The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Ṣād – Verse 1

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

ص ۚ وَالقُرآنِ ذِي الذِّكرِ

Ṣād. By the Quran bearing the reminder!

EXEGESIS

Ṣād is one of the disjointed letters that appear in the beginning of certain surahs in the Quran. This is the only surah that begins with just the letter ṣād, although the letter appears in conjunction with other letters in two other surahs; namely alif lām mīm ṣād in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, and kāf hā yā ʿayn ṣād in Sūrah Maryam. Interestingly, in both those surahs it is the final one of the disjointed letters. The exact meaning of the letter and its purpose here is a mystery of the Quran and unknown to us. For more on these disjointed letters, see the commentary on verse 2:1.

Dhikr (reminder) has various meanings, the most appropriate of which here is the meaning of tadhakkur or tadhkīr (reminding), that calls to justice and that which is good, reminding us of good moral values;‎[1] Certainly We have made the Quran simple for the sake of admonishment (dhikr). So is there anyone who will be admonished (muddakir)? (54:22). This is why the next verse follows up by saying the deniers of this message are in conceit and defiance, because they refuse to accept that which they know to be true out of arrogance and insolence.‎[2]

Some exegetes have interpreted dhikr to mean nobility and honour (sharaf).‎[3] They refer to the verse, Indeed it is a reminder (dhikr) for you and for your people (43:44), which according to some exegetes means Indeed it is a reminder (dhikr) for you and for your people because the people of the Prophet are mentioned in it,‎[4] or because whoever believes in it will be honoured in this world and the next.‎[5] Others say it is so named because there is mention (dhikr) in the Quran of God and His qualities, as well as prophets and previous nations.‎[6]

We could note that these three interpretations are not contradictory and we may consider all to be valid, and different layers of meaning of the word dhikr.

Dhī (bearing) has two meanings: a word used to describe the qualities of something, or the thing in itself.‎[7] In this case it means that the Quran can be described as having the quality of dhikr.

It has also been said that dhikr, or remembrance, is a quality that the believers should have, as opposed to those who have forgotten Allah, so He has forgotten them (9:67).‎[8] The Quran is thus imbued with the quality of dhikr, and this is imparted to those who recite its verses and engrain its teachings in their lives, just like the Prophet has been described as being dhikr: Allah has already sent down to you a reminder (dhikr), an apostle reciting to you the manifest signs of Allah (65:10-11).

The exegetes are divided regarding the subject of the oath, which is discussed under the Exposition.

EXPOSITION

The surah begins by a disjointed letter whose meaning is unknown to all except Allah and those firmly grounded in knowledge (3:7). This is immediately followed by an oath, where God swears by His own book, the Quran.

As for what is the subject‎[9] of the oath By the Quran, that is a matter of disagreement. Some have said it is omitted and the subject is something along the lines of: the truth has come and manifested, saying that omission is more eloquent in such cases, as it broadens the scope of the oath. Others have said that its subject is the next verse; and others still have said it is the verse after that.‎[10] There are even those that have said the subject does not come until verse 14, or even verse 54, or 64.‎[11] All this suggests that in fact the subject is indeed omitted, which is why different unrelated verses have been proposed as substitutes. The disjointed letter ṣād and the omitted subject of the oath serve to set the stage for the surah, as the reader is left to wonder and ponder about this Quran that is filled with fascinating and extraordinary news. This is very similar to the opening of Sūrat Qāf, which similarly starts with a disjointed letter, an oath by the Quran, and then omits the subject of the oath: Qāf. By the glorious Quran. Rather, they consider it odd that a warner should have come to them from among themselves (50:1-2). That surah is also thematically very similar to this one and has to do with wonder and amazement.

The Quran is then described with a single attribute, and even though the rhyme scheme has not yet been established in the surah, the first verse is aberrant in the rhyme scheme and has no pair, which serves to add emphasis to that attribute. The reader is stopped on it, to ponder its significance. The Quran has the quality of being a reminder, not in the platonic sense of all learning being a type of remembering, but in the Quranic sense of innate nature (fiṭrah), whereby every human being innately understands certain things to be true. The kufr of the faithless described in the next verse is literally an act of covering up and denying what they know in their heart of hearts to be correct.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. From Sufyān al-Thawrī, that he asked Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) regarding the meaning of the disjointed letters in the Quran, to which the Imam replied: ‘… as for ṣād, it is a stream that originates from under the Throne and it is the one in which the Prophet (s) performed ablutions in when he went on his Ascension (miʿrāj). Every day, Gabriel (a) enters into it and submerges himself in it. He then comes out and spreads his wings and there is not a droplet of water that falls from his wings except that God – blessed and exalted – creates from that an angel that praises, glorifies, exalts, and thanks Him until the Day of Judgement.’‎[12]

Note: This hadith is very long and purports to answer the meaning of every disjointed letter. Ṣād being a mystical stream would thematically link with the stream that Prophet Job (a) healed himself with, mentioned in verse 42.

