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are all acceptable because, not the original text, but the bases
of the counting varied.
Abii '1-Qasim Ma},i.miid al-ZamakhsharI (467 /1075-538/1144)
was a Persian who became a very great Arabic scholar, excelling
in grammar and lexicography. He was a Mu'tazilI, giving
human reasoning an authoritative place in his conclusions about
the Qur'an and Islam. In al-Kashshiif, his learned Commen-
tary, he states his reasons for the equality of Saralu 'l-lkhlii~
with the whole of the Qur'ii.n in worth. But Fakhr al-Din
al-RazI (A. D. 1149-1210) in his Commentary MafiiW;m 'l-Ghayb,
quoted authoritative, that is, accepted traditions which limited
the value of the Sarah to a third of the whole Qur'an. Then
'Abdullah bin 'Umar al-BayQ.awI (d. A. H. 685/A. D. 1286),
whose Commentary, Anwiiru 'l-Tanzll, is a revision of al-
Kashshiif through the removal of nearly all of its Mu'tazilI
bias, also quoted the same specific traditions that limited the
recital value of the Sarah but mentioned also the greater
estimate and added another tradition which says that those
who recite it in their performance of the Worship will have
their entrance into the Garden as an obligatory reward.
The vital importance of the Sarah in Islam is further indicated
by the fact that the great J:IanbalI theologian, TaqI al-Din
Ibn Taymiyyah (661/1263-728/1328) devoted a book of 140 pages
to its exposition.
Egypt's great Islamic scholar, Jalal al-Din al-SuyiitI (849/
1445-911/1505), in his invaluable but still untranslated book on
Qur'an Introduction, al-llqiin ft 'Ulami 'l-Qur'iin, is content
with quoting the same traditions that affirm the worth of this
second shortest sarah of the Qur'an.
The Sarah has a number of names, the most common of
which is Saralu 'l-Ikhlii!J (The Chapter of Pure Belief). Al-RazI
lists twenty titles for the Sarah, while Shihab al-Din, in his
splendid super-commentary on al-Bay<;IawI's Anwiiru 'l-Tanzll,
mentions only four. He mentions, however, that the name
al-Ikhlii{l is used to express the doctrine of Allah's Oneness.
The most recently published translation of the Qur'an in
English, that by N. J. Dawood, uses the title : The Unity, for
the Sarah.
THE GRAMMAR OF SURATU 'LIKBLAl!I 7
After the Basmalah, the first word of the Sarah is Qui,
" Say ! ". This is the first word of five other surahs, as
follows: 8, 72, 109, 113 and 114.
A number of Qur'an commentaries, and al-Suyfitl's al-ltqan
as well, quote traditions which say that the authoritative
Reciters, Ubay bin Malik and lbn Mas'iid, omitted the word
qui, but the commentators nevertheless place it at the beginning
of Siiratu '1-lkhl~ because it is the well known reading.
This word qui, "Say," occurs altogether 332 times in the
Qur'an, which abundance of occurrence has supported the
Muslims in their universally accepted doctrine of the divine
origin of their sacred Book. There are some verses in the
Qur'iin which traditions affirm to be statements made by
'Umar bin al-Khattab and other Muslims, as well as declarations
made by Gabriel and other angels. These non-prophetic
quotations are explained as verses which Muhammad was
instructed to include in the Revelation by the word qui " Say "
which is implied where it is not expressed. The whole subject
is included in al-Suyfiti's discussion in Chapters Ten and Fifteen
of Book I of al-Itqan, which deal with the Secondary Causes
and Occasions of the Revelation of the Qur'an Verses.
After qui, " Say, " the next word is huwa, " It, " or " He. "
About this word, as the two alternative translations into
English indicate, there are differences of opinion among Muslim
scholars, and consequently much discussion. Some commen-
tators, such as al-TabarI (224/838-310/923), whose Commentary,
al-Tafsir, is the first on the whole Qur'iin, take the pronoun
huwa to be the subject of a sentence, with the following word,
Allah, as its predicate. The meaning would then be, " He is
Allah, " with the following word, 'a~adun, " One, " as a second,
appositional, predicate. This interpretation of the grammar of
the sentence takes the three words to mean, " He is Allah,
One " and the verse has so been rendered by some translators.
The Arabic commentators who accept this interpretation,
recognizing that the best rhetoric requires that a pronoun should
have an antecedent, explain the pronoun here by saying that
" He " refers to an antecedent which is understood. It is
declared that the sentence is the answer to a question addressed
8 EDWIN E. CALVERLEY
Edwin E. CALVERLEY
(Hartford, Conn.)