Tafsīr literatures  and the Qur'an Commentaries of the Bāb (d. 1850 CE).

In progress 2006-7.

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URLs  to Introductions to select major Tafsīr works of the Bāb expository of the Qur'ān or parts thereof.

T= URL on this Website.

Secondary Tafsīr dimensions within various writibgs iof the Bab.

  • Tafsir aspects of the Kitab al-rūḥ (Book of the Spirit)

  • Tafsīr aspects of the Kitāb al-asmā' (The Book of Names) 18XX CE.

  • The Tafsir portions of the Kitāb-i panj Sha`n (Book of the Five Grades) 1850 CE.

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Tafsīr literatures and the Tafsīr works of the Bāb

            One can hardly over state the central significance of the Arabic Qur'ān for the Bāb. It was as if his own vocabulary  was primarily qur'anic Arabic rather than Persian. Even when he wrote in his native language he could hardly escape the rhythmic cadences of Arabic in the form of qur'anic saj` (rhyming prose).  The expression of its deep,  bāṭinī  ("interior") eschatological  senses through new and challenging revelations in qur'anic style were of very great importance to him. His own revelations were often neo-qur'anic although they often also shatter  the constraints of their Islamic archetype. If the Qur'an was the  "Recitation" of an heavenly Archetypal Book (umm al-kitab) his own revelations were characterized as the Bayān its "Exposition"  or  exegesis.  This exposition often took the form non-literally oriented  allegorical re-writing  or more accurately re-revelation as is strikingly evident in the Qayyūm al-asmā' or the 'Tafsīr Surat Yusuf (Commentary on the Surha of Jospeh = Q. 12) and several other Tafsīr and related works of the Bab.

 

Early Shi`i Tafsīr literatures

  A  massive Tafsīr tradition exists within Shi`i Islam spanning more than a millennium and incorporating exegetical traditions communicated through the various (Twelver)  Imams from `Ali ibn Abi Ṭālib (d. 40/661) to Imam Hasan al-Askari (d. 260/ 865) and beyond.  It is  well represented in works of early Sufi Tafsīr, an exegetical tradition with which it often has much in common. It often promotes a non-literal hermeneutic which is sometimes on imamocentric, typological, allegorical or mystical lines.

        Credited with many mystical and esoteric works the sixth Imam Ja`far al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765) is reckoned to have authored sometimes allegorically oriented or esoteric Tafsīr works which exist in various recensions (see al-Ṣādiq, al Tafsīr ; Habil, 1987 ch.3; Sells, 1996:75f). One of his several acrostic interpretations of  the   ADD (= bism , "In the name..") of the first basmala in the Sūrat al Fātiḥah (Q. 1) reads as follows:

The bism ("In the name [of ]") is [composed of] three letters: the [letter] "B" (al bā’) signifies His Eternity (baqā), the  [letter] "s" ( al sīn) His Names (asmā’) and the [letter] "M" (al mīm) His dominion (al mulk). Thus the faith of the believer is mentioned by Him throughout His Eternity (bi-baqā’) while the servitude of the aspirant (al murīd) is indicated through His Names (al asmā’) and the gnostic (al-ārif) in His transcendent abstraction (fanā’) from the kingdom by virtue of His Sovereignty (al mamlakat bi mālik) over it (Tafsīr al Ṣādiq, 1978:125 cf.Ṭabarī, Tafsīr I:53 55).

Another interpretation of the bism of the basmala of Imam Ja`far reads as follows,

"The bism ("in the name [of ]") is [composed of] three letters: the "b" (al bā’), the "s" (al sīn) and the "M" (al mīm). Wherefore is the "b" indicative of the gate of prophethood (bāb al nubuwwa), the "s" (al sīn) the mystery of prophethood (sirr al nubuwwa) which the Prophet hides away in Him through the elect [qualities] of His community (khāwaṣṣ ummmatihi)." (Tafsīr al Ṣādiq, ibid). See also Biḥar 2 9: 238.

