Q 1:6 in the tafsīr of Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse

Show us the straight path — Pickthall

Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse (d. 1975) read the whole Qurʾān aloud at Medina Baye over fifty-six sessions between ẓuhr and ʿaṣr in Ramaḍān 1383/1964, and his students wrote those sessions down as Fī Riyāḍ al-Tafsīr. He comes back to the same āya elsewhere — in the fatwās, the Ḥikam, the poetry — decades apart. About the tafsīr →

In the printed edition: Sūrat Al-Fātiḥa begins at vol. 1, p. 46 (Tūnis 2022, 10 vols.)

The āya above is Warsh ʿan Nāfiʿ, the rasm of the printed edition. The root behind each underlined word comes from a Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim corpus, realigned to this Warsh text word by word; 125 of the 6,236 āyāt differ in word count between the two riwāyāt, and those were aligned rather than assumed. A word carries no underline where the corpus supplies no root. Lexicon entries are a reading aid and carry no page reference; the edition does not cite them. Page references elsewhere on this site follow the ten-volume Tunis 2022 printing this site was transcribed from; published scholarship on this text cites the six-volume Tunis 2010 printing, whose pagination is different.

loci in the corpus

distinct acts

1956 – 1964

attested span

3 of 4

text available

This verse across his life

Each mark is one work in which Shaykh Ibrāhīm engages this verse, placed by date of composition. Hollow marks are loci we know of but cannot yet show.

1960

March–April 1956al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya

1964Fī riyāḍ

Exegesis of the verse

Sustained interpretation of the verse as a verse — lemma, gloss, expansion.

al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya al-maʾkhūdha min al-qalam al-Sīrīnbiyya

الحكم القطبية المأخوذة من القلم السيرينبيةtafsīr

Shaʿbān 1375 / March–April 1956 · Arabic · al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya (ed. AK), p. 2 · held at students’ request

Not yet ingested. God did not say ṣirāṭ alladhīna qutilū wa-dhubiḥū. The objection from the four caliphs, all martyred though all prayed for ʿāfiya. Resolution: al-ʿāfiya huwa al-riḍā bi-l-qadar — not that the Master assist you in all you desire, but that you consent to every decree. al-maghḍūb ʿalayhim = the Jews, al-ḍāllīn = the Christians. NOTE the parallel four-caliphs excursus in Fī Riyāḍ vol. 1, pp. 56-59, on Q 2:3 (Wright 2024).

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمtafsīr

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 1, ¶55 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 1, p. 29 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

(إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ) شريعة، (وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينٌ) حقيقة، (إهْدِنَا الصِّرَطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ) دعاء، إِهْدِنَا الصِرَاطَ الْمُسْتَفِيمَ) طلب الهداية من اللّٰه تبارك وتعالى إلى الصراط المستقيم، والصراط المستقيم هو صراط الأنبياء والمرسلين قال ( صرْط ألذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ) الأنبياء فيهم من أنعم اللّه عليهم «اَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ اَ۬لنَّاسَ عَلَيٰ مَآ ءَات۪يٰهُمُ اُ۬للَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦۖ فَقَدَ اٰتَيْنَآ ءَالَ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ اَ۬لْكِتَٰبَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَءَاتَيْنَٰهُم مُّلْكاً عَظِيماࣰۖ» فيهم من أنعم اللّه عليهم فجمعوا بين الملك والنبوة، فيهم من ابتلاه اللّٰه ببلايا عظيمة، لو قال صراط الذين ابتلوا أو صراط الذين قتلوا أو صراط الذين ذبحوا لخاف العبد من هذا، ولكن تأليفا للعبد وتنشيطا له وتطييبا لخاطره قال صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم، ليس كل الأنبياء منعما عليهم، بعضهم مبتلى بأشد البلايا «مِّنَ اَ۬لنَّبِيٓـِٕۧنَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَآءِ وَالصَّٰلِحِينَۖ وَحَسُنَ أُوْلَٰٓئِكَ رَفِيقاࣰۖ» …

"You alone we worship"—this is law (sharīʿa). "You alone we call upon for aid"—this is mystical truth (ḥaqīqa). "Guide us to the Straight Path"—this is supplication. "The path of those upon whom You have bestowed Your grace"—this is narrative. "Not the path of those upon whom rests wrath, nor of those who go astray"—this is admonition and remembrance. "Guide us to the Straight Path"—he petitions Allah, Blessed and Exalted, for guidance to the Straight Path. The Straight Path is the path of the Prophets and Messengers. "The path of those upon whom You have bestowed Your grace"—the Prophets. Upon some of them Allah bestowed grace: "Or are they envious of people for what Allah has given them of His bounty? We gave the family of Abraham the Book and wisdom, and We gave them a great kingdom" (Q. 4:54). Upon some of them Allah sent trial with the gravest afflictions. Had it said "the path of …

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The verse used, not interpreted

Here the verse warrants a claim argued from other authorities. It is not the object of commentary.

