Enigmatic / obscurative Ahsan ur Rehman (2013) claims that there are phonological, syntactic and semantic links between the prefixed letters and the text of the chapters.
Abd Allah ibn Abbas and
Abdullah ibn Masud, are said to have favored the view that these letters stand for words or phrases related to God and His Attributes. The original significance of the letters is unknown.
Tafsir (
exegesis) has interpreted them as abbreviations for either
names or qualities of God or for the names or content of the respective surahs. The general belief of most Muslims is that their meaning is known only to God. The Arabic word for "Gayab" is غَائِب (ghāʔib), meaning "absent" or "missing". In the context of Al-Ghayb (الغيب), it refers to the unseen, hidden, or concealed. It can also be used to describe something that is lost or vanished, divine, which is known as "Gayb".
Illustrative of the Qur'anic initial letters, The
Quran code argues that these letters are repeated in multiples of 19 in the relevant surahs and that this is beyond human ability (
miracle). There have been attempts to give
numerological interpretations. Loth (1888) suggested a connection to
Gematria.
Rashad Khalifa (1974) claimed to have discovered a mathematical code in the Qur'an based on these initials and the
number 19, namely the
Quran code or known as Code 19. According to his claims, these initials occur throughout their respective chapters in multiples of nineteen. The number 19 is directly mentioned in the 30th verse of
Surah Al-Muddaththir to refer to the 19 keeper angels of
Hell.
Explanatory ====
Acrophony / abbreviations==== Devin J. Stewart argues the letters are integral to the text and establish a rhyme and a rhythm, similarly to rhyming chants such as, intended to introduce spells, charms or something connected to the supernatural.
Christoph Luxenberg in
The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran (2000) proposed that substantial portions of the text of the Qur'an were directly taken from Syriac liturgy. His explanation of the disjoined letters is that they are remnants of indications for the liturgical recitation for
the Syriac hymns that ended up being copied into the Arabic text. In a series of interviews with
Sami Aldeeb, Luxenberg clarifies which sequence of letters are abbreviations of which phrase, among other things changing the commonly cited explanations of some verses. (see also:Location of early Islam /
Revisionist school of Islamic studies)
Ḥamiduddin Farahi similarly attaches
symbolic meanings to the letters, e.g. Nun (ن) symbolizing "fish" identifying the sura that mentions
Jonah, or Ṭa (ط) representing "serpent" introducing suras that mention the story of Prophet
Moses and serpents.
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, a classical commentator of the Qur'an, has noted some twenty opinions regarding these letters and mentions multiple opinions that these letters present the names of the Surahs as appointed by God. In addition, he mentions that Arabs would name things after such letters (for example, 'eye' as 'ع', clouds as 'غ', and whale as 'ن').
Amin Aḥsan Iṣlaḥi supported al-Razi's opinion, arguing that since these letters are names for Surahs, they are proper nouns.
Other theories Theodor Nöldeke (1860) advanced the theory that the letters were marks of possession, belonging to the owners of Qur'anic copies used in the first collection by
Zayd ibn Thābit during the reign of the
Caliph 'Uthmān. According to Nöldeke, the letters ultimately entered the final version of the Qur'an due to carelessness. Nöldeke later revised this theory, responding to Otto Loth's (1881) suggestion that the letters had a distinct connection with the mystic figures and symbols of the Jewish
Kabbalah. Nöldeke in turn concluded that the letters were a mystical reference to the archetypal text in heaven that was the basis for the revelation of the Qur'an. However, persuaded by Nöldeke's original theory,
Hartwig Hirschfeld (1902) offered a list of likely names corresponding to the letters. Keith Massey (1996), noting the apparent set ranking of the letters and mathematical improbability that they were either random or referred to words or phrases, argued for some form of the Nöldeke-Hirschfeld theory that the "Mystery Letters" were the initials or monograms of the scribes who originally transcribed the sūras. Though, Massey explains that "the letters, which appear alone (qaf, nun), may not have the same purpose as the collection themselves", he furthermore admits that the "Mystery Letters" in Surah 42 violate his proposed ranking-theory, thus offering 2 possible scenarios for his theory. assumes that the letters represent an import from
Biblical Hebrew. Specifically, the combination
Alif-Lam would correspond to Hebrew
El "god". Abbreviations from Aramaic or Greek have also been suggested. Bellamy (1973) proposed that the letters are the remnants of abbreviations for the
Bismillah. Bellamy's suggestion was criticized as improbable by
Alford T. Welch (1978). One Western mystical interpretation of the muqattaʿat is given by
Rudolf von Sebottendorf in his work
Die Praxis der alten türkischen Freimauerei; von Sebottendorf interprets them as
mantra-like formulas (
Formel) to be meditated upon (in association with certain gestures) during a set of elaborate meditation exercises. He claims that these exercises are the basis of
Freemasonry and
alchemy, and that they are practiced by a secret society of Sufis; Muhammad is said to have learned these exercises from a hermit named "Ben Khasi", taught them to the innermost circle of his successors, and incorporated them into the text of the Qur'an in order to preserve them unchanged in perpetuity.
Mystical inferences Ṣufis across Islamic sects have a tradition of
mystical interpretation of the Quran, in keeping with broader
Baṭini (esoteric) study and practice. The mysterious letters are a point of much speculation among Sufi scholars, particularly among those sects called the
Baṭiniyya. The details differ between schools of Sufism, but one interpretation regards the letters as an extension to the
ninety-nine names of God, with some authors offering specific "hidden" meanings for the individual letters. An
Ismaili ghulat sect known as
Ḥurufism, based on a
kabbalistic system of
letter-based and numerological mysticism, attributed especial importance to the mysterious letters. Although the Hurufis were widely regarded as a heretical
ghulat sect, and had little direct influence on Islamic theology, their ideas did have a wider impact on aesthetics and literature, as seen in the works of poets like
Nasimi,
Fuzuli, and
Shah Ismail I of Safavid Persia. In 1857–58,
Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the
Baháʼí Faith, wrote his
Commentary on the Isolated Letters (
Tafsír-i-Hurúfát-i-Muqattaih, also known as
Lawh-i-Áyiy-i-Núr,
Tablet of the Light Verse). In it, he describes how God created the letters. A black teardrop fell down from the Primordial Pen on the "
Perspicuous, Snow-white Tablet", by which the
Point was created. The Point then turned into an
Alif (vertical stroke), which was again transformed, after which the Muqatta'at appeared. These letters were then differentiated, separated and then again gathered and linked together, appearing as the "names and attributes" of creation. Baháʼu'lláh gives various interpretations of the letters "
alif, lam, mim", mostly relating to Allah, trusteeship (
wilayah) and the prophethood (
nubuwwah) of Muhammad. He emphasizes the central role of the
alif in all the worlds of God. He writes in an early commentary and in his ''
Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih'' (Seven Proofs) about a
hadith from
Muḥammad al-Baqir, the fifth
Shiʻi Imam, where it is stated that the first seven surat's muqaṭṭaʿāt have a numerical value of 1267, from which the year 1844 (the year of the Báb's declaration) can be derived.
In other religions One obscure tradition from medieval Judaism speaks to the origins of the mysterious letters. According to one text found in the
Cairo Genizah collection, the mysterious letters were added on the influence of Jewish elders on Muhammad, where the letters represented their names and other messages they created. ==Inventory==