Luqman (Luqman)
Verse 1 - 4
Table of Contents
No. 31 (Revealed in Mecca)
34 Verses in 4 Sections
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful
This is one of Meccan Suras, and it is called Luqman because of the existence of Luqman’s name in this Surah. It is among the sixth Suras which begin with abbreviated letters: A.L.M.
The content of Surah Luqman can be summarized briefly in the following instances:
1- The statement of the greatness and importance of the Holy Qur’an concerning the guidance of humankind.
2- The division of human beings into the benevolent and the tyrant, and the statement of their fate.
3- The advice and wise teachings of Luqman to his son.
4- The reasons for the Faith in Origin and Resurrection.
5- The statement of Allah’s particular knowledge, such as: the time of every one’s death and the time of the occurrence of Resurrection.
The Virtue of the Surah
We recite in a tradition narrated from Imam Muhammad Baqir (as) that he said:
“Whoever recites Surah Luqman at night Allah ordains thirty angels to protect him during the night until morning from Satan and his army, and if he recites it in daytime these angels protect him from Satan and his army until evening.”
We have repeatedly said, and now we emphatically say again, that the recitation of a Surah as the cause of these many virtues, divine rewards, and honour is for the sake that recitation is a preliminary for contemplation, and a thinking which in turn is a preliminary for action. Therefore, we must not expect those abundant virtues for a mere recitation.
Section 1: Qur’an, a Guidance and Mercy for the Righteous
Surah Luqman - Verses 1-4
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ الم (1) تِلْكَ آياتُ الْكِتابِ الْحَكِيمِ (2) هُدیً وَ رَحْمَةً لِلْمُحْسِنِينَ (3) الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلاةَ وَ يُؤْتُونَ الزَّكاةَ وَ هُمْ بِالْآخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ (4)
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful
1. “Alif, ‘A’, Lam, ‘L’, Mim ‘M’.”
2. “These are the verses of the Book of Wisdom.”
3. “A guidance and a mercy for the righteous ones,”
4. “Those who establish prayer and pay the poor-rate and they are certain of the Hereafter.”
Twenty nine Suras of the Qur’an begin with abbreviated letters in twenty four of which the greatness of the Qur’an has been stated after those letters which denote that this Qur’an has been compiled out of these very letters that are before you, but none of you can bring the like of it. It contains such a high and great content that practicing it may totally change the man’s fate.
Most of writers have not find their books empty of deficiency and, therefore, have apologized to the readers for those deficiencies and faults and they do accept the new suggestions and proper critics, but it is only Allah who, concerning His Book, explicitly says:
“The Book of Wisdom. It is a firm and unchangeable Book which has no deficiency and defect in it.”
Therefore, next to the abbreviated letters, it says:
“These are the verses of the Book of Wisdom.”
The word /tilka/ in Arabic is used for a distanced thing and, as it has repeatedly been said, this application is specially metonymy and refers to the greatness and importance of these verses, as if they were in high skies and in a very far point.
The Arabic word /kitab/ (Book) here being qualified by the Qur’anic term /hakim/ (wisdom) is either for the firmness of its content, because by no means falsehood penetrates in it, and it is aloof of any superstition, and it says naught but the Truth, and it does not invite save to the Truth. It is exactly opposite to /lahwul hadiθ/ (idle talk) which will be dealt with in later verses.
Or it is in the sense that this Qur’an is like a wise learned man who, in his silence, usually speaks with thousand different tongues, instructs others, admonishes, encourages, warns, tells instructive stories and, shortly speaking, possesses wisdom and statement with complete meaning.
This introductory meaning has a direct relation with the words of Luqman, the wise, which are referred to in this Surah.
Of course, there is no problem that both of the meanings of /hikmat/ are meant in the above verse.
The next verse states the ultimate aim of the descent of the Qur’an by saying:
“A guidance and a mercy for the righteous ones,”
‘Guidance’ is, in fact, an early preparation for Allah’s mercy, because, at first an alert man finds the fact under the light of the Qur’an and believes in it and then he uses it in his actions and after that he will be involved in the endless Divine bounties and His All-Embracing Mercy.
It is noteworthy that here the Holy Qur’an is counted as the source of guidance and mercy for the righteous and at the beginning of Surah An-Naml, No. 27, verse 2, the Qur’an implies it is the source of guidance and glad tidings for the believers:
“A guidance and glad tidings for the believers”,
and at the beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2 verse 2, it qualifies the Qur’an as:
“…a guidance to the pious ones”.
This very difference of statements may be for the sake that without piety and righteousness the soul of submission and accepting the facts will not become active in man and naturally there will not be any guidance for him.
Next to this stage, i.e. the stage of accepting the truth, there comes forth the stage of being faithful in which, besides ‘guidance’, the glad tidings to Divine bounties will also exist.
And when we pass the stages of piety and faith, we reach the stage of righteous deed where the mercy of Allah will be added.
Thus, the above mentioned verse reiterates three stages of development of the servants of Allah one after another: the stage of accepting the truth, the stage of having faith, and the stage of righteous action, and in these three stages the Qur’an is sequentially the source of: “guidance”, “glad tidings”, and “mercy”. / (Be careful)
The next holy verse qualifies the righteous ones with three qualifications. It says:
“Those who establish prayer and pay the poor-rate and they are certain of the Hereafter.”
Their link with Allah is through prayer, with the servants of Allah by means of paying poor-rate, and their certainty to the court of Judgment in Hereafter is a powerful motive for avoiding from sin and for fulfilling the duties.