Tafsir of Surah Yaseen (36) - 1/8

Bismillahil rahman al raheem, Alif laam meem.

A'uzubillahi min al-Shaytan Al-Rajim. Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim Al-Hamdulillah Rabb Al-Alameen wasalatu wassalamu ala Naibiyyina wa Habibina Abul Qasim Muhammad. Wa ala alihi al-Tayyebeen al-Tahireen al-Ma'sumin al-muntajabeen.

With the grace of Allah the Almighty and the blessings of Ahlulbayt TV, it has been made possible that we have a series of lectures on tafsir of the Qur'an. The Sura that I have chosen to discuss in this series is Sura Yasin (36), which is one of the most prominent Suras of the Qur'an in terms of familiarity that people have with it and in terms of recitation, that people recite it on many different occasions. Before venturing into the tafsir, let me explain what is my method that I insha'Allah will proceed according to, in this series of tafsir sessions.

There are different methods and approaches towards the tafsir of the Qur'an, explaining the meanings of the verses and I think the most efficient and the most reliable way which has been used since all time, is explaining the verses of the Qur'an by referring to other verses of the Qur'an. And this is something which has been practiced since the time of the companions of the Prophet, after them the Tabi'oon, then prominent scholars of tafsir have used this method of explaining verses of the Qur'an by other parts, and we have this Hadith from Amir al-Mu'mineen, Ali ibn abi Talib ('aleyhi asalam) who said, 'Al-Qur'an yufassiru ba'dahu ba'da' - Qur'an is such that some parts of it explain other parts of it. And there is no other way for us to understand certain parts of the Qur'an by referring to other parts.

So this has been a method which has been used throughout the history of commentary and exegesis of the Qur'an. And of course, recently Allama Tabataba'i rahmatullah alaih, a contemporary mufassir of the Qur'an who was living in Qum and passed away a couple of decades ago. He actually used this method to its full extent, and his method was mainly referring to different parts of the Qur'an when he wanted to understand one verse. And many people have found that very efficient, very convincing, because it is actually the Qur'an which is unfolding itself by this method; it is the Qur'an which is speaking for itself by this method, so to speak. And therefore, that is a very good method.

However, of course, you cannot just do that. You need other sources for tafsir of the Qur'an. You need to know about the, for example, occasion of the revelation. You need to know about the order of revelation so that you know what happened at what time. And you know about the abrogating verses and those which were abrogated, you know, all these things. You know Arabic language, grammar and all these issues, which are, of course, involved in understanding an Arabic sentence and Arabic text. You need all those things.

Also, of course, what is very important, referring to the opinions and views and explanation of other people about a verse. It gives us different angles, different perspectives. It is very good to refer to the opinions and the views of the companions of the Prophet about the verse, of course, those who had any opinion about verses of the Qur'an, and also those who followed them, the tabi'oon, what we usually call the Salaf, it is very good to refer to those people, to see how they understood it. And then how later on other commentators of the Qur'an have commented on different verses of the Qur'an, both from Sunni, Shi'i, Mu'tazali, 'Ashari - you know, the good thing about such an approach is that it gives you different angles and different perspectives. You may not agree with them. You may not choose to accept their views and their opinions. However, the important thing is that what this method gives you as a benefit is that it broadens our understanding. We are not bound to accept whatever the commentators have said or even whatever the Salaf have said. The Salaf were not infallible, we know that.

Except the Prophet [peace be upon him] for all Muslims and of course, for us Shias, except those who inherited the knowledge of the Prophet, Imam Ali peace be upon him and other Imams, no one else was infallible. And we do not need, we are not bound to accept their views and opinions on anything, especially that we know that their opinions conflicted in many instances with each other, and therefore we have to choose one, among others. And maybe all of them are wrong. Maybe all of them have a certain element of truth in them, but not the whole truth in them. And therefore, we are not bound by any opinion and especially the opinion of the Salaf, as some people would think.

