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Tafsīr of ՙālamīn in rabb al-ՙālamīn, Qur՚ān 1:2.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Simonetta Calderini
Simonetta Calderini
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
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Extract

This preliminary study is intended to analyse the Muslim exegesis of the term ՙālamīn in the Qur՚ānic expression rabb al-ՙālamīn (‘Lord of the Worlds’), with reference to Sūrat al-Fātiḥa, verse 2: ‘Praise be to Allāh, Lord of the ‘ālamīn’. The relevance of the tafsīr of ՙālamīn is multifaceted: it indicates the awareness among medieval, as well as modern, exegetes of the need to explain a term which was felt, at least grammatically, to be anomalous; it provides the opportunity to discuss the interpretations of a formula often repeated in Muslim prayer but rarely examined in theological context; finally, it leads through these interpretations—as is often the case with the tafsīr genre—into wider elaborations arising from the text (or imposed on it?).

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 52 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1994

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References

1 For the occurrence of ՙālamīn and rabb al-ՙālamīn in the Qur՚ān, see any Qur՚ānic concordance, e.g. Bundāq, Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ, Hidāyat al-raḥmān li-alfāz wa ayāt al-Qur՚ ān (Beirut 1981), 254Google Scholar. Rabb al-ՙālamīn occurs predominantly in the Meccan sūras (the only Medinan sūras being 2; 5; 59). Apart from rabb, al-ՙālamĪn occurs in status constructus with nisā՚ (3:42) and with. ṣudūr (29: 10); in all the other cases, it is majrūr after prepositions such as ‘a1ā, ‘an, min, li, fĪ. Joseph Horovitz puts forward prosodic considerations to explain why ՙālamĪn is never found in I the singular in the Qur՚ ān: ‘[ՙālamĪn] formed a more convenient rhyme with the ending “-in” than did the singular form ending in “am”,’ in Horovitz, J., Jewish proper names and derivatives in the Koran (Hildesheim, 1964; repr. of 1925), 71 [215].

2 For an outline of some theories in this regard and for further references, see Nöldeke, T. and Schwally, F., Geschichte des Qorāns (Leipzig, 1909), I, p. 112Google Scholar, n. 1; Jeffery, A.The foreign vocabulary of the Qur՚ān (Baroda, 1938), 208–9;Google ScholarR., BellA commentary on the Qur՚ān, ed. Bosworth, C. E. and Richardson, M. E. (Manchester, 1991), 1–2Google Scholar; Widengren, G., Muḥammad, the Apostle of God and his ascension (King and Saviour V), (Uppsala, 1955), pp. 8f., n. 3Google Scholar; Paret, R., Der Koran, Kommentar und Konkordans (Stuttgart, 1971), 12Google Scholar and, more recently, apud Arkoun, G. Troupeau, Mohammed, , Lectures du Coran (Paris, 1982), p. 53Google Scholar, n. 15. Horovitz, on the other hand, rejects any direct derivation of the formula from post-Biblical Hebrew and substantiates his position by the fact that both rabb and ՙālamĪn, in isolation, were already used in pre-Islamic times; he considers, however, the possibility of an influence of the Jewish formula ribbōn hā -ՙōlamīm; Horovitz, Jewish proper names, 55–6 [199–200].

3 Goldziher, I., Die Richlungen der Islamischen Koranauslegung (Leiden, 1920)Google Scholar; Wansbrough, J., Quranic studies (Oxford, 1977), 119Google Scholar ff.; Rippin, A. ‘Tafsīr’, in Eliade, M. (ed.), The encyclopedia of religion (New York, 1987), xiv, 236–44;Google Scholar and al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, al-TafsĪr wa'l-mufassirūn, 3 vols. (Cairo, 1976–1989)Google Scholar.

4 al-Gharnāṭī, Abū Ḥayyān, Tafsīr al-baḥr al-muḥīt, (n.p., Dār al-fikr, 1983), 18Google Scholar.

5 In most cases the first interpretation reported is the one the mufassir prefers, but this does not constitute a rule; see for example Abū Ḥayyān, op. cit., 18–19.

6 ՙUbayda, Abū, al-Taymî, Maՙmar (d. 209/824), Majāz al-qur’ān (Beirut, 1981), I, 22Google Scholar; al-Khāzin, al-Baghdādī (d.721/1321), Lubāb al-ta'wīl fi ma’ānī al-tanzīl (Cairo, Dār al-kutub al-ՙarabīya, n.d.), I, 17Google Scholar.

