ADD ARABIC

THE QAYYŪM AL-ASMĀ' 

(Joseph and Jacob Reunited)

 OF

SAYYID `ALĪ MUHAMMAD, THE BĀB (1819-1850)

 

LAST REVISED JULY.06

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SOME INTRODUCTORY NOTES

    The  Tafsīr Sūrat Yūsuf  (Commentary on the Surah of Joseph, Qur'ān sūrah 12) or Qayyūm al-asmā'  (=QA) was the the first major  work of the Bāb following his (incomplete)  pre-declaration Tafsīr sūrat baqara  (Commentary on the Surah of the Cow, Q. 2) which was written in early 1844/1260, and a few other partially extant writings. It is  wholly in Arabic and extends in one typical mss. for more than 420 seventeen line pages. Distinctly neo-qur'anic in literary form it is divided up into 111(2) surahs commencing with the basmala  بسم اللّه الرّحمن الرّحيم =  and (with a few exceptions) al-ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`āt  ("isolated letters", see below). Each surah  ("section", "chapter", except the first) comments successively upon each one of the 111 verses which make up the qur'anic Surat Yūsuf  (Q.12). The exegetical comments are often in brief, rewritten / waḥy  revealed  form towards the end of the surah  and in the wider context of Qur'ān type revelations which are often unrelated the the qur'ānic Joseph narrative. Around 10-20% of the verses of the QA relate to the Joseph narrative, many of them being exegetical rewritten, reconfigurations of diverse qur'ānic texts.

        Each surah of the Qayyūm al-asmā'  is (theoretically) divided up into 42 verses of  Qur'ān like rhymed prose (saj`).  Verse endings are often indicated by   a word  with the accusative ending ( xxx ^an =  ا اً ) e.g.  QA IX:1, Sūrat al-sirr   (The Surah of the Mystery) verse one

اللّه قد انزل الكتاب فيه تبيان كلّ شیء رحمة

و بشری لعبادنا ممّن كان بذكر اللّه العلیّ بالحقّ علی علم الكتاب بصيراً

"God assuredly sent down the Book in which is an exposition of everything (kull shay'), a Mercy and a Glad-tidings unto Our servants among such as are, in very truth,

clear-sighted (baṣīr ^an) with respect to the knowledge of the Book regarding the Exalted, Dhikr-Allāh (Remembrance of God)."

    This versification of the surahs of the QA is sometimes uncertain or irregular though the rhyming prose accusative ( اً ) endings are the primary indication. As in the Qur'ān, the size of verses can vary markedly. The Bāb himself stated that there should be forty two verses in each surah of the QA as accords with the  abjad  numerical value of the qur'ānic Arabic lī  meaning "before me"  in Q. 12:4b  (Ar. لي = l + ī = 30+10= 40 + 2 for the "sun" and the "moon" = 42)  though it is not always clear how this figure can be arrived at. This figure of 42 verses is also explicitly confirmed by the Bāb's in his early Khuṭba al-dhikriyya ("The Sermon of the Remembrance") where it is stated in the context of an imamologically numbered categorization of the early works of the Bāb  dating from between 1260-1262 (AH):

"The Fourth [revelational categorization] is the Ḥusaynid Book (kitāb al-Ḥusayniyya)  which is the Commentary upon the Surah of Joseph  (Sharḥ Sūrat Yūsuf = Tafsīr Sūrat Yūsuf = Qayyūm al-asmā') -- upon him be peace -- which is divided up into one hundred and eleven firmly established [clearly delineated] (muḥkamat) surahs. Every one of them is made up of forty two verses. These constitute a sufficient [messianic] testimony unto whomsoever exists  upon the earth or lieth beneath the Divine Throne (al-`arsh)..." (cited Afnan 2000: 472; cf. 445).

        The same forty-two mode of surah versification of the QA., is evident in certain mss. of  the QA; most notably the early 1261 mss. of Muhammad Mahdī ibn Karbalā'ī where  QA1 and 2 (and other surah headings) have following words after the surah title (e.g. Surat al-mulk) and  in between the basmala,      ADD  ARABIC                             wa hiya ithnā'[tāni] wa arba`ūn "and it [the Surah] has forty two verses". In the following  web pages I retain this sometimes uncertain versification for the sake of reference and commentary.

