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evelation 129In the above verse, the term kit§b is indefinite, ‘a book’, implyingthat in this instance the text does not refer to all revealed verses ofthe Book. It is qualified by the two adjectives ‘ambiguous’ (mutash§bih)and ‘repeated’ (math§nÊ), from which we infer that the book of sab#al-math§nÊ consists of both ‘ambiguous’ and ‘repeated’ verses. It provesonce more that sab# al-math§nÊ differs from al-qur"§n, because the qur"§nconsists only of ‘ambiguous’ verses. Moreover, the first line of theverse defines sab# al-math§nÊ as ‘most beautiful’ [or the ‘best narrative"],implying that the qur"§n is only ‘narrative’, whereas sab#al-math§nÊ is the ‘best narrative’.What, then, is sab# al-math§nÊ exactly? It contains the number seven(sab#a) and the adjective math§nÊ, ‘repeated’, and indeed it literallymeans ‘seven times twice-repeated’. But it also connotes the sense ofsomething that ‘holds two different things together’, ‘from two ends’or ‘two borders’. It points to the ability of connecting ‘one end tothe other’. Since each chapter of the Book has a beginning and anend, that is, is located between two borders, the term points us tothe chapters’ two ‘ends’. What we find there is what is conventionallycalled the ‘abbreviated’ or ‘disconnected’ letters ( al-muqaããa#§t).Interestingly, they occur in seven different combinations, which areas follows:1) Alif-L§m-MÊm-R§" (which also occurs as Alif-L§m-MÊm andAlif-L§m-R§), 2) Alif-L§m-MÊm-‘§d, 3) K§f-H§"-Y§"-#Ain-‘§d,4) Y§"-SÊn, 5) •§"-H§’, 6) •§"-SÊn-MÊm (which also occurs as•§"-SÊn), 7) \§"-MÊmThe so-called abbreviated letters, introducing their chapters, are correctlynumbered either as verse one or as one and two. It is either:a)Nån. By the [identification] [qalam] and the (record) which (men)write. [Al-Qalam 68:1]or b)\§-MÊm * #Ain-SÊn-Q§f. [Al-Shår§ 42:1–2]The second verse in b), in which the letters are both verse 1 and 2,demonstrates that these letters are not just cut off from the rest ofthe chapter, and should not be seen as cryptic initials or meaningless