  1. Ṭabrisī states that it is narrated from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a), that ṣād is one of the names of God.‎[13]

Note: It is not clear what his source is for this tradition, nor does Ṭabrisī offer any clarification as to what this name should be or mean.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

The exegetes have given various opinions on the meaning of the letter ṣād:

  1. It is the name of the surah.‎[14]
  2. From Ibn Abbas, that it is one of the names of God.‎[15]
  3. From Ibn Abbas, that it is one of the names of the Prophet.‎[16]
  4. From Qatādah, that it is one of the names of the Quran.‎[17]
  5. From Suddī, that it is simply one of the letters of the alphabet.‎[18] By this he probably means that God is reminding us about the importance of these letters and that the miraculous Quran is composed of them.
  6. From al-Ḍaḥḥak, that it stands for ṣidq (truthfulness),‎[19] meaning: I am God, the truthful, or: God has spoken truly.‎[20]
  7. Similarly, along with some other options, Rāzī suggests that it could be an abbreviation for a statement such as ‘the faithless have been barred (ṣudda al-kuffār) from accepting this religion’, or, ‘Muhammad (s) has spoken truly (ṣadaqa)’.‎[21]
  8. From Hasan al-Baṣrī, that it stands for muṣādāt (opposition, opposite),‎[22] meaning: place it in front of your actions, and compare where they stand and where the Quran stands.‎[23]
  9. Zamakhsharī muses that it could be the name of the surah, as in: this is Ṣād.‎[24]
  10. From Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, that it is an ocean in which the dead will be revived between the two blowings of the trumpet.‎[25]
  11. In another report from Ibn Abbas and Jābir ibn ʿAbd-Allāh, when they were asked what ṣād means, they said: ‘We do not know what it is.’‎[26]

As is apparent, all of these opinions are speculation and guesswork. The last one is the only one that we can say is true with certainty.

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

  1. Therefore, I intend to keep on reminding you about these things, even though you already know them and are firmly established in the truth that you now have.‎[27] 
[1] Tibyan, 8/541.
[2] Tabari, 23/75-76.
[3] Tibyan, 8/541; Suyuti, 5/296; Tabari, 23/75; Zamakhshari, 4/70.
[4] Tabrisi, 8/726.
[5] Qurtubi, 15/144.
[6] Tabrisi, 8/726.
[7] Raghib, p. 333.
[8] Nemuneh, 19/209.
[9] An oath should generally have a thing that is sworn by and a subject. For example, one could say: ‘By God, you are right!’ In this case one is swearing by God, that the other person is right. The subject is the other person being right.
[10] The proponents of this view say that the third verse should in reality be lakam, but la is omitted because of the intermission created by the second verse.
[11] Tibyan, 8/541-542; Tabari, 23/76; Qurtubi, 15/145. Tabari criticises these latter two opinions, saying they are not something that he has found to be done in proper Arabic.
[12] Maani, p. 22.
[13] Tabrisi, 8/726.
[14] Tibyan, 8/541.
[15] Tibyan, 8/541; Tabari, 23/75. Like Ṣādiq (Truthful), Ṣamad (All-embracing), Ṣāniʿ (Shaper).
[16] Suyuti, 5/296.
[17] Tabrisi, 8/726; Tabari, 23/75.
[18] Tibyan, 8/541; Tabari 23/75.
[19] Tibyan, 8/541.
[20] Suyuti, 5/296; Tabari, 23/75.
[21] Razi, 26/365. Based on this Rāzī deliberates that perhaps the subject of the oath is this statement, and it precedes the actual oath; or that ṣād is the name of the surah and the oath follows it, such as saying ‘this is Ḥātim, by God’.
[22] Tibyan, 8/541.
[23] Suyuti, 5/296; Tabari, 23/74-75.
[24] Zamakhshari, 4/70.
[25] Thalabi, 8/176.
[26] Suyuti, 5/296.
[27] 2 Peter 1:12.