طسٓ · تِلْكَ ءَايَٰتُ ٱلْقُرْءَانِ وَكِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ · هُدًى وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ · ٱلَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَهُم بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ
Ṭā-sīn · tilka āyātu'l-qurʾāni wa kitābin mubīn · hudan wa bushrā li'l-muʾminīn · alladhīna yuqīmūna'ṣ-ṣalāta wa yuʾtūna'z-zakāta wa hum bi'l-ākhirati hum yūqinūn
"Ṭā-sīn. These are the verses of the Qurʾān and of a clear Book: a guidance and glad tidings for those who believe. They perform the prayer, they give the alms, and they are certain of the hereafter."
This note has been entered many times in this series — at length in al-Baqara at 2/1, and in summary in Qāf at 50/1. I do not repeat it here. The summary was this: the meaning of the letters is not known with certainty; one group of scholars refers the meaning to God; among the views that seek an explanation, the one that finds most support from within the text is that the letters, by pointing to the raw material of the Qurʾān, make the challenge meaningful. And, as was written there plainly: no numerical calculation, no abjad reckoning and no counting of letters is carried out on these letters.
The two sūras stand side by side in the order of the codex, and their openings are almost the same. The comparison can be verified from the text:
| al-Naml 27/1 | al-Qaṣaṣ 28/1-2 | |
|---|---|---|
| The letters | Ṭā-sīn — two letters | Ṭā-sīn-mīm — three letters |
| The demonstrative | tilka | tilka |
| Verses of what | āyātu'l-qurʾāni wa kitābin mubīn | āyātu'l-kitābi'l-mubīn |
| What follows | For whom it is — hudan wa bushrā li'l-muʾminīn | What will be done — natlū ʿalayka min nabaʾi Mūsā |
First: in al-Naml two names are given — al-Qurʾān and kitābun mubīn; in al-Qaṣaṣ there is one. Qurʾān, from the root ق-ر-أ, names what is recited; kitāb, from the root ك-ت-ب, names what is written. The opening of al-Naml thus names the text in both its modes at once: as sound and as script.
Second: the opening of al-Naml goes on by describing the one addressed (li'l-muʾminīn, and then three attributes), while al-Qaṣaṣ goes on by announcing what is to be narrated. This is a difference of method between the two sūras: one begins by defining its reader, the other by announcing its subject. I record this as my own reading; its ground is the sentences that continue the two openings.
And as was recorded in al-Qaṣaṣ, no conclusion is drawn from the way the disconnected letters are arranged across sūras. That the two sūras are neighbours is a datum; I draw no inference from it about the meaning of the letters.
The third verse is word for word the same as 31/4 in Luqmān: alladhīna yuqīmūna'ṣ-ṣalāta wa yuʾtūna'z-zakāta wa hum bi'l-ākhirati hum yūqinūn.
| al-Baqara 2/2-3 | Luqmān 31/3-4 | al-Naml 27/2-3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| For whom | hudan li'l-muttaqīn | hudan wa raḥmatan li'l-muḥsinīn | hudan wa bushrā li'l-muʾminīn |
| The second word | — | raḥma | bushrā |
| The attributes | Faith in the unseen, prayer, spending | Prayer, alms, certainty of the hereafter | Prayer, alms, certainty of the hereafter |
The lists of attributes in Luqmān and in al-Naml are the same; the difference lies in the second word: there raḥma, here bushrā. This is an overlap and a difference that can be verified from the text.
بُشْرَىٰ — root ب-ش-ر: the concrete sense of the root is skin, the outer surface of the flesh (bashara). Glad tidings come from this root, because good news shows first in the face — the colour of the face changes. The root was treated in al-Zukhruf, al-Fatḥ and al-Ṣāffāt; I do not repeat it here.
I record this as an observation: al-Naml is a sūra whose narratives end in joy — Solomon smiles (19), the queen submits (44), those who are delivered are delivered (53, 57). The bushrā of the opening agrees with the sūra's choice of narrative. I record this as an overlap, not as a claim.
يُوقِنُونَ — root ي-ق-ن: the concrete sense the lexicographers give is water settling and running clear, the sediment sinking to the bottom. Yaqīn is knowledge from which the cloudiness has gone. The root was treated in al-Wāqiʿa and al-Dukhān.
And the word will occur once more in this sūra — at verse 82, in exactly the opposite direction: anna'n-nāsa kānū bi-āyātinā lā yūqinūn. The sūra defines the one it addresses by certainty, and ties off its close with the absence of certainty. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.