7 Al-Bayḍawī, , Allāh, ՙAbd (d. 716/1316), Anwār al-tanzīl (Cairo, Dār al-kutub al-ՙarabīya alkubra, n.d), I, 26Google Scholar; Qāsimī, Muḥammad Jamāl al-dīn (d. 1333/1914), Tafsīr al-Qāsimī (n.p., Dāriḥyā՚ al-kutub al-ՙarabīya, 1957), II, 8.

8 Al-Baydawī, , al-tanzīl, Anwār, 26; al-Suyūṭī, Jalālal-dīn and Maḥallī, Tafsīr al-qur’ān al-karīm Tafsīr al-Jalālayn), (Cairo, 1966), 575Google Scholar. For the grammatical rule whereby the presence of humans in a plural requires a sound plural, see al-Iṣfahānī, al-Rāghib (d. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt ft gharīb al-qur’ān (Cairo, 1970), ii, 515Google Scholar.

9 Among others see in this regard, Ibn Kathīr, al-dīn, ՙImād (d. 774/1373), Tafsīr al-qur՚ ān al-ՙaẓīm (Beirut, 1987), i, 26Google Scholar; al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-dīn, Tafsīr al-Fakhr al-Rāzī (Beirut, 1981), 233Google Scholar; al-Suyūṭī, , Tafsīr al-qur՚ān, 575Google Scholar and the modern mufassir ՙAbduh, Muḥammad, Tafsīr al-qur՚ān al-ḥakīm (Tafsīr al-manār), (Cairo, 1927), I, 51Google Scholar.

10 Abū ‘Ubayda, Majāz, 22 with reference to a verse from the dīwān of Labīd b. Rabī‘a (d. 40/660?).

11 In Qurṭubī, Abū ՙAbd Allāh (d. 671/1272), al-Jāmi՚ li-aḥkān al-qur՚ ān (Cairo, 1935), i, 139Google Scholar and in Kathīr, Ibn (referring to Qurṭubī), Tafsīr, 26Google Scholar. Other examples of tafsīr al-qur՚ ān bl l-qur՚ ān are mentioned by the contemporary mufassir al-Khaṭīb, al-Karīm, ՙAbd, al-Tafsīr al-qur՚ ānī li l-qur՚ ān (Cairo, 1967), I, 18Google Scholar (ref. Qur՚ān 20: 50, 17: 44).

12 Al-Ṭabarī, , Jarīr, Muḥammad b., Jāmiՙ al-bayān ՙan ta՚wil al-qur՚ ān (Cairo, 1954), i, 142–3Google Scholar. Cf. al-Suyūṭī, , al-Durr al-manthūr fiՙl-tafsīr al-ma՚thūr (Baghdad, 1957), 13Google Scholar. For the reference to the ṭābiՙī Qatāda see al-Zabīdī, , Muḥammad Murtaḍa, , Tāj al-ՙarūs (Benghazi, 1966), VIII, 407Google Scholar and Ḥayyān, Abū, Tafsir al-baḥr, 18Google Scholar.

13 ՙArabī, Ibn, Tafsīr al-qur՚ ān al-karīm, (Beirut 1978), I, 10Google Scholar. This interpretation of the term ՙālam is by no means exclusive to mystical tafsīr; it is in fact a common way of interpreting ՙālam and linking it to ՙilm (knowledge), as it will be discussed later. However, mystical tafsīr emphasizes this interpretation and relates it to its doctrine of the knowability of the divine.

14 ՙArabī, Ibn, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīya (Cairo, 1972), II, 194Google Scholar. For the whole passage on rabb al-ՙālamīn see idem 193–7. I am grateful to Dr. ՙAbd al-Ḥaqq al-ՙĀnl for drawing my attention to this passage.

15 In a passage in Fuṣūs al-ḥikam (Cairo, 1946), 102Google Scholar, Ibn ՙArabī states: ‘in so far as He [God] has a shadow, He is known.’

16 Apud Qurṭūbī, Jāmiՙ, 139.

17 ‘A object cannot have a plural in -ūn/-īn attributed to one Zabīdī, Ibn Sayyid apud, Tāj, VIII, 407Google Scholar. See above, n. 8.

18 Qurṭūbī, Apud, Jāmiՙ, 138Google Scholar on the authority of Abū ‘Ubayda; see also Muhammad Jurjānīs, ‘Alī b. commentary to Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf ‘an ḥaqā iq al-tanzīl (Beirut, 1967), I, 54Google Scholar.