    Though the versification of the surahs of the QA is often uncertain, in this translation I have counted everything (surah title + basmala  + qur'an citation+ isolated letters) up till the isolated letters as 2(3)  verses which are square bracketed. The total verses in a given surah of the QA can thus be counted from here (QA 1-2(3) adding verses 3(4)-42 or whatever each surah seems to have ).  At times the versification of surahs of the QA at forty (two) verses each seems more symbolic than a clear setting down of 42 bayts (verses) of rhymed prose (saj`). The 42 verse schemata does, however, seem to hold good, for a good many surahs;  including, example,  in QA1 and QA5.

        The Bāb regarded the Qayyūm al-asmā' as an eschatologically suggestive expression of the ta'wīl  (the "inner dimension") of the Qur'ān.  It presents itself as a fascinating kaleidescope of allusive messianic, qabbalistic,  theological and other revelations (waḥy) representative of  the expected, `latter day' inner senses of the Qur'ān.  Islamic messianism has it that such deeper levels of meaning  would be divulged in the new age initiated through the eschatological advent of the Qā'im whose advent  is anticipated in thousands of Shī`ī traditions.

    While the QA reflects the Q. it also claims to be a neo-qur'ānic exposition of it, incorporating truths after the nature of both the Qur'ān and the Sunna ("tradition"). In QA 76:9, a verse of the Surat al-waraqa  (Surah of the Leaf), it is stated,

O thou believers! Fear ye God and expound ye not a single letter from this Mighty, Most Transcendent Book which,  in very truth, enshrines  Ultimate Reality (al-ḥaqq bi'l-ḥaqq) after the nature of the Qur'ān and the Sunna (`alā ṭibq al-qur'ān wa'l-sunna) which God hath indeed placed amongst thee.

          The Qayyūm al-asmā'   has been variously named by the Bāb himself. It has five or more titles including,

(1) Tafsīr Sūra Yūsuf

 (Commentary upon the Surah of Joseph).

        The Sūrah of Joseph is the twelfth chapter of the Islamic sacred book, the Arabic Qur’ān (Recitation) communicated piecemeal by the Arab prophet Muhammad (d. 632 CE) over a period of around twenty- two years (c. 610-632 CE). The implication of this title is that this work of the Bāb expounds and interprets the story of Jospeh. Such is to some extent the case though this work of the Bāb is more like the Qur`ān itself than any of the standard or usual expressions of Islamic tafsīr (Qur’ān commentary). The Bāb’s controversial first major work has, among others, the following similarities to the Qur`ān:

• a) It includes the

بسم اللّه الرّحمن الرّحيم  basmala   and is in versified rhyming prose, saj`  like  the Qur’ān (= Q.).

b) Like the Qur`ān the QA is divided up into sūrahs (loosely chapters) each of which is made up of around 42 verses and bears a specific name which  derives from the Bāb himself. The names of the surah titles are given by the Bab in, for example, his early Kitāb al-fihrist (Book of the Index. 1845) (see below). Like those of the Q. the  surah titles of the QA only loosely (to some degree) indicate the content or orientation of the surah they designate. The names given to the surahs of the QA are occasionally the same as those of specific surahs of the Qur’ān, though most are different. The names of the first five surahs of the QA are:

[1] سورة الملك   Sūrat al-mulk (The Surah of the Dominion)     (=Q.67)

[2]   سورة العلماءSūrat  al-`ulamā’ (The Surah of the Divines).

[3]  سورة الايمان Sūrat  al-īmān (The Surah of Security).

[4] سورة المدينه  Sūrat  al-madīnah (The Surah of the City).

[5]سورة  يوسف  Sūrat  Yūsuf  [Ḥusayn] The Surah of Joseph [Ḥusayn] (= Q. 12)

Most of the surahs of the QA. (see further below ADD ) are of roughly equal length, about 4-5 pages containing around  (35-) 42 or so verses of varying length.