Another interpretation of Imam Ja`far reads as follows, "The bism ("in the name [of ]") is [composed of] three letters: the "b" (al bā’), the "s" (al sīn) and the "M" (al mīm). Wherefore is the "b" indicative of the gate of prophethood (bāb al nubuwwa), the "s" (al sīn) the mystery of prophethood (sirr al nubuwwa) which the Prophet hides away in Him through the elect [qualities] of His community (khāwaṣṣ ummmatihi)." (Tafsīr al ™ādiq, ibid). See also Biḥar 2 9:238.

Certain Ja`far al Ṣādiq’s interpretations of the Q. touch upon prophetological themes, such as his interpretation of the qur’anic account of Moses’ request to see God (Q. 7:143, partially parallel to Exodus 33:18 23). This Imam makes Moses a prototype of the ārif (gnostic, `mystic knower’). The request to see God becomes an interior event within the reality of Moses. The negative response to Moses request to see God, the lan taranī ("Thou shalt not see me [God]") is interpreted as meaning that direct beatific vision is impossible because mystical fanā’ (annihilation of the "self") precludes "seeing": "How can that which passes away (fānin) find a way to that which abides (bāqin) ?" (trans. Sells, 1996:80). Through this Shī`ī non literal exegesis the transcendence of God is maintained.1
A more distinctly Shī`ī tafsīr is attribued to the eleventh Imām Ḥasan al Askarī (d.c. 260/874; >bib.).

A more distinctly Shī`ī tafsīr is attribued to the eleventh Imām Ḥasan al Askarī (d.c. 260/874; >bib.).

 

The Bab was familiar with and sometimes explicitly cited a number of Shi`i Tafsīr writings.

An important though infrequently published  Shi`i Tafsīr work is that ascribed to the eleventh of the twelve Imams al-Askari, Hasan (11th Twelver Imam) (d. 260/873-4).  Though incomplete ADD

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The Letter by letter (loosely qabbalistic)  non-literal exegesis-eisegesis of the Bab

        Letter by letter exegesis‑eisegesis according to various zāhir  and bāṭin  levels of meaning of qur'anio words, verses and suras  was  much utilized by the Bāb in various of his Tafsīr  works; notably his Tafsīr Basmala (= "In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Comnpassionate"),  Tafsīr  Surah wa'l-Aṣr (Commentary on the Surah of the Afternoon') and Tafsīr  Surat al-Kawthar (Commentary on the Surah of the Abundance).  The Bab had a special interest in the `ilm al‑ḥurūf  (the science of letters) which, loosely speaking, is the exposition of the exoteric and esoteric religious significances of words through the  letters which compose them within an Islamic and neo-Islamic universe of discourse. It  often takes into account their abjad numerical values and mystical significances associated therewith. Such exegesis is  sometimes reflected in early Shi`i Tafsīr  such as the letter by letter interpretations of Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq referred to and translated above.

            Something of a precedent for this atomistic letter by letter exegesis exists in numerous works of Islamic qabbalistic  exegesis including various works of Manṣūr al‑Ḥallāj (d.304/922), Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna d.428/1037 ) and many other  Sufi and `irfānī Shī`ī  gnostics associated with the tradition  of Ibn `Arabī, as well as that of the Ḥurūfis, Nuqṭawīs and Bekhtashis. An example of this is provided by the following exegesis of the word shajarat   "Tree"  found in the Persian  al‑Miṣbāḥ fī al‑taṣawwuf   (The Light of Sufism) of the proto‑Ḥurūfī (although Shafī`ī Sufi) and  Shī`ī inclined associate of Najm al‑Dīn al‑Kubra (d. 617/1220) and (indirectly?) Ibn al‑`Arabī  (d.638/1240), the much travelled  Sa`d al‑Dīn  Hammūya (d. 650/1252):

        Know that [the letter] shīn (ش) of the tree (shajara) alludes to the testimony of martyrdom (shahādat). And [the letter] jīm ( ج ) indicates the paradise of the beauty of the Divine Countenance (jannat‑I jamāl‑I vajh). The letter rā ( ر)  points to the greatest Riḍvan (Paradise, riḍvān–i akbar) while   the three dots of the [letter] shīn  (ش ) allude to  [1] the Spirit of God ṣūḥ Allāh), [2]  the Holy Spirit rūḥ al‑quds) and [3] the Faithful Spirit rūḥ al‑amīn   = Gabriel).