19 Zamakhsharī, , Kashshāf, I, 53Google Scholar and Zabīdī, , Tāj, 407Google Scholar.

20 Al-Ṭūsī, , Ja'far, Abū (d. 453/1061), al-Tibyān fi tafsīr al-qur՚ ān, I (Najaf, 1957), 32Google Scholar and, almost verbatim, al-Ṭabarsī, “Alī, Abū (d. 548/1153), Majmaՙ al-bayān fī tafsīr al∼qur’ān, I (Beirut, 198[0]), 45Google Scholar. Cf. the statement by Muḥammad ‘an that ‘ālam is not used in conjunction with individuals but with species, and among his examples are ‘ālam al-ḥayawān and ‘ālam al-nabāt; in his Tafsīr al-manār, i, 50.

21 al-Shāfiī, Al-Ḥalabī, ‘l-‘Ābbs, Abū (al-Samīn), ‘‘Umdat al-ḥuffāz fī tafsīr ashraf al-alfāz (Istanbul, 1987), 378Google Scholar. Ḥalabī himself does not support this argument; he states instead that Yālamīn is the plural of Yālam and that its sound form only indicates the inclusion of human beings.

22 Ṭabāṭabā'ī, , Ḥusayn, Sayyid Muḥammad, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-qur’ān (Beirut, al-Maṭba'a al- Tijārīya, n.d.), 21–2Google Scholar; see for the English translation Sayyid Saeed Akhtar, Rizvi, al-Mīzān: an exegesis of the Qur’ān by al-‘Āma… at-Ṭabātabā'ī, I (Tehran, 1983), 130Google Scholar.

23 Q. 25: 1 is cited, among others, by Qurṭūbī, , Jāmi’, 138Google Scholar and Kathīr, Ibn, Tafsīr, 25Google Scholar; for the other passages see Ṭabāṭabā'ī, Mīzān, 30–1Google Scholar and Ḥalabī, , ‘Umdat, 378Google Scholar.

24 Ṭabarī, , Jāmi’, 143–6Google Scholar and Suyūṭī, , Durr al-manthūr, 13Google Scholar.

25 See above; for yet further examples see Abū Ḥayyān al-Gharnaṭī, Tafsīr, 18; Qurṭubī, , JāmiZ, 138Google Scholar and Isfahānī, , Mufradāt, 515Google Scholar. For the answer (b), jinns and humans, see Ibn YAbbās, Tanwīr al-miqbās, with Suyūṭī, Durr al-manthūr, 3; for (c) see Qutayba, Ibn, Tafsīr gharīb, 38Google Scholar. Moreover, a temporal connotation is added by some interpretations of ‘ālamīn as ‘the people of each era’ or ‘the people of all eras’; see for example Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān, 32.

26 The microcosm/macrocosm parallelism became a systematic doctrinal feature in the philosophical speculation of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’; it was also prominent in Ghazālī‘s cosmology (see Kitāb al-arba’īn, Beirut, 1979, 40)Google Scholar. For quotations from Ja'far al-Ṣādiq see Zabīdī, , Tāj al-‘arūs, 407Google Scholar and al-Baghdādī, al-ālūsī (d. 1271/1854), Rūḥ al ma’ānī fī tafsīr al-qur’ān al-‘aẓīm wa'l-sab’ al mathānī (Beirut, Idārat al-ṭibā‘ al-munīrīya, n.d.), 79Google Scholar and Isfahānī, , Mufradāt, 515Google Scholar.

27 Qūnawī, Abū'l-Ma’ālī, I'jāz al-bayān fī ta'wīl al-qur’ān (Cairo, 1969), 307–8Google Scholar.

28 Rāzī, , Tafsīr (Beirut, 1981), I, 14Google Scholar.

29 Qurṭūbī, , Jāmi’, 138Google Scholar, also Suyūṭī, , Durr al-manthūr, 13Google Scholar. For ‘Worlds’ as communities see traditions apud Kathīr, Ibn, Tafsīr al-qur’ān, 25–6Google Scholar.

30 On the disagreement about the number of worlds see Baghdādī, , Lubāb, I, 17Google Scholar.

31 Ṭanṭāwī, Jawharī, al-jawāhir fī tafsīr al-qur՚ān (Surabaya, 1922), 11–13Google Scholar. Note that despite the modern scientific approach, some traditional cosmological views are maintained, for example the subdivision of the universe into a ‘superior’ and an ‘inferior’ world: the first includes the stars, the sun, the moon, the planets and their satellites; the second includes the mineral, vegetal and animal species on earth. For some considerations on Ṭanṭāwī's tafsīr see Baljon, J. M. S., Modern Muslim Koran interpretation (1880–1960), (Leiden, 1968), 5–6Google Scholar.

32 Ṭanṭāwī, , Jawāhir, 9–10Google Scholar.

33 ibid., 13–14.