Critical Studies on the Quranic Exegesis

Critical Studies on the Quranic Exegesis

The letter of “سین” (seen) for emphasis in the Qur'an and the view of commentators and translators on it

Document Type : Original article

Authors
hossein moradi 1
mohammad Ali lessani feshraki 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Qurʾān and Hadith Studies, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran.
2 Former assistant professor of theology, Department of Qurʾān and Ḥadith Studies, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.
Abstract
In spite of its significant use in the Holy Qurʾān, the Sīn of emphasis is still strange and unknown, its uses are mainly attributed to the sin of taswif or Istiqbāl, and its precise and sensitive position is neglected. In this study, we assume that many cases of the use of the letter Sīn on the participle verb in the Qurʾān are for emphasis on the verb after itself; not to convey the meaning of waiting and delay. Based on this assumption, we will try to describe and analyze the opinions about the meaning of this letter in the verses of the Qurʾān by extracting the cases of the use of the letter Sīn in the Qurʾān and referring to various interpretations and books on the grammar and ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān and the famous Persian translations of the Qurʾān. We want to defend this hypothesis that many cases of the use of Sīn on the present participle in the Holy Qurʾān are not for delay and waiting - as most of the commentators and translators have imagined - but to indicate emphasis, and it should be done when Its translation is equivalent to words such as certainly, of course, in fact, undoubtedly, inevitably, inevitably, constantly, continuously etc.
Keywords
The Arabic Letter of Sīn
Meanings of letters
Emphasis
Ḥarf al-Taḥqīa
Ḥarf al-Istiqbāl
The Holy Qurʾan; Arabic text, and also the Persian translation of Mahdī Elāhī Qomsheʾī (Tehran, ʿElmī, 1325 SAH), Abulqāsem Pāyande (Tehran, Jāvīdān, 1357 SAH), Shāh Walī Allāh Dehlavī (Tehran, The Head Office of Hizb-e Islāmī-ye Afghanistan, 1363 SAH), Moḥammad Ebrāhīm Borūjerdī (Tehran, Ṣadr Library, 1366 SAH), Kāzem Pūrjavādī (Tehran, Islamic Encyclopaedia Foundation, 1372 SAH), Aḥmad KāvīyānPūr (Tehran, Eqbāl, 1372 SAH), Moḥammad Kāzem Moʿezzī (Qom, ʾUswa, 1372 SAH), Nāser Makārem Shīrāzī (Qom, Office of Islamic History and Theology Studies, 1373 SAH), ʿAbdol-Moḥammad Āyatī (Tehran, Soroush, 1374 SAH), Moḥammad Mahdī Fūlādvand (Tehran, Office of Islamic History and Theology Studies, 1376 SAH), ʿAbbās MeṣbāḥZāde (Tehran, Badraqe-ye Jāvīdān, 1380 SAH), ʿAlī Meshkīnī (Qom, Al-Hādī, 1381 SAH), Kāzem ʾArfaʿ (Tehran, Feyḍ Kāshānī, 1381 SAH), Aṣghar Barzī (Tehran, Qurʾān Foundation, 1382 SAH), Ḥoseyn Anṣārīyān (Qom, ʾUswa, 1383 SAH) and Rezā Serāj (Tehran, Tehran University, 1390 SAH).
Abū Al-Suʿūd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, Beirut، Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth Al-ʿArabī, 1983.
Abū Ḥayyān al-Andulusī, Muḥammad b. Yūsuf, Al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1420 AH.
Ādīnie-vand Lorestānī, MuḥammadReḍā, Kalima Allāh Al-ʿUlyā, Tehrān, ʾUswa, 1377 SAH.
Ālūsī, Maḥmūd b. ʿAbdullāh, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1415 AH.
ʿAmāyira, Ismāʿīl Aḥmad, and Sayyid, ʿAbdul-Ḥamīd Muṣṭafā, Muʿjam al-Adawāt wa al-ḍamāʿir fī al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Qom, Qods Publishing House, 1410 AH.
ʿAmelī, Ebrāhīm, Tafsīr-e ʿAmelī, Tehrān, Ṣadūq Press, 1360 SAH.
Bābatī, ʿAzīza Fīwāl, Al-Muʿjam Al-Mufaṣṣal fī al-Naḥw al-ʿArabī, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1425 AH.
Balāqī, ʿAbdul-Ḥujja, Ḥujja al-Tafāsīr, Qom, Ḥekmat Press, 1386 SAH.
Bayḍāwī, ʿĀbdullāh b. ʿŪmar, Al-Tafsīr, Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿĀrabī, 1418 AH.
Biqāʿī, Ibrāhīm b. ʿUmar, Naẓm al-Durar, Beirut، Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1415 AH.