        The letter thā  (ث) of the fruit (thamara) is an allusion to the outbursting of meaning (thavarā–I  ma`nā)   which is the form of the tree (ṣūrat‑i shajarat). The [letter] mīm (م) points to the eschatological return (al‑ma`ād) and the [letter] rā ( ر ) to the Lord of the return (rabb‑I ma`ād).  And those three points of the [letter] thā  (  ث)  are allusive of (1) hearing , (2) vision and (3) articulate speech.

        Thus, in reality the  tree (shajara)  is the Tree of the divine unity (shajara‑` tawḥīd). The fruit (thamara) is the fruit of unicity (thamara‑’  vaḥdat) . In its essential createdness (khalqiyyat), the "root", the "trunk", the "branch" and the "leaves"  express the multiple forms. Then observe the multiplicity from the oneness (vaḥdat) and observe the oneness in the multiplicity (vaḥdat dar kathirat) (Hammūya, al‑Miṣbāḥ, 124).

            Though his own detailed and massive Tafsīr   on the whole of the Qur'an  remains unpublished, the Great Shaykh  Muḥyī al‑Dīn  Ibn al‑`Arabī ( ADD) wrote  numerous tafsīr  works   (Yahya,1964 vol. 2: nos. 725‑736) including a  Tafsīr sūra yūsuf  (Commentary  on the Sūra of Joseph) (Osman Yahya, 1964, vol. 2:484 No  734a) and a Qiṣṣat Yūsuf  fī’l‑Ḥaqīqa  ("The Reality of the Story of Joseph") (ibid vol. 2 : 422‑3 no.  574). Ibn al`‑Arabī also wrote a Tafsīr āyat  al‑kursī  (Commentary on the Throne Verse = Q. 2:256  (seeYahya ibid. ii no. 728) and a Tafsīr āyat al‑nūr  (Commentary on the Light Verse = Q. 24:35 ; see also Yaḥya  ibid  482, no 729) and much of his massive literary corpus is generated on Tafsīr lines. This is much influenced by interpretations of the Qur'an text and the often related  corpus of (sunni) Hadith.

        .Both the terminology and Sufi hermeneutical  style of Ibn al`Arabī’s non‑literal, often "gnostic" type exegesis,  is frequently reflected in the writings of Bāb although he was not particularly positively disposed towards the Great Shaykh.  In his strongly apophatic theology of the Unknowable Divinity  the  Bab strongly condemned potentially pantheistic waḥdat al‑wujūd (`existential oneness') speculations in several of his writings. He yet showed a very considerable level of  direct and indirect influence from the Great Shaykh and his numerous  sometimes Shi`i  centered disciples. The Tafsīr centered hermeneutical world within which the Bab revealed verses appears to have had more in common writing with Hurufis and disciples of Ibn al-`Arabi  than with such classical exponents of Sunni Tafsīr as the Persian born Ibn Jarīr al-Tabari (d. 310 / 922) and the popular commentator  al-Baydawi (d. c. 700 / 1300) who authored the Anwār al-tanzīl wa-asrār al-ta'wīl (The Lights of Revelation and the Mysteries of Interpretation) and was born not too far from Shiraz (the birthpace of the Bab).

