WORD OF GOD

see also QUR'AN and JESUS

- conveyed into Mary, an-Nisa' 4:171

- read revelation. tradition is unrecited (read) revelation.

  > [Muhammad said:] "My sayings do not abrogate the word of God, but the Word of God can abrogate my sayings." (Mishkat Book I, Chapter 6, quoted by AAAH, p.65)

- revealed in seven recensions, (A Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, p.283). All lost except 2. For other unofficial versions belonged to Abd Allah b. Masud, Abu Musa, Abd Allah al Ashari and Mikdad b. Amr. For variants, refer to Itiqan and Fihrist (ibid, p. 277)

- sea as ink exhausted before God's word is exhausted, al-Kahf 18:109

- word from God, Âl 'Imran 3:45; an-Nisa' 4:171.
  An explanation:

  > `"The Word from Him" ie., the essence of the word, as one would say of a brave man, "the essence of bravery or generosity itself" The following traditions on the Messiah; so called because kept clear from the taint of sin, or anointed with oil like other prophets or at his birth, or touched by the wing of Gabriel when born, to avert tact of Satan. "Exalted in the world" by the rank and wonderful miracles and vindication from the accusation of the Jews, and "in the world to come" in virtue of his exalted place of God, intercession of his people and heavenly graces. "The Word from Him," the pronoun (Him) refers back to the "Word" just as the same pronoun "in his name" refers to the Messiah. Why then the pronoun is not of the same gender as "the Word" Because the person refered to is masculine.
  > (Fakhar al-Din Razi, quoted by W. Muir, Beacon of Truth, p.122, quoted by Abdul-Haqq, p.67)

  > But Abdul-Haqq says: "he [Razi] goes easy with the grammer and literal sense of the expression. Thus he refers the pronoun (Him -- masculine in form) to "Word" (Kalima -- feminine in form). It amounts to saying that the "Word was from the Word." To put it in other words, "Jesus, as it were, is the father of Jesus." (Abdul-Haqq, p.67, explaining W.Muir, ibid, p.123)

  > ``As opposed to the exegesis of Razi, another great commentator, Ibn Hazam, recognizes the evident meaning of the expression under review. He grants that Jesus Christ is the Word (Kalima) from God. But he goes on to say that this Word is a created being, not divine -- a position similar to the Arians. (Hirschfield, New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Quran, London, 1902, p.16, quoted by Abdul-Haqq, p.67)

- WORD OF GOD, compare with

  > In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

  > In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

  > ``The Quran is the word of God, and is His inspired word and revelation. It is a necessary attribute of Go. It is not God, but still is inseparable from God. It is written in a volume, it is read in a language, it is remembered in the heart, and its letters and its vowel points, and its writing are all created, for they are the works of men, but God's word is uncreated. Its words, its writing, its letters, and its verses are for the necessities of man, for its meaning is arrived at by their use, but the word of God is fixed in the essence of God, and he who says that the word of God is created is an infidel.'' (Abu Hanifa, Sunni Imam, in Kitab al-Wasiyah, p.77, quoted by Abdul-Haqq, p.62)

  > ``The Quran, the Law, the Gospel and the Psalter are books sent by Him to his apostles, and the Quran indeed is read with tongues, written in books, and kept in hearts: yet as subsisting in the essence of God, it doth not become liable to separation and division whilst it is transferred into hearts and papers.'' (Al-Ghazzali: quoted from Al-Maqsud al-Asna, Hughes' Dictionary, p.146, quoted by Abdul-Haqq, p.62)

  > ``Whatever proofs of the doctrine may have been brought forward later from the Quran itself, we can have no difficulty in recognizing that it is plainly derived from the Christian Logos and that the Greek Church, perhaps through John of Damascus, has again played a formative part. So in correspondence with the heavenly and uncreated Logos in the bosom of the Father, there stands the uncreated and eternal word of God; to the earthly manifestation in Jesus corresponds the Quran, the Word of God which we read and recite. (Muslim Theology and Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory, pp.146-147, as quoted by Abdul-Haqq, p.63)

  > ``Whenever God says..."The Lord spoke to Moses..." You must not imagine that the unbegotten God Himself came down or went up to any place. For the ineffable Father and the Lord neither has come to any place, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up, but remains in His own place wherever that is, quick to behold, quick to hear, having neither eyes nor ears, but being of indescribable might He see all things, and none of us escapes His observation, and He is not moved or confined to a spot, or in the whole world, for He existed before the world was made. How then could He talk with anyone, or be seen by anyone, or appear in the smallest portion of the earth, was sent from Him?... Therefore neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor any other man ever saw the Father and ineffable Lord of all...but [saw] Him who was according to His will His Son Being God and the angel...because He ministered to His will... who also was the fire when He conversed with Moses from the bush.'' (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, quoted by Abdul-Haqq, p.63)

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