booke

evelation 123And all things have We preserved on record [in a book] [kit§b an ] 8 .( Al-Naba" 78:29)The definite term al-kit§b, the Book, refers to the entire body of allsubject matters that exist. The Book has been revealed in individual‘books’ to MuÈammad (ß), but these books are scattered throughoutthe text. Books have been revealed as ‘words’ with ‘meaning’, thusrepresenting the complete textual corpus ( al-mußÈaf )—from the firstSårat al-F§tiÈa to the last one, al-N§s. The indefinite term kit§b, abook, refers therefore only to one subunit within the larger unit of‘the book’; kit§b an mutash§bih an (39:23), for example, the book of ambiguousverses, does not refer to the entire revelation (i.e., the Book) butonly to a smaller component of it. Humankind explores the universethrough the study of these verses. The same applies to kit§b un uÈkimat§y§tihi (11:1), the ‘book whose verses are definite’, which covers onlythe definite part of the Book. The believers explore the etiquette ofhuman behaviour through the study of these verses.A look at verse 3 of Sårat $l #Imr§n reveals what exactly is coveredby the term al-kit§b:He it is who has sent down to you the book [ al-kit§b]: In it are versesbasic or fundamental (of established meaning) [§y§t muÈkam§t]; they arethe foundation of the book [umm al-kit§b] 9 —others are [ambivalent][mutash§bih§t]. 10 But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part8Again, YA’s translation avoids rendering kit§b an as a ‘book’, so does AH:‘We have recorded everything in a Record’ and AB: ‘We have recorded all things inwriting’; but not MF: ‘Everything We have enumerated fully in a Book’; and AA:‘everything We have numbered in a Book’; MP: ‘Everything We have recorded in aBook’; AhA: ‘We have kept account of every thing in a book’ (notice the small letterfor book which reflects MS’s understanding that such a book is not the Book).9Lit. ‘Mother of the Book’; this is how it will be translated forthwith.10YA contrasts ‘verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning)’ with ‘otherverses that are allegorical’, which is not what MS intends; similar AhA: ‘and othersallegorical’ (in contrast to ‘categorical’) and MP: ‘and others (which are) allegorical’(in contrast to ‘clear revelations’). The other translators regard the verse as indicatinghermeneutically two different categories of verses, AB: ‘and others which are open tointerpretation’ (in contrast to ‘clear judgements’); MF: ‘and others which are ambiguous’(in contrast to ‘precise in meaning’); AH: ‘and others are ambiguous’ (in contrastto ‘definite in meaning’); AA: ‘and others ambiguous’ (in contrast to ‘versesclear’). All translations, however, do not acknowledge a semantic difference betweenwa-ukhar u mutash§bih§t un (some others, i.e., other than these that are ambiguous) andal-§khir mutash§bih§t (the others are ambiguous) and render the former expression (of3:7) as containing the meaning of the latter (which is not in 3:7). MS, in contrast, seeshere a reference to another type of verse other than ambiguous and definite. It