nahj, letter 31.
[11] Faqih, 4/388, h. 5834.
[12] Tabrisi, 7/221.
[13] Tibyan, 7/436; Nemuneh, 14/462-463.
[14] Tabari, 18/104.
[15] Zamakhshari, 3/240; Muhit, 8/41; Tantawi, 10/125; Munyah, 19/111.
[16] Razi, 23/378.
[17] Baghawi, 3/415.
[18] Mizan, 15/114.
[19] Gerhard Böwering, ‘The Light Verse: Qurʿānic Text and Sūfī Interpretation’ in Oriens, Vol. 36 (Brill: 2001), pp. 113-144.
[20] Behnam Sadeghi and Uwe Bergman, ‘The Codex of a Companion of the Prophet and the Qur´ān of the Prophet’ in Arabica 57 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 343-436; Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi, ‘Ṣanʿāʾ 1 and the Origins of the Quran’ in Der Islam (De Gruyter, March 2012), pp. 1-129.