Daʿʿās, Aḥmad ʿUbayd, Iʿrāb Al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Damascus, Dār Al-Fārābī lil-Maʿārif, 1425 AH.
Darra, Muḥammad ʿAlī Ṭāhā, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Karīm wa Iʿrābuh wa Bayānuh, Beirut, Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1430 AH.
Darwīsh, Muḥyī al-Dīn, Iʿrāb Al-Qurān al-Karīm wa Bayāhuh, Ḥumṣ, Al-Irshād Publishing House, 1415 AH.
Dehkhodā, ʿAlī Akbar, LoghatNāme, ed. Moḥammad Moʿīn and Jaʿfar Shahīdī, Tehrān, Tehran University, 1377 SAH.
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b, ʿUmar, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, Beirut, Dār Iḥyā al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH.
Ḥāʿirī Ṭahrānī, ʿAlī, Muqtanayāt al-Durar, Tehrān, Islāmīyya Press, 1338 SAH.
Ḥaqqī Burūsawī, Ismāʿīl b. Muṣṭafā, Ruḥ Al-Bayān, Beirut, Dar al-Fikr.
Ḥojjatī, Mahdī, Golī az Būstān-e Khodā, Qom, Bakhshāyesh, 1384 SAH.
Ibn ʿĀshūr, Muḥammad Tāhir, Al-Taḥrir wa Al-Tanwir, Beirut, Arabic History Foundation, 1420 AH.
Ibn Hishām, ʿAbduallāh b. Yūsuf, Mughnī al-Labīb, Cairo, Maṭbaʿa al-Madanī, 1424 AH.
Imīl Badīʿ Yaʿqūb, Mawsūʿa al-Naḥw wa al-Ṣarf wa al-Iʿrāb, Cairo، Dār Al-ʿĪlm Lil-Malāyīn, 1400 AH.
Jawādī Āmolī, ʿAbdullāh, Tasnīm, Qom, Isrāʿ Foundation.
Karbāsī, Muḥammad Jaʿfar, Iʿrāb Al-Qurʾān, Beirut, Al-Hilāl Library, 1422 AH.
Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir b. Muḥammad Taqī, Biḥar al-Anwār, Beirut, Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1403 AH.
Mūsawī Sabzawārī, ʿAbdul-Aʿlā, Mawāhib al-Raḥmān, Qom, Al-Manār Foundation, 1409 AH.
Nahāwandī, Muḥammad, Nafaḥāt Al-Raḥmān, Qom, Al-Baʿtha, 1386 SAH.
Nasafī, ʿAbdullāh b. Aḥmad, Madārik al-Tanzīl, Beirut, Dār al-Nafāʾis, 1416 AH.
Nawawī al-Jāwī, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, Mirāḥ Labīd, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1417 AH.
Nisābūrī, Ḥasan b. Muḥammad, Gharāʾib Al-Qurʾān, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1416 AH.
PānīPatī, Muḥammad Thanāʾullāh, Al-Tafsīr al-Maẓharī, Quetta, Rushdīyya Library, 1412 AH.
Qūnawī, Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad, Commentary on the Tafsīr of al-Bayḍāwī, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub Al-ʿIlmīyya, 1422 AH.
Ṣāliḥ, Bahjat ʿAbdul-Wāḥid, Al-Iʿrāb al-Mufaṣṣal, ʿAmmān, Dar al-Fikr, 1998.
Shaykhlī, Bahjat ʿAbdul-Wāḥid, Iʿrāb Al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1427 AH.
ShaykhZāda, Muḥammad b. Muṣṭafā, Commentary on the Al-Tafsīr of Al-Bayḍāwī, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1419 AH.
Sībawayh, ʿAmr b. ʿUthmān, Al-Kitāb, Cairo, Maktaba al-Khānjī, 1408 AH.
Ṣiddīq, Muḥammad, Fatḥ al-Bayān fī Maqāṣid Al-Qurʾān, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1419 AH.
Sīwāsī, Aḥmad b. Maḥmūd, ʿUyūn al-Tafāsīr, Beirut, Dār Ṣādir, 1427 AH.
Suyūṭī, ʿAbdurRaḥmāb b. AbīBakr, Al-ʾItqān, Cairo, Al-Maktaba al-Tijārīyya Al-Kubrā, 1386 AH.
Suyūṭī, ʿAbdurRaḥmāb b. AbīBakr, Muʿtarak al-Aqrān fī Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān, Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1408 AH.
Ṭabarsī, Faḍl b. Ḥasan, Jawāmiʿ al-Jāmiʿ, Qom, Al-Ḥuwza al-ʿIlmīyya Management Centre, 1412 AH.
Ṭurayḥī, Fakhr al-Ddīn, Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn, Tehran, Al-Murtaḍawī Library, 1375 SAH.
ʿUḍayma, Muḥammad ʿAbdul-Khāliq, Dirāsāt li Uslūb Al-Qurʾān, Cairo, Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1404 AH.
ʿUlwān, ʿAbdullāh b. Nāṣiḥ, Iʿrāb Al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Ṭanṭā, Dār Al-Ṣaḥāba li al-Turāth, 1427 AH.
WāʿizZāda Khurāsānī, Muḥammad, Al-Muʿjam fī Fiqh Lugha al-Qurʾān wa Sirr-i Balāghatih, Mshhad, Āstān Qods Razawi Researches Foundation, 1388 SAH.
Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar, Al-Kashshāf, Beirut, Dār al-Kītāb al-ʿArabī, 1407 AH.
Zarkashī, Muḥammad b. Bahādur, al-Burhān fi ʿUlūm al-Qurān, Cairo, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabīyya, 1376 SAH.

  • Receive Date 23 May 2022
  • Revise Date 23 June 2022
  • Accept Date 04 July 2022