And here I have to mention one very important thing about understanding of the faith in general and the Qur'an in particular with regards to Salaf. With all due respect to the opinion of some Salafi scholars, I have to say that the project, the idea that Salaf understood the Qur'an and understood the faith better than us is an erroneous concept. It is based on the idea that Salaf were infallible. Salaf knew everything. Salaf could understand everything that the Prophet wanted to convey to them, which is not true. We have fourteen hundred years of continuous accumulation of knowledge, experience about the Qur'an, about the fiqh, about different aspects of faith, and saying that all these are in vain and people who lived in the past knew better than those who live after all these experiences.

Just take the example of the tafsir of the Qur'an. Of course, the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet. It was pure and unadulterated sort of conveyance to the companions and then coming to the tabi'oon. But they didn't have the privilege of hundreds of years of reflection, deliberation, elaboration on these verses of the Qur'an. So as time passes by, our understanding of the verses of the Qur'an, our understanding of different aspects of faith would become clearer and would become sharper and more accurate. Therefore, this idea that we have to go back to the Salaf for everything; especially we know that, I mean by the scientific progress that human being has made, especially during the past couple of centuries - it is not possible to refer to Salaf to find out answers for things which are happening now.

We have to, as Muslims, as people who understand the message of revelation, understand the Sunnah of the Prophet, we have to find answers for the new issues. It is not possible to go back to Salaf to find answers to these things. I know those people who say that we have to go back to Salaf for understanding the Qur'an. What they mean, they mean that the baggage that different cultures brought with them to Islam, we have to purify Islam from that. Fair enough. Of course that is true. However, different cultures did not only bring their cultural baggage into Islam, they brought their knowledge. They brought their experience. They brought their intelligence into Islam. And we should not just deprive ourselves from all these by just saying that we want to go back to Salaf to find out what are the meanings of the Qur'an or Sunnah of the Prophet. And therefore, it is an erroneous concept.

Moreover, in addition to that, why should we think that the Salaf didn't have their own baggage when they came to Islam? Of course, they had their own baggage, their own cultural baggage when they came to Islam. And their cultural baggage was not less than the cultural baggage of other nations and other people who later on converted to Islam. And we have to bear all these in mind and therefore referring to the views of the Salaf, that I will do here very much in tafsir of Sura Yasin, in accordance with what our greatest scholars like Sheikh Tusi have done, like Tabarsi has done, they have actually referred to the idea of Salaf, to the idea of the companions, of Tabi'oon. That is very good. However, just to widen our perspective, to see how they looked at it, how we can look at it, what other perspectives may be there.

And therefore, when we want to look at the Qur'an, especially when we want to explain it verse by verse, we have to be comprehensive. We have to be inclusive. And the Qur'an is not something which we have to interpret by prejudice, whether this prejudice is cultural prejudice or sectarian prejudice, religious prejudice, we should look for guidance from the Qur'an. Not to bring our baggage, so to speak, into the Qur'an to interpret the Qur'an according to what we believe and our culture allows. And this is, of course, tafsir bil ra'iy, which is not permissible.

Okay, enough for that introduction. Now let's go to Surah Yasin, A'uzubillahi min al-Shaytan Al-Rajim Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, Yaa-Seeen(36:1) , wal-Qur-aanil-Hakeem(36:2). This is the 36th chapter of the Qur'an. And there are lots of merits reported from the Prophet, peace be upon him, and in Shi'i literature through the A'imma alayhum alsalam, for Sura Yasin.

One description or one benefit of Sura Yasin, which is mentioned by the Prophet to Anas ibn Malik, this is through the Sunni chains, from the Prophet peace be upon him, qala "Inna likulli shayy'an qalba wa qalbul Qur'an Yaseen"- for everything there is a heart and the heart of the Qur'an is Yasin. Now this hadith is reported through Shi'i chains from Abu Baseer, from Abu Abdullah Alayhi assalam, with an addition. 'Qala', this is Imam Ja'far Al-Sadiq, "Inna lakulli shayy'an qalba wa qalbul Qur'ana Yaseen'- for everything there is a heart and the heart of the Qur'an is Yasin. "fa man qara'a yaseen fi naharihi qabla an yumsi kana fi naharihi minal mahfoozeen wal marzooqeen' - whoever recites Sura Yasin every day or during his day before night, he will be from those who are protected and provided for, 'hatta yumsi' - until the night. And "wa man qara'aha fi laylihi qabla an yanaam" - if anyone recites this in the night before he sleeps - "wukkila bihi alfu malakan yahfazunahu min kulli Shaytan rajeem" - one thousand angels will be allocated for him by Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala to protect him from Shaytan.

