A Commentary on the Hamd Surah - Part 10

Generally speaking, for the mercy of “Beneficence”? and “Mercifulness”? there are two ranks and two manifestations: One is in the appearance of the Essence in His Unity through the manifestation of the Holiest Emanation. The other is in the appearance of the cosmic entities through the Holy Emanation. If the ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim, in the blessed verse, are of the Essential Attributes” as is more obvious” it will be possible to regard them, in Bismillah ‘ar-Rahim, to be related to Name, rather than Attributes of Act. Consequently, there is no repetition at all that one may claim them to be confirmatory repetition, or exaggeration. Based on this, the meaning of the noble verse will be: With His Beneficent and Merciful will, praise be to His Beneficent and Merciful Essence” Allah knows better. And, as the state of Divine Will is the manifestation of the Sacred Essence, the state of “Beneficence”? and “Mercifulness”? which is of the determinations of the state of Divine Will, is the display of the Essential Beneficence and Mercifulness. There are, however, other possibilities, which we have left out, as the said one is more obvious.

Maliki yawm ad-din (The Master of the Day of Judgment): Many of the reciters have read: maliki, and there are many literary justifications for both versions, such that even a great scholar (may Allah have mercy upon him) has written a thesis on preferring Malik to Malik But the arguments of both parties are not quite convincing.

That which comes to the writer’s notion is that Malik is preferable, or rather, particularly assigned, because this blessed verse and the blessed Surah of at-Tawhid, are unlike the other surahs of the Qur’an, since these two surahs are recited by the people in their obligatory and non-obligatory salats, and in every era hundreds of millions of the Muslims have heard them from hundreds of millions of other Muslims, and these from former hundreds of millions, and so on, by hearing these two noble surahs from one another, recited, exactly the same, with no letter advanced and no letter retarded, no letter increased and no letter decreased, by the Imams of guidance and the Messenger of Allah (PBUH). Although most of the reciters read it malik, and many of the scholars prefer malik, yet none of those things damaged this certain, necessary and successively proved fact, and nobody imitated them. And although the scholars allowed imitating anyone of the reciters, no one””except the abnormal [shadhdh] whose opinion is negligible” necessarily recited malik in his salats, or if somebody did recite malik, it was as a precaution [ihtiyat], besides saying malik, too, such as my learned teacher of the traditional science, Haj Shaykh ‘Abd al-Karim Yazdi (may his grave be sanctified), who used, at the request of some of hid contemporary scholars, to recite malik, too. Nevertheless, this is too weak a precaution, or, as the writer believes, it is is out of question.

The weakness of the said question becomes clear under the saying that in Kufi penmanship malik and malik are mistaken for each other. This claim can uttered in respect of the surahs, which are not frequently recited, though still with difficulty, but not in respect of this Surah, which has been confirmed through hearing and reciting, as in quite clear. Such a claim is an empty and incredible one.

This very argument is also true in respect of kufuwan, as its recitation with “w”? [maftuhah] and “f”? [madhmumah]” which is ‘asim’s recitation alone””is confirmed by way of hearing and rehearing, and other recitations do not necessarily contradict that, though some think that they practice precaution by reciting the version of the majority with “hamzah”? instead of the “w”an irrelevant precaution.

If there can be any argument in respect of the narratives in which we are ordered to recite like the people recite” which actually deserves arguing, as it is believed that these narratives wanted to say: recite as the people, in general, do, not that you are free to choose any one of the “seven recitations,”? for example” in that case, to recite “malik”? and “kufuwan”? other than the way commonly recited by the Muslims and written in the Qur’an, is incorrect. At any rate, the precaution is their recitation as current among the people and written in the Qur’an, because that way recitation is correct to every creed. Allah knows better.

Adapted from: "A Commentary on the Chapter of ‘Praise’" by: "Ayatullah Khomeini (R.A)"