Third Topic

“Alif. Lām. Mīm.” indicate the ultimate conciseness, which is the second of the two principles of [the Qur’an’s] miraculousness. This topic comprises a number of fine points.

First: “Alif. Lām. Mīm.” indicate, allude to, hint, intimate, and suggest the [following] successive parabolic analogy (al-qīyās al-tamthīlī al-mutasalsil): “This is the pre-eternal speech of Allah, which Gabriel brought down to Muhammad (Peace and blessings be upon them both).” For sometimes the ordinances laid down in the whole Qur’an are set out in summary in a single long sura; and sometimes a long sura is represented allusively in a short one; and sometimes a short sura is included symbolically in a single verse; and sometimes a verse is indicated in a single sentence; and sometimes a sentence is hinted at in a single word; and sometimes too such a comprehensive word may be discerned in the disjointed letters, like in Sīn. Lām. Mīm. Similarly, the whole Qur’an may be discerned in Sūra al-Baqara; and al-Baqara in Sūra al-Fātiḥa; and al-Fātiḥa in “Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm;” and “Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm” in a chiselled or sculpted “Bismillāh.” The same goes for “Alif. Lām. Mīm.” On the strength of this successive parabolic comparison, and as indicated by “This is the Book,” manifested from “Alif. Lām. Mīm.” [is the meaning]: “This is Allah’s pre-eternal speech, which Gabriel brought down to Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace).”

Second: The Disjointed Letters are divine cyphers communicated by [the Most High] to His Messenger, who holds the key, to which the human mind has not yet attained.

Third: “Alif. Lām. Mīm.” show the acute intelligence of the one to whom they were revealed, for he understood what was only allusive, symbolic, and obscure as though it were explicit and clear.

Fourth: The disjointing of these letters indicates that the value of the letters lies not in their meanings but in their natural mutual relationships, like the relationships between numbers. The science of the hidden properties of letters (‘ilm asrār al-ḥurūf) has discovered these relationships.

Fifth: In particular, “Alif. Lām. Mīm.” indicate by their being disjointed the three main points of articulating sound: the throat, the mouth, and the lips. And this in turn infers that the attention will be caught and the veil of familiarity rent, driving one to study the wondrous colours of the embroidery of the letters’ creation.

You who is washed in the colours of the art of eloquence! Assemble the