 (2) The Qayyūm al-asmā' 

        Translated literally the Arabic genitive phrase Qayyūm al-asmā'  means 'the Self-Subsisting of the [Divine] Names'. The initial word Qayyūm is perhaps meant to be suggestive of the Shī`ī messianic epithet  Qā'im  (bi-amr Allāh.. etc., `the One who shall arise at the command of God / for the Cause of God'), which indicates the one who will "Arise", the "Ariser" (Qā'im)  whom many traditions predict will carry out the divine purpose at the `last hour' around the time of the eschatological yawn al-qiyāma  ("Day of Resurrection"). The Arabic words (Ar.) qiyāma, meaning `uprising' or `resurrection', Qā'im  (messianic Ariser) and  Qayyūm. ("Self-Subsistent") all derive from the same Arabic root (= Q-W-M). The linking of Qayyūm  with al-asmā'  ( = "the Names") most likely indicates a relationship between the totality of the Names of God and their supreme Self-Subsistent supporter, the foundational reality centered in the divine or Logos-Self (nafs) of the messianic Imam. 

        The title  Qayyūm al-asmā'   is, furthermore, an allusive indication of the centrality of the Qā'im and the messianic Joseph figure. For the Bāb Joseph is the prototype of the messianic Imam Ḥusayn  (see QA.5). This is indicated in that the words Qayyūm ([Deity] "Self-Subsisting") and the name prophetological name Yūsuf (= Joseph) both have an identical abjad  ( numerical) value of 156:  

ق = Q [a] =100+	يُّ= y[y] =  10+	و  =  ū   =  6   +	م   = m =   40 =	Total  = 156
ي = Y =  10 +	و  = ū   =    6+	س = s[u] =  60 +	ف   = f    =   + 80    =	Total  = 156

    Such correspondences were much used and of great moment in Islamic mystical thought, especially the `ilm al-ḥurūf (science of letters) of which the Bāb was especially adept. Like learned Shī`ī Muslim mystics and sages the Bāb was very accomplished in this science. On the basis of their identical abjad numerical values the word Qayyūm evoked thoughts of Joseph and (to the perceptive) as the Bāb himself stated in a letter to his uncle, the Qā'im, for "the intention [of Qayyūm al-asmā' ] is the [expected messianic] Qā’im of [descended from] the family of Muhammad for he is the Living One (ḥayy), the Qayyūm (the "Self-Subsisting")" (letter of the Bab cited Ishrāq Khāvarī, Qāmūs III:1278-9).

(3) The Kitab al-Husayniyya  ("The Book centering upon Ḥusayn")

    This title of the QA was given by the Bāb in a letter to Mullā `Abd al-Karīm Qazvīnī addressed to the Bābī Ḥajjī Mullā Jawād Karbalā'ī (cited Afnan, 2000:437-8). It makes sense because the figure Ḥusayn is typologically identified with the Joseph of surah 12 of the Q. Joseph, among other things, symbolized the returned Imam Ḥusayn who is the "true" eschatological "Joseph" (= the Qayyūm), a messianic figure in twelver Shī`īsm and for Bahā'īs the person of Mirza Ḥusayn `Ali Nūrī, entitled Bahā'-Allāh (The [radiant] Splendor of God).

    The historical Ḥusayn was the martyred son of `Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) who died on the plain of Karbala in 61/680. He is the much exalted third Imam of the Twelver Shī`ī Muslims, as well as the religion of the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh. Ḥusayn became a messianic figure expected to "return" and avenge those who martyred him  and thus contribute to the universal establishment of that Islam which is the true religion of God.

The Qayyūm al-asmā’ and the universal,  cosmic  outreach of the Bāb.

