قٓ ۚ وَٱلْقُرْءَانِ ٱلْمَجِيدِ
In the treatment of al-Baqara 2/1 the disconnected letters were dealt with at length; I do not repeat the findings there. Their summary was this: the meaning of these 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 the explanation that the letters make the challenge meaningful by pointing to the raw material of the Qurʾān. And, as was written plainly there: no numerical reckoning, no abjad and no letter-counting is done with these letters.
I set this note down here once more and in heavier type, because the letter ق is one of the places where claims of this kind are produced most often. This commentary does not take that road.
Now I give the principal explanations transmitted for this letter in the classical commentaries. The table is not a list of preferences; it is an inventory of what is transmitted.
| Explanation | What it says | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Consignment (tafwīḍ) — referring the meaning to God | These letters belong to the ambiguous verses; their meaning has not been made known to us, and the manner of it is not entered into | The attitude of the early generations; not a confession of ignorance but a choice to be silent where the text gives no explanation |
| An abbreviation of a name | ق → a pointer to a name such as al-Qādir or al-Qāhir | As recorded in the treatment of al-Baqara, this is not systematic: applied to all the letter-groups, the same method does not give consistent results |
| An abbreviation of a sentence | ق → the first letter of an expression such as quḍiya'l-amr ("the matter has been decided") | It is transmitted; but its only support is supposition, and the text does not bear it out |
| A letter of oath | God is swearing by this letter | Since an explicit particle of oath (wa'l-Qurʾān) follows immediately, this explanation is weakened: the oath is already made separately |
| Calling attention (tanbīh) | Opening with an unfamiliar sound draws the hearer into the text | A plausible function; but it does not explain why this letter |
| The name of the sūra | The letter is the name of the sūra | The sūra really is known by this name; but the same does not hold consistently for the other disconnected letters |
| The material of the challenge | "Here is the letter the Qurʾān is made of; go ahead" | The explanation found most plausible in al-Baqara because it rests on a pattern within the text; I take it up separately below |
| "Mount Qāf" | It is transmitted that this is the name of a mountain encircling the earth | I transmit this explanation but do not adopt it. Its source is narratives held to be Isrāʾīliyyāt; it has no ground in the Qurʾān or in sound transmission, and many exegetes reject it |
And above all of them this must be written plainly: there is no certain knowledge. None of the explanations above is enough to say "this is what this letter means". In this commentary no meaning is manufactured for the letter.
"When one looks at the verses that follow these letters a regularity appears: most of the letter-groups are followed immediately by an expression that speaks of the Book."
Qāf is one of the barest examples of this pattern — because nothing at all comes in between. The letter is uttered, and immediately afterwards, within the same verse, the Qurʾān is named:
And a comparison must be added to this. Two of the three sūras that begin with a single letter continue with an oath by the Qurʾān:
| Sūra | Opening | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| Ṣād 38/1 | صٓ | wa'l-Qurʾāni dhi'dh-dhikr — "by the Qurʾān, holder of the reminder" |
| Qāf 50/1 | قٓ | wa'l-Qurʾāni 'l-majīd — "by the Qurʾān, wide in glory" |
| al-Qalam 68/1 | نٓ | wa'l-qalami wa mā yasṭurūn — "by the pen and what they write" |
In the treatment of al-Qalam this difference was dwelt on: there the move was from the letter not to the product but to the instrument that makes the product. In Ṣād and Qāf the move is from the letter straight to the product — and in both the Qurʾān is named with an attribute.
What is to be recorded is this: in all three of the single-letter sūras the first thing that comes after the letter belongs to the field of writing. Al-Qalam names the pen; Ṣād and Qāf name the text. Letter — instrument — text. I give this as an observation.
That the Qurʾān swears by itself is a situation worth dwelling on, and in this sūra its function is plain: the last verse of the sūra will say "remind with the Qurʾān". The text, that is, begins its work by swearing by itself and ends it by commanding that reminding be done with itself. The forty-three verses in between stand between these two ends.
"The sense of the root: honour, loftiness, and abundance. The lexicographers describe majd as 'the breadth and abundance of honour'. A pasture ample enough for a camel is called majudat; there is breadth and plenty in the root."
Here I open the concrete side of the root a little further, because that is precisely what is at work in Qāf.
- مَجُدَتِ الإِبِل — the camel came upon ample pasture and ate its fill.
- أَمْجَدَ الرَّجُلُ دَابَّتَهُ — the man gave his animal fodder in plenty.
- مَجْد — from there: a person's honour being broad and full.
The picture beneath the root, then, is this: not a little fodder in a narrow place, but enough in a wide pasture to eat one's fill. The sense of honour is derived from that breadth. In Arabic loftiness is very often expressed by the size of the area covered.
The Qurʾān names itself with many attributes: ḥakīm (wise), karīm (precious), ʿaẓīm (great), mubīn (clear), ʿazīz (unassailable). Most of these attributes convey depth, worth or certainty.
Majīd, however, conveys breadth. What the root of the word measures is how much room a thing takes up and how far it satisfies.
I present this as my own reading, and its support is the lexicographers' description of the root: the Qurʾān is named here not as "glorious" but as "wide in glory" — large in scope, ample in the satisfaction it gives. And it has a link with the subject of the sūra: in a moment the objectors will describe the resurrection as "far" (verse 3), that is, with a word of distance. Already in the first verse the sūra sets its own measure against theirs: breadth.
A note: in al-Burūj this word occurred twice — once for the Throne (or for the owner of the Throne), once for the Qurʾān (qurʾānun majīd, 85/21). The attribute, then, is used of the Qurʾān in another sūra as well and is not peculiar to Qāf. What is peculiar to Qāf is that the attribute comes inside an oath.
In Arabic an oath (qasam) calls for an answer (jawāb al-qasam): "…by such and such, it is so." Here there is no explicit answer. The exegetes have debated this, and the principal views are these:
| View | What the answer is | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| The answer has been elided (maḥdhūf) | A clause such as "…surely you will be raised" is supplied | The context requires it; this is the whole subject of the sūra. In Arabic, where the indication is plain, the elision of the answer is common |
| The answer is verse 2 | "But they were astonished that a warner came to them from among themselves" | The particle bal can come after an oath; but it is unusual for the answer-clause to come in a negative or iḍrāb structure |
| The answer is verse 4 | "We know what the earth diminishes of them" | In sense this is the clause that best suits the oath; but two verses have come in between |
| The answer is in verse 45 | "You are not a tyrant over them" | It is found weak because of the distance |
On this disagreement I do not impose a preference. But an observation can be recorded: all four views look for the answer of the oath around the reality of the resurrection. The wording of the answer is disputed; its content is not.
And the answer's not being uttered itself produces an effect. An oath is sworn, the sentence is not completed, and immediately afterwards the astonishment of the other side begins to be described. The reader is left standing on an unfinished sentence.