تَنزيلَ العَزيزِ الرَّحيمِ
[It is a scripture] sent down gradually from the All-Mighty, the All-Merciful.
EXEGESIS
Tanzīl is from the root verb nazzala, meaning bringing down, lowering, revealing a secret, inspiration, and so on. Tanzīl usually denotes gradual descent as opposed to inzāl (from the verb anzala), which usually implies instantaneous descent. Here, tanzīl is used to imply the gradual revelation of the Quran.
The wisdom behind this gradual descent is mentioned in 17:106: We have sent the Quran in [discrete] parts so that you may read it to the people a little at a time, and We have sent it down piecemeal (nazzalnāhu) [in progressive stages].
The two qualities mentioned here for the sender of the revelation, ʿazīz (all-mighty) and raḥīm (all-merciful), are very suggestive. ʿAzīz is the mighty who is never defeated and nothing would resist his power, and nor anything is out of his power. This implies two things; firstly, God has not sent down the revelation because He needs people to believe in Him or obey Him. That is why it is followed by raḥīm (all-merciful) – the revelation is sent merely out of His kindness, out of His will to include everyone in the fold of His mercy. Secondly, He would not fail in His mission, and the message will find its way to the heart of those willing to receive His mercy, though the polytheists may be averse (61:9).
EXPOSITION
The tanzīl or sending down of the Quran should not be understood in a physical sense. Rather, it signifies the reduction of the Quran from a high, meta-conceptual level to a conceptual level where the human conceptual faculty can comprehend it. This is indeed a noble Quran, in a guarded book, no one touches it except the pure ones, gradually sent down from the Lord of all the worlds (56:77-80). The wisdom contained in this book is not of the fabric of earthly wisdom; however, it has been reduced for the earthly man to partake of that wisdom. Human beings cannot access those meanings in their unreduced form, except those who are aloof and clean from earthly pollution, not because it is sealed and locked somewhere they do not know, but because they do not possess the competence and capacity to touch those meanings.
The Prophet understands those meta-concepts, which no language could explain, but since he wants to convey it to us, it is reduced to our language. Indeed We have made it simple in your language, so that they may take admonition (44:58). In other words, the Holy Prophet is a kind of medium between that sealed book and us; he conveys to us those meanings in terms of the Quran which is revealed to him by exact wording from Allah. This mediation is made possible by the noble soul of the Prophet. Those meta-concepts have been revealed to the Prophet on the Night of Ordainment (laylat al-qadr) (inzāl) and have been translated for us by Allah as the Quran in a gradual manner over more than twenty years (tanzīl).
The wise Quran was revealed to the Prophet with the message of might and mercy of God. Obviously, the message of might is for the deniers, and the message of mercy is for the righteous. In addition, since He is All-Mighty, He is never weakened or defeated, and He is victorious. Neither do those who turn away from worshipping Him weaken Him nor do those who deny or belie Him humiliate Him. On the other hand, His mercy expands to all those who follow His message and observe His awe without seeing Him. He does not need their faith, but they need it so that He guides them to the straight path of perfection. These two attributes invoke the two most essential qualities of the soul, hope and fear, that one should always keep in balance. Thus, if one loses hope in the mercy of God then he would have committed the second greatest sin after polytheism, and if one considers himself immune from the punishment of God he would have committed the third greatest sin. Since the origin of the Quran is the mercy of God, whoever would bond with it would reach the honour and grace of God.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- The Messenger of God said: ‘If the believers realised how [extensive] is the punishment of God, no one [from them] would have had hope in His paradise. And if the criminals realised how [extensive] is the mercy of God, no one [from them] would have had become hopeless from His mercy.’
- Imam Ali (a) said: ‘The best of deeds is the balance between hope and fear.’
- Imam al-Ṣādiq (a): ‘A believer would never be a [true] believer until he is fearful and hopeful, and he would never be fearful and hopeful until he acts upon whatever he fears and hopes for.’
Note: Many verses indicate that a person should be aware of God’s extensive mercy and His severe punishment, such as, Inform my servants that I am indeed the All-Forgiving, the All-Merciful, and that My punishment is a painful punishment (15:49-50). Fear means the expectation of an unpleasant thing due to a probable sign or indication; it is contrary to hope, which is the expectation of a desirable thing due to a probable sign or indication.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
The attribute All-Mighty indicates that the Quran is not the guidance of a powerless preacher, which, if ignored, would cause nothing to happen. It is the proclamation of the All-Mighty owner of the universe, which a human should not neglect or belittle. The second attribute, All-Merciful, indicates that His message and Messenger were sent to humankind out of His kindness and mercy to guide them on how they can follow the right path, which is a path of success for this world and the hereafter.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them, I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them … A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans.
[1] Sistani, Minhāj al-Ṣāliḥīn, vol. 1, ruling 30.
[2] Muslim, h. 7575.
[3] Ghurar, p. 361.
[4] Kafi, 2/70.
[5] Raghib, p. 303.
[6] Razi, 26/254.
[7] Hosea 11:4-6.