This comes from the Qur’an’s comprehensive wording, which was discussed in the previous Words, as well as in the verses whose meanings are quoted in this Word. As pointed out in the Traditions, each verse has outer and inner meanings, limits and a point of comprehension, as well as boughs, branches, and twigs. Each phrase, word, letter, and diacritical point has many aspects. Each person who hears it receives his or her share through a different door.

Second ray

This ray, the extraordinary comprehensiveness of the Qur’an, consists of five gleams.

First gleam: This comes from the Qur’an’s comprehensive wording, which was discussed in the previous Words, as well as in the verses whose meanings are quoted in this Word. As pointed out in the Traditions, each verse has outer and inner meanings, limits and a point of comprehension, as well as boughs, branches, and twigs.[1] Each phrase, word, letter, and diacritical point has many aspects. Each person who hears it receives his or her share through a different door.

From Surat al‑Naba:·

And the mountains as masts. (78:7)

Means: “I have made mountains like masts and stakes for your Earth.” Ordinary people see mountains as if driven into the ground and, thinking of the benefits and bounties thereof, thank the Creator. Poets imagine Earth as a ground on which the heavens’ dome is pitched, in a sweeping arc, as a mighty blue tent adorned with electric lamps. Seeing mountains skirting the heavens’ base as tent pegs, they worship the Majestic Creator in amazement.

Desert‑dwelling literary people imagine Earth as a vast desert, and its mountain chains as many nomads’ tents. They see them as if the soil were stretched over high posts and as if the posts’ pointed tips had raised the “cloth” of the soil, which they see as the home for countless creatures. They prostrate in amazement before the Majestic Creator, Who placed and set up such imposing and mighty things so easily. Geographers with a literary bent view Earth as a ship sailing in the ocean of air or ether, and mountains as masts giving balance and stability to the ship. Before the All‑Powerful One of Perfection, Who has made Earth like a well‑built orderly ship on which He makes us travel through the universe, they declare: “Glory be to You. How magnificent is Your creation.”

Philosophers or historians of culture see Earth as a house, the pillar of whose life is animal life that, in turn, is supported by air, water, and soil (the conditions of life). Mountains are essential for these conditions, for they store water, purify the atmosphere by precipitating noxious gases, and preserve the ground from becoming a swamp and being overrun by the sea. Mountains also are treasuries for other necessities of human life. In perfect reverence, they praise the Maker of Majesty and Munificence, Who has made these great mountains as pillars for Earth, the house of our life, and appointed them as keepers of our livelihood’s treasuries.

Naturalist scientists say: “Earth’s quakes and tremors, which are due to certain underground formations and fusions, were stabilized with the emergence of mountains. This event also stabilized Earth’s axis and orbit. Thus its annual rotation is not affected by earthquakes. Its wrath and anger is quietened by its coursing through mountain vents.” They would come to believe and declare: “There is a wisdom in everything God does.”

From Surat al‑Anbiya’:

The heavens and Earth were of one piece; then We parted them. (21:30)

To learned people who have not studied materialist philosophy, of one piece·means that when the heavens were clear and without clouds, and Earth was dry, lifeless, and unable to give birth, God opened the heavens with rain and the soil with vegetation, and created all living beings through a sort of marriage and impregnation. Such people understand that everything is the work of such an All‑Powerful One of Majesty that Earth’s face is His small garden, and all clouds veiling the sky’s face are sponges for watering it. They prostrate before His Power’s tremendousness.

To exacting sages, it means: “In the beginning, the heavens and Earth were a formless mass, each consisting of matter like wet dough without produce or creatures. The All‑Wise Creator separated them and rolled them out and, giving each a comely shape and beneficial form, made them the origins of multiform, adorned creatures.” These sages are filled with admiration at His Wisdom’s comprehensiveness. Modern philosophers or scientists understand that the solar system was fused like a mass of dough. Then the All‑Powerful and Self‑Subsistent One rolled it out and placed the planets in their respective positions. He left the sun where it was and brought Earth here. Spreading soil over its face, watering it with rain, and illuminating it with sunlight, He made the world habitable and placed us on it. These people are saved from the swamp of naturalism, and declare: “I believe in God, the One, the Unique.”

From Sura Ya Sin:

The sun runs its course to a resting place destined. (36:38)

The particle li (written as the single letter lam), translated here as “to,” expresses the meanings of “toward,” “in,” and “for.” Ordinary people read it as “toward” and understand that the sun, which is a moving lamp providing light and heat, one day will reach its place of rest and, ending its journey, assume a form that will no longer benefit them. Thinking of the great bounties that the Majestic Creator bestows through the sun, they declare: “All glory be to God. All praise be to God.”

