The Firm Verses and the Ambiguous

Once again the sūrah opens in a manner similar to Sūrat al-Baqarah: alif lām mīm, dhālika al-kitābu lā rayba fīh. Here it is:

There is no god except Allah; there is no god except He; He is the Living and the Self-Subsisting. Then, as noted in the previous chapter, the ḥurūf muqaṭṭaʿāt are generally followed by a passage about the Qur'an itself. So it says:

Allah has revealed the Book upon you with the truth, confirming everything that lay before them from the nations that came earlier; and He is also the One who revealed the Torah and the Injīl.

One of the reasons for the revelation of a great many of these verses — in fact eighty of the two hundred verses, or about eighty — was a particular occasion, and a very interesting one. It was when a delegation from the Nazarenes, the Christians of Najrān, came to Madīnah Munawwarah. It should be remembered that Islam was then a new faith, and they wished to hold a discussion. That discussion is of great interest, and can be read in detail.

The principal point, however, is that two types of verse are to be found here concerning that discussion. In the first, Allah (swt) reminds us, from verse 7:

Here a division is drawn between the two kinds of verse that will be found in the Qur'an. The first are the muḥkamāt: the unambiguous, the absolute, where there is little scope for any other meaning. They are entirely clear-cut and explicit. These are the umm al-kitāb, the principal, unambiguous verses.

But there are other verses, or other mentions in the Qur'an — such as alif lām mīm, or rūḥ, and the like — which are called the mutashābihāt, the ambiguous ideas. There is a purpose behind ambiguous ideas, and some of it was discussed in the previous chapter. But the two must not be confused. The umm al-kitāb — the firm, absolute verses — must not be taken and problematised, with different ideas read into them. And likewise the mutashābihāt must not be taken and pinned to a single meaning only. For this reason Allah goes on to say that those in whose hearts there is some deviance go after the ambiguous verses, seeking to create fitnah, and challenge, and dispute, and problems in the community.

That is followed by a Qur'anic duʿāʾ:

Rabbanā lā tuzigh qulūbanā: O Allah, do not cause our hearts to deviate after You have guided us, and grant us mercy from You. That is a duʿāʾ which ought, in truth, to be made every day.

The sūrah then carries on. Beyond verse 18 it proceeds to discussions of tawḥīd. It should be remembered that the sūrah concerns the Christians, who held that Jesus is the son of God; for that reason a major part of it is devoted to tawḥīd. Allah (swt) then critiques the religion — the so-called later religion of the Christians and the Jews — and the problems that crept into it through the changes made over the centuries. He speaks also of some of the crimes committed by them, some of their excesses. He speaks, for example, of their killing the prophets, of spilling blood in the world, spilling the blood of innocent people. Another is the oppression of people and the taking away of their rights. And Allah (swt) is now telling the believers that these are things they must avoid.

He also states, in verse 28, that they are not to be taken as bosom, close friends: not to be taken as friends so intimate that one becomes influenced by their way. One may have colleagues among them, and that is dealt with more fully later, in other parts of the Qur'an. But here Allah (swt) simply says that such intimacy is to be avoided:

Taking them as one's close ones at the expense of the believers.