The linguistic excellence of Ayat Al Kursi Part 4

لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلاَ نَوْمٌ

 Neither drowsiness overtaken Him nor sleep

The complete negation of drowsiness and sleep reflect the perfection of his attributes: الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ  the ever-living, and the sustainer of the universe  

Sleep is a form of death and if it exists then it would be a deficiency for Allah (swt) with regards to his attribute of the ever-living. 

Sleep makes one heedless and unaware of what goes around them. If Allah (swt) slept, A’uthubillah, then who would be there to take care of all the affairs of the universe. There is verse in the bible which states

But then the Lord awoke from his sleep; he was like a warrior in a drunken rage [Psalms 78:65, The Bible]

For Christians this becomes even more problematic because they say the God died for 3 days!

Allah (swt) is far far dissociated from such attributes which the People of former Scriptures have invented against him. 

لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ

To him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth

The word مَا ( translated as whatever ) in this verse is a relative pronoun [1] which can be used for both masculine or feminine, whether they are singular, dual or plural. مَا is used to refer to unintelligent beings ( animals, inanimate objects) or the attributes of the intelligent ( humans, Jinns, Angels) . [2]

 مَن is also a relative pronoun and is used to refer to intelligent beings only. So the reason why مَا was used instead of مَن  was to include everything and everyone. 

In a normal Arabic sentence structure one would place the Mubtada (subject) before the Khabar (predicate). So in a normal structure of nominal sentence one would say:

مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ لَّهُ

 

By placing the Khabar ( Jaarun wa majroor) in the beginning, this gives the meaning of exclusivity or constriction which implies it is only Allah (swt) to whom all things belong. 

لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ

To him ALONE belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth

There is nothing in existence that doesn’t belong to Allah (swt) who has no co-sharers.

Being a caretaker of something doesn’t imply that it belongs to one or that one has authority over it.  So not only is Allah (swt) the caretaker of everything, but everything he takes care of in the most complete manner, belongs to him and him alone. So this ayah negates any associates.

I guess one can now start to appreciate the language of the Ayah and why it is considered the greatest Ayah of the Quran. It deals with absolute oneness and greatness of Allah (swt) and expresses it in the most accurate and emphatic manner possible.

[1] مَا can have other meanings and usages. In the verse it is known as Ma Al mowsula

[2] مَا used for attributes of intelligent beings is not discussed in introductory Arabic courses. If one is unfamiliar with this usage here is an example in the Quran in Surat Al Shams verses 5-7

وَالسَّمَاءِ وَمَا بَنَاهَا

وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَاهَا

وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا

And the heaven and Him Who made it, And the earth and Him Who extended it, 

And the soul and Him Who made it perfect

The linguistic excellence of Ayat Al Kursi Part 3

لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلاَ نَوْمٌ

Neither drowsiness overtaken Him nor sleep

Both of the states of سِنَةٌ drowsiness and نَوْمٌ sleep are negated. The negation is made with the repetition of لاَ. It was possible to say it without the second لاَ i.e.

لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَ نَوْمٌ

so why was لاَ repeated.

Let us take an example to illustrate the point further. If one was to say using one لاَ :

مُحَمَّدٌ لاَ يَدْرُسُ الاقتصاد و الكيمياء

Muhammad doesn’t study economics or chemistry

The meaning of this statement is that Muhammad doesn’t study economics or chemistry together. So the negation is for both of them being studied together only. However it is possible that he is studying one of these subjects alone and if so the statement above would still hold true. If Muhammad was infact not studying either one then one would add a second لاَ

مُحَمَّدٌ لاَ يَدْرُسُ الاقتصاد و لاَ الكيمياء

So this would negate Muhammad studying economics or chemistry together or either subject being studied on its own. This is a more complete negation.

Similarly , the word choice in Ayat Al Kursi is very precise and denotes both or either of the states of drowsiness and sleep being negated for Allah (swt).

So If it was written with only one لاَ  i.e.

لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَ نَوْمٌ

Then this would imply the possibility that Allah (swt) sleeps without becoming drowsy or that he gets drowsy without going to sleep. A’uthubillah!

So the words of the Qur’an have been worded perfectly as not to leave room for those critics who want to find fault with it. 

Let us now look at an example in the Quran of لاَ being used only once

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لاَ تَخُونُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ

O you who believe! be not unfaithful to Allah and the Messenger . . .

The question is now asked: Why was there only the first لاَ unlike the verse in ayat Al kursi?

RasulAllah (saw) is the ambassador and spokesperson for Allah (swt). He does not speak from his own desire but everything he commands is in fact the command of Allah (swt). So by omitting the لاَ after the Messenger, it implies that being unfaithful to the Messenger is in fact being unfaithful to Allah (swt) and vice versa. In other words there is no distinction whether one betrays the Messenger or Allah (swt). By adding the second لاَ this connection between Allah (swt) and RasulAllah would not be implied. SubhanAllah!

We will continue with Ayat Al kursi in my next post after taking a slight detour to explain the negation in this section.

By Nabeel Alkhalidy

The linguistic excellence of Ayat Al Kursi Part 2

Let us begin the Analysis:

اللّهُ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ

Allah – There is no deity except him

The verse starts off by with the oneness of Allah and the negation of any partners. This is the most fundamental belief of Islamic Monotheism. 

What follows are two predicates [1] for Allah (swt):

(1) الْحَيُّ – The Ever-Living  

If one were to use this attributes for someone other than Allah (swt), we would say for example  الرَجُل حيٌّ The man is living. In this case the predicate حيٌّ is indefinite.

All the names of Allah begin with  الْ with the meaning of “ The one known possessing the attribute in the most complete and perfect way..”. So الْحَيُّ is the one known who embodies the attribute of living in the most complete and perfect manner. Allah (swt) doesn’t die nor has he been in a state on non existence. We on the other hand can die and have come into existence from nothing and in fact we are not even in control of our own life which for some can be cut short unexpectedly.

(2) الْقَيُّومُ – The sustainer of [all] existence

This attribute comes from the verb قَامَ meaning to undertake, carryout and execute. The one who performs this act and embodies it is called قَاءِمٌ i.e the caretaker. Now قَيُّوم on the other hand is on a pattern of a noun called sigha mubalagha [2] or in English we call it an exaggerated form or hyperbole.  Using this form changes the meaning to mean the caretaker who takes care of every matter to the highest degree possible. So الْقَيُّوم  is the one known who is the sustainer of all existence. 

(To be continued) 

[1] They can also both considered adjectives

[2] sigha mubalagha have a number of different forms . قَيُّوم  is on the pattern of فَيعُول and is originally قَيوُومٌ but due morphological reasons it changes to قَيُّوم