Abstract:

Almost everyone who looks at the Qur’ān and reads a few lines or a few passages will not be late to see that the word of scripture goes full circle to historical narratives and to the quotations laid out in the style of qāla or qālū. Therefore, it is scarcely an overstatement to point out that about a quarter or half of the scripture is composed of the narrating of historical events and stories. It is possible to call this subject, “divine quotations”, which are observed in the integrity of the Qur’ān. It is readily apparent that al-Amīr Muhammad b. Ismâ‘īl as-San‘ānī, who is the subject of our article, wrote the first an independent treatise on the divine quotations. as-San‘ānī, a Zaidī scholar is a prolific and versatile schoolman who comes into prominence in many fields, especially tafsir, hadith and fiqh, has a grasp of the technicality of the Arabic language and uses the language effectively. He is one of the mujtahid Zaidī scholars and figures who influenced the tradition of Yemeni science. as-San‘ānī wrote a treatise on the nature of the divine quotations and called al-Izāh wa al-bayān fî tahkīki ‘ibārāt al-kasas al-Qur’ān. In this treatise, which has reached to the modern period, there is a summary presentation with a question-answer method about the nature of the embedded speakers (al-kalām al-mahkī) in Qur’ān. The relationship between divine quotations and i‘jāz is emphasized between the lines of the treatise. In the context of divine quotations, as-San‘ānī asks this question: ‘Do the narrative speech and the embedded speakers incorporated in the integrity of Qur’ān belong to God or to the speaker who originally said it?’ By asking this question, he introduces the subjects that dealt with in his treatise. It is seen that this work, which contains some inspiring evaluations about the nature of the divine quotations, hasn’t been the subject of any academic work. In the present study, which is written in order to eliminate this deficiency in one aspect, first of all, as-San‘ānī’s life story, scientific personality and works are examined. Subsequently, the issues that as-San‘ānī raised about the nature of the divine quotations in the mentioned treatise are discussed, and the evidences he draws are transformed into propositions and evaluated in detail. In a nutshell, according to as-San‘ānī, such quotations are both the speech of God in regards to wording and the speech of human beings in terms of meaning. as-San‘ānī tries to justify this approach with rational and narrative evidence. In other words, while discussing the subject throughout the treatise, he adopts an analytical and inferential/rational method. We can signal some assertions mentioned by him in the treatise. First, there is a consensus that everything in the Qur’ān is the word of God. Therefore, all quotations from archaic times must also be the word of God. Second, the Qur’ān is described as the speech of God in the integrity of Qur’ān. This shows that everything in the Qur’ān is the word of God in the true sense. Since divine quotations are also a part of this whole, they are also within the scope of the speech of God. Third, the Qur’ān is defined as kalāmullāh in the terminology of Islamic sciences. This shows that the quotations made from archaic times in the Qur’ān are the word of God as well. Fourth, God narrates the words of people who lived in archaic times and whose languages are Hebrew and Syriac, in Arabic expressions. This shows that the quotations in the Qur’ān are transmitted in terms of meaning, not literally. That is, the wordings of quotations belong to God, the meanings of them belong to the speech of human beings. Fifth, in some verses, it is stated that a part of the Qur’ān is found in previous books. It is known that the Arabic verses of the Qur’ān are not found in the Torah, Bible and Psalms. In that case, the Qur’ān must be in the previous holy books in terms of meaning. Since God attributes the Qur’ān to the previous holy books in terms of meaning, it should be possible for divine quotations to be attributed to people other than God in terms of meaning. Sixth, in the Qur’ān, there are radical changes in wording, composition and style in the expressions transferred and imitated from archaic times, especially the stories of Moses and Iblīs. This shows that God changed the expressions while quoting from archaic times. In that case, when quoting the words of human beings, God must have made a spiritual interpretation, not a literal transmission.

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