Learned people also read li as “toward,” but see the sun as both a lamp and a shuttle for the Lord’s textiles woven in the loom of spring and summer, as an ink‑pot whose ink is light for the letters of the Eternally‑Besought‑of‑All inscribed on the pages of night and day. Reflecting on the world’s order, of which the sun’s apparent movement is a sign and to which it points, they declare before the All‑Wise Maker’s art: “What wonders God has willed,” before His Wisdom: “May God bless it,” and prostrate.

For geographer–philosophers, li means “in” and suggests that the sun orders and propels its system through Divine command and with a spring‑like movement on its own axis. Before the Majestic Creator, Who created and set in order a mighty clock like the solar system, they exclaim in perfect amazement and admiration: “All greatness and power is God’s,” abandon materialistic philosophy, and embrace the wisdom of the Qur’an.

Precise and wise scholars consider li to be causal and adverbial. They understand that since the All‑Wise Maker operates behind the veil of apparent causality, He has tied the planets to the sun by His law of gravity and causes them to revolve with distinct but regular motions according to His universal wisdom. To produce gravity, He has made the sun’s movement on its axis an apparent cause. Thus a resting place·means that “the sun moves in the place determined for it for the order and stability of its own (solar) system.” Like the Divine laws, that motion produces heat, heat produces force, and force produces gravity. The sun is a law of Divine Lordship. On understanding such an instance of wisdom from a single letter of the Qur’an, wise scholars declare: “All praise be to God. True wisdom is found in the Qur’an. Human philosophy is worth almost nothing.”

The following idea occurs to poets from this li and the stability mentioned: “The sun is a light‑diffusing tree, and the planets are its moving fruits. But unlike trees, the sun is shaken so that the fruits do not fall. If it were not shaken, they would fall and be scattered.” They also may imagine the sun to be a leader of a circle reciting God’s Names, ecstatically reciting in the circle’s center and leading the others to recite. Elsewhere, I expressed this meaning as follows:

The sun is a fruit‑bearing tree;
it is shaken so that its travelling fruits do not fall.
If it rested, no longer shaken, the attraction would cease,
and those attracted to it would weep through space.

From Surat al‑Baqara:

They are those who will prosper. (2:5)

This general verse does not specify how they will prosper. Thus each person may find what they pursue in it. The sense is compact so that it may be comprehensive. People seek to be saved from the Fire, enter Paradise, or acquire eternal happiness. Others seek God’s good pleasure or the vision of God. In many places, the Qur’an neither narrows nor specifies the sense, for it can express many meanings by leaving certain things unsaid. By not specifying in what way they will prosper, it means: “O Muslims, good tidings! O God‑fearing one, you will be saved from Hell. O righteous one, you will enter Paradise. O one with knowledge of God, you will gain God’s good pleasure. O lover of God, you will be rewarded with the vision of God.”

From Sura Muhammad:

Know that there is no god but God, and ask forgiveness for your error. (47:19)

This verse has so many aspects and degrees that all saints consider themselves in need of it and derive from it a fresh meaning and spiritual nourishment appropriate to their ranks. This is because “God” is the Divine Being’s all‑comprehensive Name, and thus it contains as many affirmations of Divine Unity as the number of the Divine Names: There is no provider but He, no creator but He, no merciful one but He, and so on.

The story of Moses has thousands of benefits and pursues many purposes, such as calming and consoling the Prophet, threatening unbelievers, condemning hypocrites, and reproaching Jews. Thus it is repeated in several suras to stress different aspects. Although all purposes are relevant in each place, only one is the main purpose.

Question: How do you know the Qur’an contains and intends all those meanings?

Answer: As the Qur’an is an eternal discourse speaking to and teaching humanity at all levels and times, it contains, intends, and alludes to all of those meanings. In my Isharat al‑I‘jaz, I use Arabic grammatical rules, as well as the principles of rhetoric, semantics, and eloquence, to prove that the Qur’an’s words include and intend various meanings. According to Muslim jurists’ consensus and interpretations, Qur’anic interpreters, and scholars of religious methodology, all aspects and meanings understood from the Qur’an can be considered among its meanings if they accord with Arabic’s grammatical rules, Islam’s principles, and the sciences of rhetoric, ·semantics, and eloquence. The Qur’an has placed a sign, either literal or allusive, for each meaning according to its degree. If allusive, there is another sign from either the preceding or the following context, or another verse to point to the meaning. Thousands of Qur’anic commentaries prove its wording’s extraordinary comprehensiveness. Interested readers can refer to my Isharat al‑I‘jaz·for a more extensive (yet still partial) discussion.

[1] Ibn Hibban, Sahih, 1:146; al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, 3:54.