Tafseer of The letter Saad · Saad · 38:1
Sad. By the Qur'an containing reminder...
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: ص وَالْقُرْآنِ ذِي الذِّكْرِ ("Ṣād. By the Qurʾān, full of admonition") (38:1).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed concerning the meaning of the saying of Allah, Mighty and Exalted is He: (Ṣād). Some of them said: It is derived from al-muṣādāt (meeting, measuring against), from "ṣādaytu fulānan" (I met so-and-so), and it is an imperative thereof, as though the meaning according to them is: "Measure your deeds against the Qurʾān," that is: set them against it. Whoever holds this interpretation reads it with a kasra on the dāl, because it is a command; and thus it has been transmitted from al-Ḥasan.
Mention of the narration concerning that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: al-Ḥasan said concerning (Ṣād): set the Qurʾān against (your deeds).
And it was related to me on the authority of ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His saying (Ṣād), he said: Set the Qurʾān against your deeds.
And it was related to me on the authority of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His saying (Ṣād wa-l-Qurʾān), he said: Set the Qurʾān against it. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb said: He means: place it beside your deeds and look where your deeds stand in relation to the Qurʾān.
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to me, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Hārūn, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, that he used to read: (Ṣād wa-l-Qurʾān) with a lowered (kasra-marked) dāl, and he derived it from al-muṣādāt, saying: Set the Qurʾān against it.
Others said: It is a letter of the alphabet.
Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: As for (Ṣād), it is one of the letters. And others said: It is an oath by which Allah swore.
Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying (Ṣād), he said: It is an oath by which Allah swore, and it is among the names of Allah.
And others said: It is a name among the names of the Qurʾān, by which Allah swore.
Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning (Ṣād), he said: It is a name among the names of the Qurʾān, by which Allah swore. And others said: Its meaning is: Allah has spoken the truth (ṣadaqa Allāh).
Mention of who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of al-Musayyab ibn Sharīk, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk concerning His saying (Ṣād), he said: Allah has spoken the truth.
The reciters differed over the reading of it. The generality of the reciters of the cities read it—with the exception of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq and ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar—with a sukūn on the dāl. As for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq: he placed a kasra on it because of the meeting of two quiescent (resting) consonants, and he treated it as a particle, like the saying of the Arabs: "taraktuhu ḥāthi bāthi" and "khāzi bāzi"—they lower (kasra) these because that which precedes the final letter is an alif, so they lower at the alif and place a fatḥa at something else; thus they say "ḥaythu baythu," and "la-ajʿalannaka fī ḥayṣi bayṣi" when one is hard-pressed. As for ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar: he brought into agreement everything before whose final letter was an alif and everything before whose end was a yāʾ or a wāw, and he placed upon all of that a fatḥa and a naṣb, so he said: ṣād, wa-qāf, wa-nūn and yā-sīn, and he made it equivalent to a particle, like their saying: layta, ayna and the like.
And the correct view of the reading concerning that is, in our judgment, the sukūn in all of that, because that is the reading which the reciters of the cities have generally accepted, and because they are letters of the alphabet for the names of the named things, so that it is declined as nouns, particles, and sounds are declined, and follows their ways. Its interpretation, when that is so, is the interpretation of its likes that have already been expounded in what has preceded.
And some of the people of Arabic (the grammarians) said: (Ṣād) in its meaning is like your saying: "it has occurred, by Allah," "it has come down, by Allah," "it is true, by Allah," and it is an answer to His saying (wa-l-Qurʾān), as you say: "truly, by Allah," "it has come down, by Allah."
And His saying وَالْقُرْآنِ ذِي الذِّكْرِ ("By the Qurʾān, full of admonition"): this is an oath by which Allah—blessed and exalted is He—swore by this Qurʾān, and He said: وَالْقُرْآنِ ذِي الذِّكْرِ .
The people of interpretation differed over the interpretation of His saying ذِي الذِّكْرِ ("full of admonition"). Some of them said: Its meaning is: full of honor (sharaf).
Mention of who said that:
Naṣr ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, on the authority of Qays, on the authority of Abū Ḥaṣīn, on the authority of Saʿīd: ص وَالْقُرْآنِ ذِي الذِّكْرِ , he said: full of honor.
Naṣr ibn ʿAlī and Ibn Bashshār related to us, both saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, on the authority of Misʿar, on the authority of Abū Ḥaṣīn (dhī al-dhikr): full of honor.
He said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ or another (dhī al-dhikr): full of honor.
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī (wa-l-Qurʾān dhī al-dhikr), he said: full of honor.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Hishām related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn ʿUmāra, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās (ص وَالْقُرْآنِ ذِي الذِّكْرِ): full of honor.
And some of them said: No, its meaning is: full of admonition, with which Allah has admonished you.
Mention of who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of al-Musayyab ibn Sharīk, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk (dhī al-dhikr), he said: Therein is your admonition. He said: And its counterpart is: لَقَدْ أَنْـزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ ("Indeed, We have sent down to you a Book in which is your admonition") (21:10).
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda (dhī al-dhikr): that is, what is mentioned therein.
And the more correct of the two sayings concerning that is the saying of him who said: Its meaning is: full of admonition for you—for Allah followed it with His saying: (bal alladhīna kafarū fī ʿizzatin wa-shiqāq) ("Nay, those who disbelieve are in pride and dissension") (38:2), so that it becomes known thereby that He only informed concerning the Qurʾān that He sent it down as an admonition for His servants, with which He admonished them, and that the disbelievers (kuffār) are, with respect to belief in it, in pride and dissension.
