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9-10 Stephen Lambden (UC-Merced) The massive Tafsir of the great Persian born Sunnī Qur'ān commentator and historian Abu Ja`far Muhammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, (d. 310/922) was foundational for many subsequent exegetes of the Qur'an. Even the Shi`i sage Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1111/1699/1700) quite frequently cites his commentary in his huge encyclopedia the Bihar al-anwar (Oceans of Lights). Commenting upon Q. 53:8 in this Tafsir entitled Jami' al-bayān 'an tā 'wīl āy al-qur 'ān (The Assembling of the Exposition of the Exegesis of the verses of the Qur'an) al-Ṭabarī refers to a tradition relayed from Anas ibn Mālik about the night of the ascent or celestial mi`rāj. Gabriel is said to have ascended with the Messenger of God unto the seventh heaven such that they attained a level unknown to any except God. The Sidrat al-Muntahā appeared and thereby the Omnipotent (al-jabbār) All-Powerful Lord (rabb al-`izzat) came close by and revealed what He willed to the Prophet about the obligatory prayers for the Muslim community (Jami' al-bayān, 13:45). In the course of expounding Qur'an 53: 11 -- "His [Muhamad's] heart lies not of what he saw" -- al-Ṭabarī cited an Islamic tradition deriving from a certain Ibrahim ibn Ya`qūb al-Jūzjānī through (among others) an `Abd-Allah (servant of God):
The vision of the Prophet was a vision of the amazing celestial form of Gabriel who is associated with the equally gigantic Sidrat al-Muntahā. This was a truthful glimpse of Gabriel whose wingspan, another tradition cited by al-Tabari had it, stretched between the East and the West of the cosmos (ibid). Certain hadith recorded by Ṭabarī, establish a suggestive parallelism between Moses' and Muhammad's visionary and auditory experiences of God. عن كعب أنه أخبره أن الله تبارك وتعالى قسم رؤيته وكلامه بين موسى ومحمد، فكلَّمه موسى مرّتين، ورآه محمد مرّتين... In his Tafsir on Qur'an 53:13ff Tabari records that the Yemenite Rabbi and convert to Islam Abu Isḥāq Ka`b al-Ahbar (d. 32/652) informed a contemporary that "God apportioned vision (ru'yat) of Him and converse (kallām) with Him between Moses and Muhammad. This such that Moses conversed with Him [God] on two occasions and Muhammad saw Him on two occasions" (Jami` al-Bayān [13] 27: 62-63; cf. Qur'an 53: 13b = "another time", implying two visions). It was much disputed whether Muhammad actually saw God directly or his vision was an indirect encounter with Gabriel. The former viewpoint came to be rejected although a variant of the above tradition from Ka`b associated with `Abd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bayān (d. ADD) had it that while Muhammad saw God once, Moses conversed with Him twice: قال: سمعت كعباً، ثم ذكر نحو حديث عبد الحميد بن بيان، غير أنه قال في حديثه فرآه محمد مرّة، وكلَّمه موسى مرّتين. قال ابن عباس قد رآه النبيّ صلى الله عليه وسلم. "Ibn `Abbās said, `The Prophet -- may be blessings and peace of God be upon him -- did indeed see Him [God-Gabriel]".
