يسٓ · وَٱلْقُرْءَانِ ٱلْحَكِيمِ
The disconnected letters were treated at length in the discussion of al-Baqara 2/1; I do not repeat those findings here. The summary was this: twenty-nine sūras in the Qurʾān open with letters read one by one; the meaning of these letters is not known with certainty; one group of scholars refers the meaning to God; and no numerical reckoning, abjad calculation or letter-counting is carried out on these letters.
In the discussion of Qāf 50/1 the same caveat was entered once more, and more heavily. I enter it here a third time, because يس is one of the places in the Qurʾān where claims of that kind have been produced most abundantly. This commentary does not take that road.
The pronunciation should be recorded: this verse is read not as "yasin" but as "Yā-Sīn", the two letters named separately. That is, these are not a word but the letters themselves.
The table below is not a list of preferences; it is an inventory of what is transmitted. And this has to be written above the table: there is no certain knowledge.
| Explanation | What it says | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Tafwīḍ (referring the meaning to God) | These letters belong to the ambiguous verses; their manner is not entered into | The stance of the early generations; the choice of silence where the text gives no explanation |
| "O man" | Yā-Sīn means "O man" in some dialects or in another language | It is transmitted; it is not certain knowledge. Its ground is a claim about a dialect, and the lexicographers do not agree on that claim. It is not adopted in this commentary |
| One of the names of the Prophet | Yā-Sīn is a name of the Prophet | It is transmitted; it is not certain knowledge. The same method, applied to the other disconnected letters, does not give consistent results |
| Vocative particle + abbreviation | Yā is the particle of calling, sīn the first letter of a word (insān, sayyid, and so on) | It rests on supposition; it is not supported from the text |
| An oath | God is swearing by these letters | It is weakened by the explicit particle of oath (wa'l-Qurʾān) coming immediately after: the oath is already made separately |
| The name of the sūra | The letters are the name of the sūra | The sūra is indeed known by this name; but the same does not hold consistently for the other disconnected letters |
| The material of the challenge | "These are the letters the Qurʾān is made of; go ahead" | The explanation found most reasonable in al-Baqara, because it rests on an order internal to the text |
I set the explanations "O man" and "a name of the Prophet" apart in particular, because these two reports circulate as though they were certain knowledge. They are not. I leave them where they stand in the table and issue no ruling upon them.
An observation about word order — an observation, not an explanation: the third verse begins with إِنَّكَ ("you"), that is, it turns to a person addressed directly. Those who say "Yā-Sīn is a vocative" take their ground from here. This is the only ground internal to the text for the second and fourth explanations in the table, and it must be recorded. But it is not sufficient by itself: there are other places in the Qurʾān where direct address follows the disconnected letters, and no claim of a vocative is made there.
The pattern established in the discussion of al-Baqara works here too: most groups of letters are followed immediately by an expression that speaks of the Book. In Yāsīn nothing at all comes in between.
In the discussion of Qāf 50/1 a table of the three single-letter sūras was given. Yāsīn has to be set beside that table:
| Sūra | Opening | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| Ṣād 38/1 | صٓ | wa'l-Qurʾāni dhi'dh-dhikr — possessed of the reminder |
| Qāf 50/1 | قٓ | wa'l-Qurʾāni'l-Majīd — of wide renown |
| Yāsīn 36/1-2 | يسٓ | wa'l-Qurʾāni'l-Ḥakīm — full of wisdom |
| al-Qalam 68/1 | نٓ | wa'l-qalami wa mā yasṭurūn — by the pen |
In all four sūras the first thing that comes after the letters belongs to the domain of writing. In three the oath is by the text itself, in one by the instrument that writes it. This is a verifiable order.
The concrete sense of the root is to hold back. The core usage the lexicographers give has to do with an animal:
- حَكَمَة (ḥakama) — the iron bit put in a horse's mouth, the rein. It keeps the animal from going where it should not.
- أَحْكَمَ (aḥkama) — to make firm, to bring to a state in which nothing shifts.
- حُكْم (ḥukm) — to bind a matter to a settled place; to bring a dispute to a stop.
- حِكْمَة (ḥikma) — from here: the knowledge that holds one back from doing wrong.
The picture beneath the root, then, is not knowledge but a limit. In Arabic, to be wise is not to know much but to keep what one knows in its place. The work of the rein is not to stop the animal but to hold it on course.
A dispute about the pattern — a distinction the lexicographers record: the faʿīl pattern in Arabic can carry both the sense of an active participle and that of a passive participle.
| Reading | What Ḥakīm means | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Possessor of wisdom (active participle: like ḥākim) | The common use of the pattern; an attribute given to the Qurʾān |
| 2 | Made firm, rendered unassailable (passive participle: like muḥkam) | Agreement with Hūd 11/1, kitābun uḥkimat āyātuh |
Both are transmitted; I do not impose a preference. The common point is this: on either reading the word declares that there is no slackness — either in the one who speaks or in what is spoken.
In the discussion of Qāf 50/1 the fact that the answer to the oath is not given explicitly was treated as a problem, and four separate views were tabulated there.
In Yāsīn there is no such problem: the answer comes immediately after, in the third verse — innaka lamina'l-mursalīn, and with the lām that marks it as the answer clause (la-min).
| Sūra | Oath | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Qāf 50/1-4 | wa'l-Qurʾāni'l-Majīd | Not given explicitly — the exegetes differ |
| Yāsīn 36/2-3 | wa'l-Qurʾāni'l-Ḥakīm | Innaka lamina'l-mursalīn — explicit, with the lām |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the subject matter of the two sūras: the subject of Qāf was the resurrection, and the oath pointed to an event that will come to pass; the first matter in Yāsīn is messengership itself. Because the answer to the oath is not an event but a standing, it can be stated.