The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Yā Sīn – Verse 1

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

يسٓ

Yā sīn!

EXEGESIS

The exegetes present several probable meanings for Yā sīn:

  1. They are disjointed letters, hence the meaning is unknown except to the Prophet, similar to the disjointed letters at the beginning of twenty-eight other surahs in the Quran.
  2. Yā sīn is a name of Prophet Muhammad (s). This view is supported by the integrated context and the sequence of verses after it, which emphasises that he is indeed one of the apostles (verse 3).‎[1] It is also emphasised by a number of narrations that indicate Yā sīn is one of the given names of the Holy Prophet.
  3. It is suggested that eight surahs in the Quran begin by addressing Prophet Muhammad (s) by his titles or symbolic names. Three of these surahs (33, 65, 66) start with O Prophet! Two of these (73, 74) start by addressing him as the one covered in the mantle, and the other three (20, 36, 68) start with disjointed letters, which according to some commentators indicate other names of Prophet Muhammad (s), including Yā sīn. Some linguists and exegetes have supported this last view by breaking down Yā sīn into Yā and sīn, where Yā is considered a vocative particle meaning ‘O …!’, and sīn would be Prophet Muhammad (s), which is indicated by verse 3: You are indeed one of the apostles.‎[2] Qummī‎[3] and Ṭabrisī‎[4] consider this view to be the strongest due to the indication from the narrations and the integration with the verse after it.
  4. A group of the companions have reported a fourth probable meaning, that Yā sīn means: O human, because sīn means human in Syriac.‎[5] In the same line of thought, some considered sīn an Arabic synonym of insān (human being). According to them, this can be traced back to the dialect of the Ṭayy tribe. Hence, along with the vocative or exclamatory particle Yā, it denotes: O you human! This opinion is reported by ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Abbas and some of the early exegetes.‎[6]
  5. The meaning of sīn is to consider it an abbreviation of sayyid, which means master (of the messengers); thus, Yā sīn could indicate Yā sayyid.‎[7] Some have interpreted it as: O master of the early ones and the latter ones.‎[8]
  6. Yā sīn is the name of the surah. According to Ṭūsī, this is the most substantial probability.‎[9]
  7. It is reported from Ibn Abbas that Yā sīn could probably be a name of the Quran or one of the names of God that He used here to make an oath.‎[10] This is the interpretation of Muʿādh ibn Jabal and Kaʿb, who said: ‘Yā sīn is an oath that God used to swear by when addressing the Prophet (s): “I swear, O Muhammad, You are indeed one of the apostles, on a straight path.”’‎[11]

EXPOSITION

Whichever of the aforementioned opinions we adopt, it cannot be denied that Yā sīn is included amongst the disjointed letters of the Quran. It is composed of Yā and sīn, which do not readily imply any meaning. The disjointed letters appear at the beginning of twenty-nine surahs. In total, 14 letters, half of the Arabic alphabet, are used in them. The first surah they appear in is in the second surah, al-Baqarah, with Alif, lām, mīm, and the last surah in which they appear is al-Qalam (68), with the letter nūn at the beginning. These letters appear in different numbers and different combinations. The shortest appears with only one letter, such ṣād, or qāf, and the longest is composed of five letters, such as Kāf, hāʾ, yāʾ, ʿayn, ṣāḍ.

Exegetes suggest more than twenty theories regarding the interpretation of these letters, however, none of them can give assurance and confidence that they are correct. This being the case, some have concluded that the disjointed letters fall into the category of equivocal verses (mutashābihāt). However, this is not very accurate since all equivocal verses of the Quran have an apparent meaning. The equivocal verses are called such because they imply more than one meaning, and we do not know which one is the intended meaning. However, in the case of the disjointed letters, we do not have any apparent meaning at all; they are not words to imply meanings, but letters placed beside each other. So, the idea that the disjointed letters are from mutashābihāt is inaccurate. 

Zamakhshari, arguably the greatest Mutazilite exegete, believes that the majority of the Quran commentators take these letters to be the names of the surahs in which they appear.‎[12] So, for example, Alif, lām, mīm is another name for Sūrat al-Baqarah, or Nūn is another name for Sūrat al-Qalam. This view was adopted by Ṭūsī; however, the problem with this view is that several surahs would then have the same name. For example, surahs 2, 3, 29, 30, 31, and 32 all begin with Alif, lām, mīm, and it would mean that six surahs have the same name. Ṭūsī would not see any objection in this since the surahs can be distinguished from each other by a second qualifier. 

One final note on the subject is that these letters certainly had great connotation for the Prophet, personally; in other words, they are placed there exclusively for the Prophet. They are meant to be understood only by him and not by anyone else. They are like passwords by which the Prophet and the infallible Imams as his heirs could enter a totally different sphere of meaning not available to others. Thus, when alif or ṣāḍ or qāf was mentioned at the beginning of a surah, in addition to its apparent meanings, the Prophet and the heirs to his knowledge would have found access to a higher realm of meaning with the help of those passwords. We recite these surahs without knowing those keywords, and we may fully understand the intended, apparent meanings of those surahs, but those who know the keywords would reach a depth of meaning which is not accessible to others.

For a complete discussion on the disjointed letters of the Quran, see the discussion on 2:1.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. From Imam al-Ṣādiq (a): ‘Yā sīn is the name of the Messenger of Allah (s), and the evidence is the word of God, the exalted, who said: You are indeed one of the apostles, on a straight path.’‎[13]
  2. Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) is reported to have said: ‘It is one of the names of the Prophet (s), and it means: O the listener of the revelation and the wise Quran, surely you are from the messengers, on the straight path.’‎[14]
  3. Imam Ali (a) is reported to have said: ‘It means: O Muhammad.’ He also said: ‘I heard the Messenger of God (s) say: “Verily, God, the exalted, named me in the Quran with seven names: Muhammad, Aḥmad, Ṭāhā, Yā sīn, al-Muzzammil, al-Muddaththir, and ʿAbd-Allāh.”’‎[15]
  4. From Imam al-Bāqir (a): ‘Verily, the Messenger of God (s) has ten names, five of them are in the Quran and five of them are not in the Quran. The ones in the Quran are Muhammad, Aḥmad, ʿAbd-Allāh, Yā sīn, and Nūn.’‎[16] 
[1] Mājid Nāṣir Zubaydī, al-Taysīr fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān Bi-riwāyat Ahl al-Bayt, (Beirut: Dār al-Maḥajjah al-Bayḍāʾ, 2007), 26/251.
[2] Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, (DKI Beirut, 1992), 5/5-6.
[3] Qummi, 2/212.
[4] Tabrisi, 8/651.
[5] Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, (DKI Beirut, 1992), 5/5-6.
[6] Tibyan, 8/442.
[7] Islamic Foundation UK, Towards Understanding the Quran, pp. 1-5, https://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=36.
[8] Tibyan, 8/442.
[9] Tibyan, 8/442.
[10] Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, (DKI Beirut, 1992), 5/5-6.
[11] Mardawayh, 5/48.
[12] Zamakhshari, 1/31
[13] Sayyid Kamal Faqih Imani, An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur'an, (London: Imam Ali Foundation), vol. 15.
[14] Burhan, 4/563, h. 8890; Maani, 1/22.
[15] Māwardī, al-Nukat wa al-ʿUyūn, (DKI Beirut, 1992), 5/5-6.
[16] Nur, 4/372, h. 10.