Commenting upon Qur'an 53: 14 = عِندَ سِدْرَةِ الْمُنْتَهَى ("nigh the Sidrat al-Muntahā") in his Tafsir al-Ṭabarī writes:
وقوله: { عِنْدَ سِدْرَةِ المُنْتَهَى } يقول تعالى ذكره: ولقد رآه عند سدرة المنتهى، فعند من صلة قوله: [ رآهُ ] والسدرة: شجرة النبق. وقيل لها سدرة المنتهى في قول بعض أهل العلم من أهل التأويل، لأنه إليها ينتهي علم كلّ عالم
And His speech [in Q. 53:14], "nigh the Sidrat al-Muntahā"; He says, exalted be His mention, "And he indeed saw Him nigh the Sidrat al-Muntahā" ... And the Sidrat [al-Muntaha] is the tree of the nabq [Jujube Tree] (shajarat al-nabq). And it has been said regarding it, "Sidrat al-Muntahā, in the opinion of some of the educated among the exegetes (ahl al-`ilm min ahl al-ta`wil), is that at which the knowledge of every world terminates..." (Jami` al-Bayan, 13 27:63). Following this al-Tabari records a tradition again stemming from the fountainhead of Isrā'īliyyāt Ka`b al-Ahbar as relayed to Ibn `Abbās::
حدثنا ابن حُميد، قال: ثنا يعقوب،
عن حفص بن حميد، عن شمر، قال: جاء ابن عباس إلى كعب الأحبار، فقال
له: حدثني عن قول الله:
{ عِنْدَ
سِدْرَةِ
المُنْتَهَى عِنْدَها جَنَّةُ المَأْوَى }
فقال كعب: إنها سدرة في أصل العرش، إليها ينتهي علم كلّ عالم، مَلك
مقرّب، أو نبيّ مرسل، ما خلفها غيب، لا يعلمه إلا الله. "Ibn `Abbās came to Ka`b al-Aḥbar and said to him, "Narrate for me about the saying of God [in the Qur'an], ""nigh the Sidrat al-Muntahā, nearby the Garden of Repose (jannat al-māwā)" [Q. 53:14-15] whereupon Ka`b replied, "Such refers to a Lote-Tree (sidrat) at the foundation [base] of the Divine Throne (fī aṣl al-`arsh). Thereat terminates the knowledge of every world [including] an angel brought nigh unto God [cherub] (malak muqarrib) or a Prophet who is a sent Messenger (nabī mursal). Whatsoever lieth beyond it is hidden for none knoweth it save God" (Jami` al-Bayan, 27:63). Another similar tradition is recorded immediately after that just cited and translated which again refers to the authority of Ka`b al-Ahbar: حدثني يونس، قال: أخبرنا ابن وهب، قال: قال أخبرني جرير بن حازم، عن الأعمش، عن شمر بن عطية، عن هلال بن يساف، قال: سأل ابن عباس كعباً، عن سدرة المنتهى وأنا حاضر، فقال كعب: إنها سدرة على رؤوس حملة العرش، وإليها ينتهي علم الخلائق، ثم ليس لأحد وراءها علم، ولذلك سميت سدرة المنتهى، لانتهاء العلم إليها.
وقال آخرون: قيل لها
سدرة المنتهى، لأنها ينتهي ما يهبط من فوقها، ويصعد من تحتها من أمر الله إليها.
ذكر من قال ذلك
Others al-Tabari notes (see above) reckoned that the Sidrat al-Muntahā is so
called because it "terminates whatever descends from above it:
"Others have said
about the Sidrat al-Muntahā that there terminates
thereat what comes down from above it and there descends
from beneath by the command of God whatever approaches it.." Tabari on Qur'an 53:16 إِذْ يَغْشَى
السِّدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَى
In context this verse reads in translation.
"[14] Indeed, he saw him another time by the
Lote-Tree of the Boundary [15] nigh which is the Garden of the Refuge, when there
covered the Lote-Tree that which covered; his eye swerved
not; nor swept astray. Indeed, he saw one of the greatest
signs of his Lord."
The key root-verb gh-sh-a indicating, to cover, envelop, enshroud...
is also used in the oath opening the Surat al-Layl, the Surah of
the Night which (Q. 92) which commences:
وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَى وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا
تَجَلَّى Arberry translates these two verses
[my transliteration added] of Qur'an
92:1-2 as [1] By the night enshrouding (wa'l-layl idha yaghshā) [2] and
the day in splendour (wa'l-nahar idhā tajalla). Reminiscent of the biblical burning bush being
"covered" or enveloped by the divine ADD
The Persian receation of al-Tabari's Tafsir by Bal`ami and others A very early Persian quasi-Tafsir work is the highly creative and Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyā' (stories of the prophets) oriented translation (actually a recreation!) of the abovementioned Jami` al-Bayān Tafsir of al-Tabarī . This was accomplished by a group of `ulamā including Abu `Ali Muhammad Bal`amī (d. 387/997) for Manṣūr ibn Nūḥ (d.365/976), the Samānid ruler of Transoxiana and Khurasan who found the Arabic difficult. While the qur'anic Sūrat al-Nūr (Q. 24) all but becomes a Persian account of the `Slander of `Ā'isha' (Ayesha), the translation-recreation of the Sūrat al-Bani Isra'il (17) here named here the Sūrat al-Isrā' (the `Surah of the Night Journey') and the (Per.) Sūrat-i Subḥān (Surah of Glorification) (see Q. 17:1 opening), includes a quite lengthy and unusual account of the Mi`rāj of the Prophet (Bal`ami, Tafsir, 909-918). The Sidrat al-Muntahā is not mentioned in this extended and sometimes eccentric Persian account of the ascent of the Prophet in which attention is often focused upon the "fourth heaven". Located therein the Sidrat al-Muntaha would seem to be conflated with the Shajarat al-ṭūbā (Tree of Blessedness) (cf. Q. 13:29):
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