             At times one might also profitably compare the works of the Bab with  works of Ibn al‑`Arabī’s mystically inclined pupil `Abd al‑Razzāq al‑Kāshānī (d.c.730/1330) whose Tafsīr  is often printed as if that of his master  (Loiry,1980). The following is an intersting extract from Kāshānī’s commentary on the Sūra of the Mount (al‑ṭūr,   Q. 52:1‑5);

By the Mount!" (wa’l‑ṭūr). The "Mount" (al‑ṭūr) is the mountain on which Moses conversed with Him [God]. It [symbolically] signifies the human brain (al‑dimāgh al‑insānī) which is a seat of intellect and articulation (maẓhar al‑`aql wa’l‑nuṭq)....  its Being is the locus of the divine Command (maẓhar  al‑amr al‑ilāhī) and the seat of the eternal decree (al‑qiḍā’ al‑azalī).  "And the Book Outstretched" (wa’l‑kitāb al‑masṭūr)  is the all‑encompassing Form (ṣūrat al‑kull)  according to what interfaces with Him of the established order (al‑niẓām al‑ma`lūm). It is what is engraved in the Tablet of the Decree (lawḥ al‑qiḍā’) and the Most Great Spirit (rūḥ al‑a` ẓam) ... ([Ibn `Arabī] al‑Kāshānī,Tafsīr  2:553).

 Later Shi`i Tafsīr literatures

         The important Shī`ī, esoterically or mystically and philosophicaly  inclined tafsīr  works  and Ḥikmat al‑muta`āliyya (Transcendent wisdom)  formulations of (Mullā) Ṣadrā al‑Dīn Shīrāzī (d.1050/1640) deserve mention here (Peerwani, 1991).  His massive  irfānī  (gnostic)  Tafsīr al‑kabīr  (Weighty Commentary) expresses something of an integration of Avicennan thought, the theosophy of Ibn al‑`Arabī, and the Ḥikmat al‑ishrāq   perspectives of Yaḥya Suhrawardī.  These doctrinal perspectives are also in evidence in Mulla Ṣadrā's important commentary on the foundational hadith compendium, the  Uṣūl al‑Kāfī of al-Kulayni. (ADD).

    This integration was also furthered by Mullā Ṣadrā’s student and son‑in‑law Mullā Muḥsīn Fayḍ al‑Kāshānī (d.1091/1680)  whose Tafsīr al‑Ṣāfī fī tafsīr kalām Allāh al‑wāfī  (The Pristine Tafsīr.in Exposition of the Word of God) was particularly influential (Nasr, CHI 6:688‑690; Achena, EI2 Supp. `Fayḍ-i Kāshānī’, 305; Lawson, 1993:180ff). .So also the Persian and Arabic `irfānī  commentaries on select sūrahs  of the Qur'an  of the philosopher and polymathic pioneer of Jewish‑Christian-Islamic dialogue Sayyid Aḥmad al‑Alawī (d.c.1050/1650).  His works have been "considered to be one of the outstanding gnostic, theosophical commentaries in the Shī`īte world" ( Abdurrahman Habil, IS 1:37+fn.59, 46; Corbin EIIr., 3:228 n. 58 cf.1:644‑646).  

            Various Akhbārī (`tradition centred’) Shī`ī commentators utilized and highlighted the importance of a non‑literal hermeneutic (EIr.1:716‑18; Lawson, 1993). On occasion they set down interesting interpretations to Q. rooted Isrā’īliyyāt materials as found in the traditions (akhbār ). Only  passing mention can be made here to such exegetes. They include `Abd `Alī al‑Ḥuwayzī (d.1112/1700), author of the Kitāb tafsīr  nūr al‑thaqalayn  (The Book of the Commentary on the Light of the Twin Weights) and Sayyid Hāshīm  al‑Baḥrānī  (d. c.1110 /1697) who wrote the Kitāb al‑burhān fī tafsīr al‑Qur’ān (The Book of the Evidence in the Commentary on the Qur’ān).

