Abstract
Holy Qur’an is a divine book which human beings have been incapacitated to bring its similar version since it started to be revealed. This is explained as the miraculous feature of Qur’an. Since IV century Hegira, numerous miraculous aspects of Qur’an have been found; and they have been investigated in exegesis books and especially independent works called ‘I’jazu’l-Qur’an’ (Miraculous aspects of Qur’an). The scholars, who carry out studies on ‘I’jazu’l-Qur’an’, have not been able to reach a consensus on what aspect of Qur’an is miraculous. On one hand, some scholars state that there are three, seven or ten miraculous features in Qur’an, the others increase them up to forty on the other. These opinions have been formed around issues such as sarfe, the feature of Qur’an informing about invisible and unknown news, its extraordinary statement style, and provisions that it established for dissemination, and its announcement by an illiterate prophet, and its scientific issues.
According to some of Islamic scholar, one of the features that exhibit the Miraculous and tehaddî (challenging) aspects of the Qur’an is the the cut letters/al-huruf al-muqattaa, at the beginning of some surahs. The disjointed letters take place at the beginning of 29 surahs either as a verse or as the beginning of a verse; and they are the letters, which consist of one or more letters, and are read as they are named. This term is mostly used in Turkish as hurûf-ı-mukattaa or mukattaa. These letters are also called as hurûf-ı teheccî, hurûf-ı mübheme, hurûf-ı mu’cem and hurûf-ı mebânî. The letters in question are also named as fevâtihu’s-suver or evâilu’s-suver since they make the first letters of some surahs. There is a consensus among the scholars that the disjointed letters are of muteshabihat. However, there is disagreement about what they mean, and to some scholars it is impossible to know the meaning of the disjointed letters. On the other hand, many other scholars said that these letters convey some meanings; and these scholars have put forth several opinions about the meanings they point out. To summarize these opinions, while some scholars state that each of hurûf-ı mukattaa is a symbol and can be the names of Qur’an surahs containing them, some other scholars claim that each of these letters are for oath or they exhibit the names of Allah. The aim of the disjointed letters mentioned in Qur’an is to attract attention to Holy Qur’an, and to point out that it is miraculous, and challenge human beings to bring its similar and to prove that Qur’an is speech of Allah.
The disjointed letters in question are seen as one of the beyânî i’câz of Qur’an. As a result, the scholars, who work in various fields such as I’jazu’l-Qur’an, Mecâzü’l-Qur’an, Nazmü’l-Qur’an, Muşkilü’l-Qur’an, have mentioned both miraculous aspects of the disjointed letters in surahs and their connections and relations with surahs, which expresses the beyânî i’câz of Qur’an. When the beyânî i’câz of these letters and the relations and connections of these letters with verses coming after them and the surahs in which they are mentioned the surahs which start with them are examined, it is possible to conclude these results briefly: 1. Since there is a mutual relationship between Qur’an and the disjointed letters, it is clear that the miraculous aspect of Qur’an is more emphasized by mentioning Qur’anic verses after these letters. 2. When the surahs starting with the disjointed letters are examined, it is seen that there is a close connection between these letters and the content of surahs. 3. It is remarkable that the letters taking part in the category of the disjointed letters have close relationship with the general content of the surahs in which they are mentioned both in terms of vocabulary and in terms of meaning. 4. When we study the surahs of Baqarah, Yûnus, Hûd in which tehaddî (challenging) verses are mentioned and which start with the disjointed letters, we can see a close relationship between the beginning of these surahs which start with the disjointed letters and before mentioned tehaddî verses. All these also emphasize the miraculous aspect of Qur’an.
In this article, ‘beyânî i’câz of the disjointed letters are studied. Initially, the miraculous and tehaddî aspects of the disjointed letters are investigated; after that, the relations of these letters with the content of the surah are examined.