The first Surat al-mulk of the QA  is not the only portion of this work which contains world-ranging addresses. In fact the rest of the book comprising another 110 surahs  includes pericopes expressive of not only a universalistic or global  breadth but an at times cosmic or celestial manner of discourse. More than 500 usually brief paragraphs are addressed to a  very wide range of groups and individuals in the QA. The following few notes are only a highly selective indication of this calling out to both earthly and heavenly dimensions of existence. The horizons of the Bab went beyond the peoples of the world to address, for example, inmates of mystical dimensions within universes unseen and denizens of realms seldom encountered within the most abstruse cosmogonies.

 At one point after QA1 at QA 63:254, for example, the Bab continues to give address  “O concourse of kings”, bidding  them fear God! relative to the person of the Servant of God (=Bab). Numerous paragraphs of the QA also continue to be addressed to all humanity, to the “people of the earth!” which remains a common vocative address. There are many addresses to all existing beings both earthly and heavenly, whether situated in terrestrial or celestial worlds.

The Persons Addressed - modes of address in the Qayyum al-asma'

Many of the modes of address in the QA are non-qur’anic. They frequently commence with the vocative particle ya  or  the extended form  ya ayyuha  al-__ so and so.  Omitting the fairly frequent modes of address directed towards the Bab himself, from the hidden imam / Dhikr / God, etc   as   one Qurrat al-`ayn  ("The Solace of the Eye(s)" = the Bab) or something else, the persons and groups addressed after QA1 include the following (selective list):

QA 2                O Assemblage of the divines, Muslim `ulama’, religious authorities.

                        “People of the Book” (ahl al-kitab), primarily Jews and Christians.

QA3                 O servants of the All-Merciful, etc

QA4                 O believers.

                        O people of the City (Medinah, Shiraz?) 

                        People of unbelief (mushrikun). 

QA 8                O people of the earth! .

                        O servants of God. 

                        O servants of the All-Merciful. 

QA 10              O thou people!

QA15               O people of the Furqan (= Muslims).

QA 17              O people of the celestial Throne

QA 21              O People of the East (mashriq) and the West (maghrib).

QA 22              O people of the Divine Throne (ya ahl al-`arsh):

QA 27              O people of Paradise.

QA 28              O thou merchants (tujjar) that dwell in the land and sea.

                        O Concourse of Lights (mala al-anwar).

                        O mother of the Dhikr

                        O people of Paradise

QA29               O people of Persia.

                        O people of the world (ahl al-`alamin).

                        O concourse of Lights (mala’ al-anwar).

QA32               O people of earth and heaven

                        O people of `ama’ (lit. The divine cloud).

QA40               O concourse of the Shi`a

                        O servants of God

QA41               O people of lights

                        O concourse of jinn and men

QA 44              O divine Maiden (huriyya).

QA 46              O people of the East

     O people of the west.

QA 47              O people of the Euphrates.

QA 51              Opeople of Eden!  (ahl al-`adn)

QA 54              O denizens of the Abyss of Paradise (ahl  lujja al-firdaws).

QA 58             O people of glory (majd)

                        O greatest Sayyid.

                        O Remnant of God  ( baqiyyat Allah). 

QA 63              O Spirit of God  (= Jesus).

QA 72              O thou dwellers in the celestial chambers.

QA73               O Companions of the Cave.

QA 75              O People of Paradise

QA 76              O people of the Domion (ahl al-mulk).

QA 82              O people of the dual Iraqs

                         O Crimson Leaf.

QA91               O People of Love (= Shirazi and other Sufis?).

QA 92              O people of Ridvan .

                        O assemblage of companions.

QA 96              O people of Exaltation!

QA 97              O group of patient ones. 

QA 98              O hosts of the ultimately Real (al-haqq).

                        O people [continent] of the Red [Crimson] Sea.

     O Greatest Ocean of God.

QA 99              O people of the Persian dominions

QA100             O people of Contentment [felicity] (ahl al-na’im) ....

QA 105            O denizens of the Abyss of the Divine Unicity (lujjat al-aḥadiyya).

QA 106            O Poor among Muslims.

QA 109            O people of the twin gulfs (al-ṭutunjayn).

QA 111            O possessors of insight among the people of the Bāb.

                        O persons given to selling.

 

 

            From this selective list something of the global or rather cosmic outreach of the Bab can be gleaned.