             The Mir’āt al‑anwār wa mishkāt al‑asrār fī tafsīr al‑Qur’ān (Mirrors of Lights and Niches of Mysteries in Commentary upon the Qur’ān) of al‑`Āmilī al‑Iṣfahānī (d.1138/1726) contains an extensive prolegomenon highlighting and expounding the deeper  hermeneutics of qur’ānic exegesis. Included in its extensive alphabetical glossary of key Shī`ite terms are expositions of many biblical‑qurānic figures including Gabriel, Adam, Abraham, Lot, Gog and Magog (Yājūj and Mājūj), Joseph, Israel (Isrā’īl), Solomon (Sulaymān) and Jesus. Corbin described this volume as "one of the monuments of Iranian theological literature, furnishing inexhaustible material for comparative research on the hermeneutics of the Book  among the "People of the Book"" (Corbin. EIr. I:931‑2; Dharī`a  20:264f., no. 2893; Lawson, 1993:195f).  Various Ismā’īlī tafsīr  works also contain interesting allegorical and other non‑literal, sometimes esoteric modes of exegesis. Such is the case with the fragmentary Mizāj al‑tasnīm  (The Condition of Tasnīm) of Ibn Hibat-Allāh (d.1760).

 Maḥmūd ibn 'Abd-Allāh al-Ālūsī (d.1270/1854).

            Before concluding this section mention should be made of the huge and widely‑respected early 19th century commentary of  the `Alīd  Sunnī Abū al‑Thanā’, Shihāb al‑Dīn al‑Ālūsī (d.1270 /1854) entitled Rūḥ al‑ma`āni fī tafsīr al‑qur’ān al‑`aẓīm.. (The Spirit of the Meaning in Commentary upon the Mighty Qur’ān) (30 vols, in 15, Cairo 1345/1926.. rep. Beirut). Written in the 1200s/ 1800s this work has been published in Egypt in six volumes, Cairo: al‑Maṭba`at al‑Amīrah, 1870 +  Bulaq 1301‑10/1883‑92 and also recently reprinted. A one‑time muftī  of Baghdad, Ālūsī  was aware of both early Shaykhism and Bābism. Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī the second Shaykhī leader  appears to have corresponded with him (Fihrist:323 No. 256; Nicolas, Essai II:35 no. 100). Though Ālūsī condemned Bābī heresy at the time of the trial of Mullā `Alī Bastāmī (d. Istanbul, 1846), the Bāb invited him to embrace his religion in an Arabic letter written  from Mākū (1848) in which he claimed divinity and to be the awaited Mahdī:  "I, verily, am God, no God is there except I myself, I manifested myself on the Day of Resurrection... I am the Mahdī" (cited Zā’im al‑Dawlā, Miftāḥ, 212‑15). For a few months in the early 1850s, Alūsī accommodated under house arrest the learned and revolutionary female Bābī, Fāṭima Baraghānī, better known as Ṭāhira (d.1270/1852)  who  among many other things translated the Qayyum al-asma' of the Bab into Persian (the mss. is lost).  Ālūsī’s weighty commentary and other writings apparently contain  passing reference to the first two Shaykhī leaders  as well as to the Bāb  and Ṭāhira whom he is said to have greatly admired (cf. Noghabā’ī,1983:137).I have not been able to locate these references in either the Beirut printed Tafsīr  or in  the CD Rom version though the Arabic text is cited by Noghabā’ī. This Bahā’ī writer has Alūsī  refer to Tāhirih as "one in whom I witnessed grace and perfection the like of which I had not perceived in most men.." (1983:137). Gulpayigānī, Kashf al‑Ghiṭa,  95‑6; Māzandarānī, ZH III:356‑9; AB* Tadhkirat, 194/ Memorials, 194‑5).

            The Rūḥ al‑ma`ānī   is a wide‑ranging compendium of pre‑19th century Islamic tafsīr  works.  While isnād   details are registered sparingly select Shī`ī and some mystical perspectives are sometimes recorded.  Al‑Alūsī’s occasionally modernistic commentary shows some knowledge of the Bible. It exhibits a traditional yet ecumenical viewpoint registering a wide range of opinions (Smith, 1970:2251‑9).

