Appendix 9 - The Preposition ‘Ba’
Note: This is the ninth of a series of articles written by the Author on various occasions that have bearing on the topics of the book, and hence they have been included in it as appendices.
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Some Urdu and English translators of the Qur'an have translated the preposition Ba (با) in the verse:
لَٰكِنِ اللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ إِلَيْكَ أَنْزَلَهُ بِعِلْمِهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ يَشْهَدُونَ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا
“But God (Himself) heareth Witness, through what He hath sent down unto thee (O' Our Apostle Muhammad), sent He that down, with His knowledge; and the Angels (too) bear witness: and sufficient is God for a Witness” (4:166)
To mean 'that' which implies that God bears testimony to 'that' whatever has been revealed to you was the outcome of His knowledge. It means the phrase with His knowledge is the object of His testimony. In other word, God certifies that whatever had been revealed to the Holy Prophet was with His knowledge. Such certification proves nothing - it rather requires itself to be proved, as it is a mere claim.
But if the preposition Ba in question means 'through’ or ‘by’, the sentence would mean that God - by the means of what has been revealed with the knowledge to you (Muhammad) - bears testimony to the truth of your (Muhammad's) prophethood. It means the object of testimony is the prophethood and the revelation itself is divine testimony.
The Qur'an as an everlasting miracle and unchallengeable word of God is the divine testimony to prove all that God proclaims regarding Himself and the prophet. The Qur'an has challenged mankind at several places to bring the like of it if they have any doubt about its being a word of God. As such, the Qur'an claims to be the self-evident proof of its divine status.
Therefore, wherever in the Qur'an God is presented as the witness to the truth of the prophethood of the Holy Prophet or other subjects, it refers to the Qur'an itself. To this self-evident status of the Qur'an, Ali (‘a) refers briefly in Nahj ul-Balagha “Surely God has manifested to his creatures in 'His Book” (with angelic force).