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمproof-textunbracketed quotation

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 44, ¶26 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 8, p. 159 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

إلا قدما صوتت من طول القيام، أجاب نفسه: «يلِهِ أُلْوَاجِدِ الْقَهَارِ». سأل وأجاب نفسه كما أن العبد سأل وأجاب نفسه، قسمت الصلاة بيني وبين عبدي نصفين، نصف لي ونصف للعبد وللعبد ما سأل، "الْحَمْدُ لِلهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَلَمِيَ ألرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيم مَلِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّيِِّ إِيَّاتَ نَعْبَدُ وَايَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينَ" هذا لله تبارك وتعالى، وبقي للعبد "إهْدِنَا ألصِّرَطَ ألْمَسْتَقِيمَ صِرَط ألذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلا أْلضَّآلِينَ" والعادة إذا كان اثنان واحد يدعو والآخر يقول آمين، والمصلي يناجي ربه، الداعي هو المصلي، فلما قال ولا الضالين أجاب نفسه أيضا نائبا عن الحق فقال: آمين. كما أن الحق لما قال «لِمَنِ اِلْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمُ» قال «يلهِ اِلْوَاحِدِ ٱلْفَهَارِ» (اِ۬لْيَوْمَ تُجْز۪يٰ كُلُّ نَفْسِۢ بِمَا كَسَبَتْۖ لَا ظُلْمَ اَ۬لْيَوْمَۖ إِنَّ اَ۬للَّهَ سَرِيعُ اُ۬لْحِسَابِۖ) يحاسب جميع الخلق في قدر نصف نهار من أيام الدنيا لحديث بذلك [2]، قيل

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Lesson 44 is titled by sūra rather than by āya, and its bounds (Q 40:1–Q 41:46) are inferred from where the neighbouring sessions begin, so they are soft at the edges. This āya falls outside it. He quotes it here inside the commentary on another verse, which is why it is not filed as exegesis of this one.

The printing brackets no quotation here. A run of consecutive words in this paragraph — three at the shortest — occurs in one place in the muṣḥaf and nowhere else, and every āya lying inside that run is credited, so a run crossing a boundary attests both. Matching folds together the letter shapes the scan confuses, so the words need not stand in the āya exactly as printed.

Fī riyāḍ al-tafsīr li-l-Qurʾān al-karīm

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمproof-text

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 56, ¶56 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 10, p. 223 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

( نَسْتَعِين) قولوا ( إهْدِنَا ألصِّرَاط الْمُسْتَقِيمَ) اطلبوا من اللّٰه تبارك وتعالى الهداية على الصراط المستقيم (صِرَٰطَ اَ۬لذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ) أي صراط الأنبياء والصديقين والشهداء والصالحين، كما ذكر في سورة النساء. ذكر الإنعام تأنيسا للنفس لأنه لو ذكر غير الإنعام لخاف الإنسان، ولكن صراط المستقيمين فيهم من قتلوا، وفيهم من ذبحوا، وفيهم من

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Lesson 56 is titled by sūra rather than by āya, and its bounds (Q 112:1–Q 114:6) are inferred from where the neighbouring sessions begin, so they are soft at the edges. This āya falls outside it. He quotes it here inside the commentary on another verse, which is why it is not filed as exegesis of this one.

Read in the school

Not Shaykh Ibrāhīm’s words. Students and successors reading the same verse — kept below and apart, because a school’s reading is evidence of transmission, not of what the master said.

al-Qanābil al-yadawiyya fī l-dhabb ʿan ṭarīq al-ṣūfiyya

Muḥammad al-Mishrīالقنابل اليدوية في الذب عن طريق الصوفيةproof-text

rev. July 2018 · Arabic · Question 16 · tr. Saʿīd Simone Nardella & Adnan Wood-Smith · answered in writing

Until they reached fana’ in him and lost themselves Now I have said something whose meaning is distant, and Allah knows best where Ibrahim is and what Ibrahim is…The one being asked about it has no more knowledge than the one asking, 7 nor is he like him, nor close to him, nor with him in any da’irah. “He creates what you know not” (Qur’an 16:8), “It rests on Allah to show the right way” (Qur’an 16:9)…O Allah, “Guide us to the straight path” (Qur’an 1:6).

Muḥammad al-Mishrī, not Shaykh Ibrāhīm — the school reading, in a responsum. Question 16.

Entries are grouped by what Shaykh Ibrāhīm is doing with the verse, then ordered oldest first inside each group, so the same words can be seen carrying different work across a career. Every entry names the witness it comes from. Passages that are known but not yet available are listed rather than hidden. Beyond Fī Riyāḍ al-Tafsīr, 156 āyāt have so far been indexed from his other writings — the Ḥikam, the fatwās, Kāshif al-Ilbās, theQanābīl, the Tafsīr Maʿānī cassettes. A verse with nothing under this heading has not been searched in them and found wanting; it has not been searched.

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