So the merit of the Surah is of course great. It is 'qalbul Qur'an' because it talks about the main concepts which the whole Qur'an is trying to teach us: it talks about tawheed, it talks about resurrection, it talks about nabuwwa - all these are somehow made into a compact sort of package in Sura Yasin for us. And we know there have been people who used to recite this Sura every day to get the blessing of it. If anyone wants to practice that, reciting this Sura Yasin every day, of course, after a few days or a few weeks, you will have it in your memory and it will become very easy to recite this Sura in five, six minutes. And many merits have been mentioned for us about those who recite this Sura every day.

Also the great master of the Qur'an, the great master Ubayy ibn Ka'b Rahmatullahi Ali, he reports from the Prophet (Peace be upon him), "Qala man qara'a suratul yaaseen, yureedu biha wajhallah," whoever recites Sura Yasin and by that intends to please Allah - this is the meaning of yureedu biha wajhallah - intends to please Allah, 'azza wa jal, "ghafarallahu lah"- Allah will forgive him, "wa u'tiya minal ajar ka annama qara'al Qur'an ithnata ashrata marra' - and will be rewarded like the reward of reciting the Qur'an twelve times. Probably [not] without intending that pleasure of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, because the recitation of one Sura cannot be 12 times the recitation of the whole Qur'an. Anyhow, this is the hadith from Ubayy ibn Ka'b, the master of the Qur'an. And you know that the Qur'an that we recite these days is actually the product of the efforts of people like Ubayy ibn Ka'b to make it accurate, to make it correct and make it the Qur'an, which was revealed to the Prophet and preached by his holy lips.

And there is another benefit in Sura Yasin for the deceased: our deceased relatives, our deceased friends, if we recite this Sura intending to give them some benefit, this would work. How it works - maybe during the Sura, when we discuss about different aspects of the human life, we come across certain points. Well, when we can explain how when you recite a Sura of the Qur'an like Sura Hamd or Sura Yasin, it benefits someone who has passed away and lives in another dimension of this world, how this connection is made - this is of course, something that we have to discuss in another place.

However, Anas ibn Malik, again, reports from the Prophet, peace be upon him, qala "man dakhal almaqabir" - whoever enters a cemetery, "faqara'a Suratu Yasin"- and then recites Sura Yasin, "khuffifa 'anhum,"- maybe the pressure that the act is bringing upon the people who are in that cemetery or the graves of the people who are bound to that cemetery because their graves are there, however their souls are living in another realm, of course in another dimension, their burdens will be reduced, "khuffifa 'anhum, wa kana lahu bi 'adade man fiha hasanaat", and for that person who recites Sura Yasin for those deceased, for the benefit of those deceased in that cemetery, equal to the number of those people, there will be hasnaat. Of course, it is rational because he is making a sort of benefit to reach those people by reciting Sura Yasin for them and therefore equal to the number of all those who benefit from this recitation, he will receive benefits from Allah and hasanaat from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. Okay, this is about the merits of the Sura.

Now let us come to the very term Yaaseen. Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, Yaa-Seeen . Wal-Qur-aanil-Hakeem.(36:1-2)

First of all, about these disjointed letters. There are different procedures or different methods by different masters of the Qur'an, like Kufans or Basrans or Meccans in numbering them. The Kufans, and this is what we are using today, the scholars of Kufa have given Yaa-seen the number of one verse. Others they haven't given, but you will see that in our Qur'ans now we use Yaa-seen as one verse and it has been given a number. And that is what, of course, the whole Muslim community are following - the scholars of Kufa. By the way, you know, the scholars of Kufa mainly and mostly were Shias and they are masters of Qur'an recitation.

