Letters ( revised ) | The Twenty-Ninth Letter | 448
(447-527)
Yes, that is to say, as time passes the All-Wise Qur’an’s truths are increasingly disclosed. But not, God forbid! so as to cause doubt concerning the self-evident Qur’anic truths that previous generations have expounded. For belief in them is obligatory; they are established, definite, fundamental, and basic. The verse, “A perspicuous Arabic Qur’an”(16:103)  states that its meaning is clear. From beginning to end, the divine address revolves around those meanings, corroborating   them  and  making  them  clear.  Not  to  accept  those  authoritative meanings  suggests,  God  forbid!,  denying  Almighty God  and  insulting  the Messenger’s  (UWBP)  understanding.  That  is  to  say,  those  authoritative  meanings have been taken successively from the source of Messengership.  Ibn Jarir al-Tabari wrote his great commentary relating all the meanings of the Qur’an through chains of authentic transmission to the source of Messengership.

The Second Group are either foolish friends who cause harm and make matters worse, or they are diabolically cunning enemies who want to oppose the rulings of Islam and truths of belief. They want to find a way into the fortified Suras of the All- Wise Qur’an, which, in your words, are each like steel strongholds. People like that spread about ideas like the above in order, God forbid!, to excite doubts about the truths of belief and the Qur’an.

 

SECOND POINT

 

Almighty God swears by many things in the Qur’an. The Qur’anic oaths contain numerous mysteries and significant points. For example, the oath in “By the Sun and its [glorious] splendour”(91:1) forms the basis of the splendid comparison in the Eleventh Word; it depicts the universe as a palace and a city. The oath of “Ya. Sin. * By  the  Qur’an  full  of  wisdom”(36:1-2)  calls  attention  to  the  sacredness  of  the Qur’an’s miraculousness,  and indicates that it is so worthy of veneration it can be sworn by. The oaths in “By the star when its goes down,”(53:1) and “Furthermore I call to witness the setting of the stars, * And that is indeed a mighty adjuration if you but knew”(56:75-6)  indicate that falling stars are a sign that jinns and devils have been  prevented  from  receiving  news  from  the  Unseen  so  that  they cannot  cause doubts about revelation. They also point to the vast power and perfect wisdom in the awesomely vast stars being set in their places in perfect order and in the planets being made to revolve in wondrous manner. With the oaths, “By the [winds] that scatter and broadcast;”(51:1) * “By the [winds] sent forth,”(71:1) it attracts attention to the angels appointed to the winds, in order to call to mind the significant instances of wisdom in the disposal of the air and its movement in waves.


 

No Voice

Letters ( revised )