            Considerable attention is paid by al‑Alūsī to theological aspects of Isrā’īliyyāt traditions related by such persons as have been mentioned above (see Ch. 1.1f below). The story of Moses’ request to see God (Q. 7:143), for example, is discussed at length (Rūḥ 5:43‑52). Attention to detail is evident in the comments upon the alwāḥ  (Tablets) which God gave to Moses on Sinai  (al‑ṭūr).   Expounding the words, "And We wrote from him [Moses] upon the alwāḥ (Tablets) something of everything (min kulla shay’ ; Q. 7:145a) Alūsī records various opinions as to the number of alwāḥ, their jawhar (substance), their miqdā r ( measure, scope) and their kātib (inscriber):

 "[Regarding] their  number, it is said that there were ten and [also that there were] seven or two... the alwāḥ  were [made of] green emerald (zumurrud akhḍar). The Lord, exalted be He, commanded Gabriel and he brought them from [the Garden of] Eden... Others say that they were [made] of ruby.. And  I  say that they were of emerald.. It is related from the Prophet, `The alwāḥ  which were sent down unto Moses were from the Lote‑Tree of Paradise (sidr al‑jannat) and the length of the Tablet(s) was  twelve cubits" (Rūḥ al‑ma`ānī V:55). 

     Finally, brief mention should be made of the Egyptian modernizer, reformist and commentator Muhammad Abdūh (d.1322/1905). He  wrote an influential, incomplete Tafsīr  work revised and completed by his pupil Rashīd Riḍā (d.1935) and also put out a short‑lived periodical entitled al‑`Urwa al‑wuthqā’  (The Firm Handle) with the Iranian reformer Jamāl Asadābādī [al‑Afghānī] (d.1897) who  had probably spent  some time with Bahā'-Allāh and the Bābīs in Baghdad (Cole, 1998, index). Abdūh also wrote a Risāla al‑tawḥīd  (Treatise on the Divine Oneness, 1897) and a work on Christianity and Islam al‑Islām wa’l‑Naṣrāniyya  (Cairo, 1902). He aligned himself with those who rejected the Islamic concept of taḥrīf  as the total corruption of biblical scripture and had some acquaintance with the Bible. Abduh gave great weight to rationalism. Like AB* whom he had met he argued that the existing bible must be authentic because it cannot have been universally corrupted. 

 Some characteristic features of the Bab's Tafsir

The presence of standard and new forms of the basmala, prefixed  isolated letters (al-hurufat al-muqatta`ah) and rhyming prose (saj`)..

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The deep eschatological dimensions of Bābī‑ Bahā’ī Tafsīr. 

God revealed the Qur’ān according to the likeness of the creation of all things (bi‑mithl khalq kulli shay’)..  For every single letter of the Qur’an, as accords with its being totally encompassed by the knowledge of God, to the level of its existent particles (min dhawāt al‑ashyā’),  there is a tafsīr  (interpretation). For every tafsīr  (interpretation) there is a ta`wīl  (deeper sense). For every ta`wīl  there  is a bāṭin level (`deep inner sense’). For every bāṭin  there are also further deep inner senses (bāṭin),  dimensions to the extent that God wills.. (B*  T.Kawthar, fol. 8b).       

            Bābī‑ Bahā’ī spiritual hermeneutics mostly follow the aforementioned Shī`ī‑ Sufī‑ Irfānī‑Shaykhī  non‑literal hermeneutical methods. They accept  ẓāhir  (outer) and numerous  bāṭin (inner) senses of the Q. as did Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsa'i (d. 1926)  and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashti (d. 1843) (Sh‑Qaṣīda,169‑70). As indicated in the above passage from the Bāb, Bahā'-Allāh and the Bābī‑ Bahā’ī leaders  generally upheld the position that the sacred word has an infinite number of deep senses, even down to the qabbalistic level of its letters and beyond. Bābī‑ Bahā’ī primary sources  have it that past sacred texts derive their ultimate meaning in and through the theophanic person and religion of the latest  maẓhar‑i ilāhī (divine Manifestation’). The existence of  ẓāhir  (literal) and bāṭin  (inner) senses of sacred writ are affirmed (Bahā'-AllāhT.Shams; T.Ta’wīl–>see bib.) as are innumerable even deeper sometimes eschatologically meaningful scriptural senses.  Such deep levels are often referred to as the bāṭin al‑bāṭin, the interior of the interior, the most inward of the esoteric senses (the Bab ,Kawthar ; Bahā'-Allāh KI:198/ [SE*]163).

