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QAYYŪM AL-ASMĀ' OF THE BĀB, Part XVII I(1 8)سورة الصراط Sūrat al-Sirat (The Surah of the Path) on Qur'ān 12:17
There follows the 18th part of my provisional translation of the Qayyūm al-asmā’ (= QA) of the Bāb (mid. 1844/1260) with brief introduction and selected notes. I began these translations in the early 1980s though I have not translated from a critical edition but consulted several good mss. scans of one of which are reproduced just before the translation. The versification of the surahs of the QA is often uncertain and I only tentatively count 42 verses in QA108 retaining versification for the sake of reference and commentary. Though the versification of the surahs of the QA is sometimes uncertain the Bāb himself stated that there should be forty-two verses in each (of the 111) surahs as accords with the abjad numerical value of lī meaning "before me" in Q. 12:4b (Ar. لي = l + ī = 30+10= 40) and another two representative of "the sun and the moon" (40+2 = 42). This figure is explicitly confirmed in the Bāb's early Khuṭba al-dhikriyya ("The Sermon of the Remembrance") where it is stated in the context of an imamologically numbered categorization of the early works of the Bāb dating from between 1260-1262 (AH):
The same forty-two mode of surah versification of the QA., is evident in certain mss. of this work; most notably the early 1261 mss. of Muhammad Mahdī ibn Karbalā'ī where QA1 and 2 (and other surah headings) have following words after the surah title (e.g. Surat al-mulk) and in between the basmala, wa hiya ithnā'[tāni] wa arba`ūn "and it [the Surah] has forty two verses". In the following translations I retain this sometimes uncertain versification for the sake of reference and commentary. Though the versification of the surahs of the QA is often uncertain, the rhyming prose accusative endings are the primary indication. In QA 3 the 42 verses seem clear enough though such sometimes seems "symbolic" rather than a clear setting down of 42 bayts (verses) of rhymed prose (saj`) -- although this seems to hold good for certain suras such as, for example, QA5. Elsewhere the "forty-two" configuration cannot easily be set forth. It should also be noted that some verses of the QA are fairly short while others extend for occasionally very long pericopae ("paragraphs") as is also the case in the Qu'rān itself with which the QA has a great deal in common especially respecting its form, style vocabulary and Arabic in rhyming prose etc. QA18 opens with the basmala followed by the citation of Q.12:18 upon which it briefly comments in rewritten fashion in the course of the Surah of the Remembrance (Sūrat al-dhikr). The three qur'anic isolated letters (ḥurufat al-muqat*t*a`a) X-X-X open the Surah proper, the letters -XXX = abjad ADD). This succession of xx letters occurs XX times in the Q.
QAYYŪM AL-ASMĀ' Part XVIII [18] سورة الصراط Sūrat al-Sirāṭ (The Surah of the Path) on Qur'ān 12: 17Prov. trans. Stephen N. Lambden
[1] بسم اللّه الرّحمن الرّحيم In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. [2] قَالُواْ يَا أَبَانَا إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِندَ مَتَاعِنَا فَأَكَلَهُ الذِّئْبُ وَمَا أَنتَ بِمُؤْمِنٍ لِّنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَادِقِينَ َ " BBBBBB " (= Q. 12:17).
[3] كهيعص [abjad = 195] K-H-Y-`-Ṣ [4]
[5]
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[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]
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