Anyhow, about what is the meaning of Yaa-seen. There are three views here. One view is that this is from the disjointed letters of the Qur'an. Like, alif laam meem, like kaaf ha ya 'ain sad and yaa seen. These disjointed letters are letters which are written together, but they have no meaning, they are not joined for a meaning, and that is why we call it al-huroof e muqatta'a - disjointed letters, they don't give any meaning. And these letters appear before 29 chapters of the Qur'an. And they can be one word, one letter, two letters, three letters, four letters, like for example, 'Qaf - wal Qur'anil majeed'(50:1), 'Saad - wal Qur'ani ziz zikr'(38:1), 'Nun - walqalami wa maa yasturoon'(68:1). Qaaf, saad, nun -they don't have any meaning. Or like two letters, for example, Ta-ha or Yaa -seen, if we regard them to be disjointed letters. Or three letters like alif laam meem. Four letters like alif laam meem ra, and then we have kaf ha ya 'ain saad, ha meem 'ain seen qaf, which are five letters. These are disjointed letters.

Now, what are the meanings of disjointed letters? There have been many views since all time, since the time of the companions and since the time of the Tabi'oon, the experts of the Qur'an from among the Tabi'oon about this.

I am not going to answer that because that is a long story. What we can say and what I personally tend to believe, of course, I am not a scholar of the Qur'an, but we can have our own opinions about things, hearing what the scholars say, what I tend to believe is that really we don't know what these letters are placed there for. It is just a code between God and the Prophet, peace be upon him. It is something that only the Prophet can decipher when he recites a Sura with the disjointed letter coming before it.

So going into length about speculating about the meaning of these and the purpose of these letters coming before these certain chapters, I think it is just a sort of speculation. It doesn't give us a definitive idea about what these letters would mean. So the best thing is that this is just a secret. This is a code between the Prophet and God, and only he knows the tafsir of it. So, one meaning, one view about Yaa-seen is that it is from the disjointed letters. So if it is from disjointed letters, it means that we have another chapter here, starting with disjointed letters and we have no meaning for it.

The other meaning, which is mentioned by certain companions of the Prophet and also the Tabi'oon - now it is reported from Abdullah ibn Abbas - great master of Qur'anic exegesis, I don't think after the ma'soomeen, after Ali ibn abi Talib, we have any one more well versed in the tafsir of the Qur'an and we can call him THE master of the exegesis of the Qur'an.

But of course, we have these conflicting reports about many verses from Ibn Abbas. We have to be careful because many different things have been attributed to Abdullah ibn Abbas, which may not have been his views, because people wanted to establish a view. The best person, of course, to attribute those views to was someone who everyone agreed about his scholarly expertise.

So it is reported from Abdullah ibn Abbas that Yaa-seen means 'Ya insaan'. How has he actually brought about this opinion? I am not sure. However Sheikh Tusi in Tibyan adds something to this: he says Yaa-seen means 'ya insaan' in the Syriac language. And that is why Abdullah ibn Abbas has actually mentioned Yaa-seen to mean 'Ya insaan'. Now you see these conflicting reports and views from among the companions and tabi'oon themselves. That is why I say it's not just very easy to say, OK, we refer to the Salaf to see what they have said. They had their own opinions on things.

Hassan al-Basri says, Yaa-seen means 'Ya rajul' and others like Saeed ibn Jubair and Mohammed ibn al-Hanafiya, both of them very good in tafsir of the Qur'an, they have said the meaning is 'Ya syed al-awwaleen wal aakihreen' and there are other opinions as well.

Now, there is no evidence to say that this is the real meaning of Yasin. Therefore, we leave this opinion with all due respect to these great people. The third meaning of Yaa-seen, which is mentioned from Imam Ja'far Al-Sadiq, alayhi assalam, is that Yasin is not a disjointed letter - Yasin is 'ismu Rasul Allah sallal-lahu alayhi wa alii wa sallam'. Now this of course, we have many different traditions and narrations about this. Because our time is short now, Inshallah, I leave this aspect about the meaning of Yaa-seen for our next session.

I pray that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala increase our knowledge and make us humble towards the teachings of the Qur'an. Wa sallallahu 'ala Muhammad wa aalihi tahireen.