            The importance of the Q.  to both the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh can hardly be overestimated ( see Ch. 1.0ff). Both cited it thousands of times and frequently commented upon portions of it. In his Persian and Arabic Bayāns the Bāb divided the totality of his writings into five "modes" ("grades", "categories", shu`ūn), the fourth of them being  tafsīr  type revelations, Arabic verses in some sense expository of or comparable to qur’ānic revelations. For the Bāb the revelation of qur’ānic like Arabic verses constituted a true miracle, the touchstone of assured prophethood.

            From the outset many of the writings of the Bāb were distinctly neo‑qur’ānic in form; having isolated letters, being divided into sūrahs and written in rhyming prose. The Bāb associated his revelations with the ta’wīl  (inner sense) or bāṭin  (interior dimension) of  the Q. The use of non‑literal  ta’wīl  in his first major work, the Tafsīr  s ūrat yūsuf  (= QA; mid.1844) suggests that he saw this work as unlocking the messianic  ta’wīl  or deeper senses of the entire Q. "O people of the earth", the Bāb writes towards the end of this neo‑Tafsīr, "This Book (= QA) is the tafsīr  of everything (li‑kulli shay’)  (QA 111:448; cf. 104:414  41:151; 38:142; 44:164; 61:242).

            In an early letter the Bāb refers to his partially extant and originally 700 sūra Kitāb al‑rūḥ (Book of the Spirit, 1845) as a work which he "revealed upon the ocean on the return of the Dhikr  (to Shīrāz after the Ḥajj) in seven hundred sūrahs,  in definitive, expository verses (muḥkamat āyāt bayyināt)  expressive of the bāṭin  of the Qur’ān..." (INBMC 91:89‑90). This work is thus identified with the muḥkamat, the  established dimension of the (revealed) verses, though it is also an exposition  of the bāṭin  of the Q. Here as elsewhere the Bāb subtly challenges qur’ānic `ijāz (inimitability):

Yea indeed! We have sent down in the Book [K. Rūḥ, Bāb’s revelations] certain verses which are the bāṭin  (interior meaning) of the Qur’ān" (ibid).

In another early (pre‑June 1845) work addressed to Muslim clerics, the Kitāb al‑`ulamā’, the Bāb again  associates the bāṭin  (interiority)  of the Q. with revelations sent down through himself ("Our servant `Alī") as a "proof" (ḥujjat) from the eschatological Baqiyyat‑Allāh (Remembrance of God)" for the faithful (Ar. text, Afnān, 2000:107).

              Several of the commentaries  of the Bab  listed above interpret biblically rooted qur’ānic narratives. The best example of this is the multi‑faceted story of Joseph. In the Qayyūm al‑asmā’ (= QA), this  aḥsan al‑qaṣaṣ (`best of stories’)  (Q. 1:X) is given a complex, multi‑faceted imamological and sometimes letter based gematra oriented levels of eschatologically suggestive meaning. Other narratives directly or  allusively interpreted by the Bāb, include verses dealing with episodes in the lives of Abraham, Dhu’l‑Qarnayn, Moses, David, Jesus and others.  Qur’ānic prophetological motifs and narratives along with occasional  Isrā’īliyyāt traditions are given post‑Islamic senses meaningful within the new Bābī theophany.

A Note on Baha'i Tafsir works

             In line with numerous ḥadīth  of the prophet and the Imams and like the Bāb, both Bahā'-Allāh and Abd al‑Bahā’ (= AB*) again accord multiple meanings to the sacred books of the past. Bahā'-Allāh often expressed this as the following extract from one of his earlier writings illustrates:

 Know that the words of God (kalimāt Allāh) and his scriptures (sufarā’) have inner sense upon inner sense (ma`ānī  ba`du  ma`ānī), allegorical meaning (ta`wīl)  after allegorical meaning   (ta`wīl ), cryptic senses (rumūzāt)  and  allusive significances (isharāt) as well as evident proofs (dalālāt). There are, furthermore, clear regulative meaning(s)  (ḥukm/ḥukum) that are without end. No single person is aware of even a letter of the  inner meanings [of scripture] save such as your Lord, the All‑Merciful  has willed (Bahā'-Allāh, Tablet for Jawād Tabrīzī, INBMC 73:[179‑186]173).

