Praise to God, who has sent from heaven the Koran, in the form of an
address of which the words are coherent and arranged in order, and
who has sent it in continuous chapters according to the demands of
necessity; who has willed that it should begin by expressing the praise
due to God, and end by recounting his power and protection; who has
included in it two kinds of revelations, the one obscure, the other
perfectly clear; who has divided the Koran into Suras, and the Suras
into verses, and has distinguished the different parts by divisions and
conclusions: qualifications which apply only to that which has been
created, and produced without a model, and could only be the attributes
of things which have had a beginning and recognize an author of whom
they are the work. Praise to him who has reserved to himself alone the
privilege of priority and eternity, and who has given to everything
save himself the characteristic of having been created.
Praise to him who has created the Koran, the sense of which is a light
to guide the spirit, the demonstrations of which are clear; like an
inspiration which blazons forth its proof and authentic title; like
a lecture written in the Arabic language, and free from all faults,
which is the key to open the treasures of all spiritual and temporal
blessings, and which confirms and witnesses the truth of all the Holy
Books which have preceded it; like a miracle which, alone among all
miracles, has existed during all the passage of the centuries, and a
book which, alone among all books, will be repeated in every language
and in every place.
By this book, he has shut the mouths of the most nobly born Arabs, in
that they are challenged to produce something to be compared with it,
he has rendered mute the most eloquent orators in that he has defied
them to imitate it. Amongst those who possess the greatest command of
the language in all its purity, no one has the enterprise to compose
anything which equals it, or even approaches it. No one of those who
are distinguished for their eloquence has dared to compete with him in
a single chapter equal to the shortest Sura included in the Koran. Yet
the orators of the land are more numerous than the pebbles of the Batha
valley and more plentiful than the grains of sand in the desert of
Dahna. The blood of patriotism has not boiled in their veins, and zeal
for the honor of their cause has not moved them to the undertaking,
although they are known to be naturally inclined to disputes and
quarrels, and ready to embrace with ardor and without moderation every
opportunity for rivalry and hostility; although when roused to fight
for the defense of their reputation, they are quick to face the gravest
dangers, and will plunge themselves into every excess to obtain the
object of their desires. If any one opposes their title to glory or
prevails against them, they oppose him in great numbers; if any one in
their hearing boasts of a glorious deed, they respond with a multitude
of glorious deeds.
God has employed against them two kinds of weapons, first the written
law, then the sword; but they have not challenged him to combat nor
attempted to cope with the sword, although the drawn sword is no more
than a trifling weapon, fitted only for badinage, if the strength of
authentic truth is not joined to the victorious point. Certainly, if
they have in no way put up even a semblance of resistance to the truth
which has been presented to them, it is simply because they know well
that the sea, released from its boundaries, would envelop and overflow
any mere well made by human hands; and the sun, by the brightness of
its fire, eclipses the light of all the stars.
May the favors of God shine on the most worthy of those who have
received revelations, on the friend of God, Abu'l-Kasem Mohammed,
son of Abd-Allah, son of Abd-Almotalleb, son of Haschem, whose
standard is raised amongst the descendants of Lowaiy; who has been
fortified by constant protection and assisted by wisdom, whose visage
radiates glory, and who shines with all the signs of nobility; on the
illustrious Prophet whose name has been inscribed in the Law and the
Gospel! May blessings fall also upon his sainted descendants, on those
successors to his authority who have with him the ties which are born
of marriage!
It is well known that, in the profundities of science and the
principles of the arts, there is little difference between the learned
of different classes. Those who practise the various arts are equal,
or nearly equal. If one professor outdistances another, it is only
by a few steps; and if one artist outstrips another, it is only by a
short distance. But where one sees a true difference among the classes,
where they make every effort to surpass each other, where there is true
emulation and rivalry, there one finds real inferiors and superiors,
of the sort that there is among those who pursue the same career from
incomprehensible distances, distances so great that one alone balances
a thousand others. There are, in the sciences as in the arts, the
beauties of certain delicate points; there are subtle thoughts which
arouse the wisdom of reflective spirits, profound, hidden secrets
covered with veils which very few men, even among those of the most
distinguished talent, can lift, secrets which can only be discovered
and brought to light by those who among men of merit are like the pearl
placed in the center of the necklace, and like the stone which is set
in the gold of the ring. Ordinary men have not the eyes to create such
excellences, and are as though chained to their seats by a servile
desire to imitate, and can not even flatter themselves that any one
will trim the hair from their foreheads[14] and give them freedom.
Of all the sciences, that which abounds in the most difficulties,
which demands the greatest effort in spirit, which offers the largest
number of problems capable of fatiguing the strongest intellect, I mean
those extraordinary subtleties from which it is difficult to extricate
oneself, which are locked as if in vaults, whose thread is cut and
difficult to regain—that science is the interpreting of the Koran.
It is a science for which, as has been said by Djahed in his work
entitled, "Composition of the Koran," no savants are fitted, and to
which they devote their lives without hope of complete success.
I have often noticed that my confrères in religion, men who hold the
foremost rank among the disciples of the true faith and law, men
exceptionally proficient in the knowledge of the language of the Arabs
and in the fundamental dogmas of religion, have been enthusiastic in
expressing their satisfaction and admiration every time that, consulted
by them for the interpretation of some passage of the Koran, I have
explained their difficulty and disclosed to them the truth which was
hidden from them. They expressed a keen desire for me to write a work
treating on the subject in all its phases. At last they joined in
begging me to dictate to them a commentary which should unveil all the
mysteries of the Holy Book, and help them to understand the different
explanations and opinions. I excused myself from doing as they desired,
but they continually renewed their pleading; and, to conquer my
resistance, they employed the mediation of the chief religious men,
and the most learned among those who professed doctrines of justice
and unity. I realized that it was obligatory upon me to defer to their
desires, so that I came to consider such a work as a personal duty
and task; but that which finally brought me to consent was that I
saw our age to be in a state of decay, and the men of our time to be
degenerating. I realized that far from being able to raise themselves
to worthy heights in the two sciences of thought and exposition, they
were not even capable of attaining to those weaker means which serve as
instruments in the interpretation of the Koran. I therefore resolved to
write this book that it might be for them The Discoverer of Truth.