 Tafsir works of  Bahā'-Allāh  and `Abd al-Bahā'

           Bahā'-Allāh as well as `AB* also wrote many often non‑literal commentaries on select sūrahs and / or verses of the Q. Like the Bāb they frequently utilized an allegorical hermeneutic. The orientation of these tafsīr works is often eschatological fulfillment and doctrinal renewal through a new Bābī‑ Bahā’ī  universe of discourse. Though less well‑known as a Q. commentator, Bahā'-Allāh expounded a very large number of qur’ānic verses, though few complete qur’ānic sūrahs. Like the Bāb he occasionally gave a detailed atomistic exegesis‑eisegesis to particular qur'anic phrases, words and  letters.  A characteristically Bāb‑like qabbalistic, letter by letter, `ilm al‑ḥurūf   type exegesis seen in the Bāb’s Tafsir. Basmalah   and Tafsir  Surat wa'l-Aṣr  is evident in certain early works of Bahā'-Allāh (e.g. INBMC 56:24ff). Among the not yet fully collected and catalogued distinctly tafsīr  works of Bahā'-Allāh may be listed here:

(1)  L. Kull al‑ṭa`ām (the Tablet of All Food) on Q. 3:87) ( c. 1853/4?).

(2) T. Ḥurūfāt al‑muqaṭṭa`ah (`Commentary on the Isolated Letters [of the Q.]') (c.1858) also known as T. āyāt al‑nūr   (Commentary on the Light Verse).

(3) T. Basmala, on the basmalah and its  component letters, etc.  

(4)  T. Yūsuf,  on passages, verses and motifs of  Q.12 or on the QA of the Bāb.       

(5)  T. Q. 68:1a including  the letters of the basmala,  the isolated letter ن nūn) and verse 1a , "By the Pen!"

(6)  T. Q. 13:17‑18a & 18:60‑90 contains a detailed exposition of the story of Moses and Khiḍr and of    Dh ū’l‑Qarnayn and Yājūj and Mājūj (Gog and Magog).

(7)  T. Sūrat wa’l‑shams  (Q. 91) 

            Certain of Bahā'-Allāh’s tafsīr  statements refine, supplement or develop those of the Bāb. There thus exists in Bābī‑ Bahā’ī scripture what might be called multiple, progressively expounded texts of the (Bible‑)  Q. This cumulative, multi‑faceted tafsīr  of the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh  is sometimes also further interpreted by  AB*1 and less frequently by SE* or members of  the Bahā’ī community. Bahā'-Allāh sometimes asked his son AB* to respond to questions regarding tafsīr. issues. Among AB*’s tafsīr   works is a commentary on the Basmala, on the Sūrat al‑Rūm Q.30:1‑5 (The Byzantines [Romans], probably dating to the late 1880s) and various commentaries on passages within the Bāb’s QA relating to the Sūrat Yūsuf (Q.12). AB* wrote various Tafsīr  letters in Persian, Arabic and Turkish. A tafsīr   notice of the Bāb touching upon qur’ānic qiṣaṣ al‑anbiyā’,  for example, is not infrequently given further levels of interpretation by Bahā'-Allāh, AB* and others. Developed Bābī‑ Bahā’ī Q. commentary expresses several dimensions of meaning evolving over a period of more than a century (1844‑1957>). A few examples of this evolving tafsīr   are found in connection with the Bābi‑Bahā’ī exegesis of the Joseph story and that of Dhū’l‑Qarnayn.  It is often in tafsīr  contexts that Islamo-biblical traditions are interpreted  or reinterpreted beyond their Jewsih‑Christian-Muslim, or Abrahamic  scriptural roots.