Sūrat Al-Ikhlāṣ · 112 : 1

Q 112:1 in the tafsīr of Shaykh Ibrāhīm Niasse

هُوَ

Say: He is Allah, the One — 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-Ikhlāṣ begins at vol. 10, p. 223 (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.

6
loci in the corpus
3
distinct acts
1950 – 1964
attested span
3 of 6
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.

1950
1960
1950-1960Tafsīr maʿānī
March–April 1956al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya
1964Fī riyāḍ

Exegesis of the verse

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

Tafsīr maʿānī al-Qurʾān al-karīm

تفسير معاني القرآن الكريمtafsīr

1950-1960 · Wolof · cassette not identified · audio · compiled by Introduction by Ibrāhīm M. Diop, Niasse's personal secretary · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

Not located. Sixty-two cassettes of Wolof exegesis covering the whole Qurʾān, recorded 1950–1960 (ALA IV #72). The boxed set has never been located. This locus is listed because the cycle is complete, not because the passage has been found — and because Wolof, not Arabic, was Shaykh Ibrāhīm's normal language of delivery.

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. 8 · held at students’ request

Not yet ingested. aḥad indefinite because His unicity is hidden from creation save from ahl al-maʿrifa; al-Ṣamad definite because known even to the deniers (Q 29:61). lam yalid wa-lam yūlad negates being begotten BEFORE begetting, since the deniers claimed the latter and none claimed the former (Q 9:30; the Arab pagans on the angels). Then: aḥad is the trustee (amīn) the intellect seeks, al-Ṣamad the rich man (ghanī muthrī) desire seeks.

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

في رياض التفسير للقرآن الكريمtafsīr

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 56, ¶25 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 10, p. 223 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

هذا يجوز ولكن أحد الصمد هذا في اللغة العربية لا يجوز، فجاء أحد منكرا والصمد معرفا، لأن بينهما لفظ الجلالة "اللَّهُ أَحَدُّ اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ" والله تبارك وتعالى حيث أنه أحد وهو الصمد، وأحد لا يعرفه إلا أولوا الألباب، والصمد معروف عند الجميع فلهذا قال «هُوَ اَ۬للَّهُ أَحَدٌۖ اِ۬للَّهُ اُ۬لصَّمَدُۖ» (لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ اللّه تبارك وتعالى ليس له ولد، ولم يولد ليس له والد، حذر من مريم التي قيل إنها إله وهي ولدت عيسى، من يصح أن يخرج منه ولد لا يصح أن يكون إلها. ومريم ولدت عيسى ليست بإله "وَلَمْ يُولَدْ" حذر من عيسى، عيسى قالوا إنه إله وهو مولود ولدته مريم، من كان له والد فلا يمكن أن يكون إلها، فعيسى ليس بإله، «لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ» لِم لم يقل لم يولد ولم يلد والإنسان قبل أن يكون والدا يكون مولودا؟ إذاً كونه مولودا سبق كونه والدا والقرآن قدم لم يلد على لم يولد. الجواب أنهم ادعوا لله ولدا وما ادعوا قط له والدا فرد دعواهم قبل أن يذكر أن لا والد له. ادعوا أن لله ولدا وهم المدعون …

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Glossed in passing

A single interpretive equivalence, often a received one, rather than commentary proper.

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

الحكم القطبية المأخوذة من القلم السيرينبيةgloss

Shaʿbān 1375 / March–April 1956 · Arabic · al-Ḥikam al-quṭbiyya (ed. AK), p. 9 · held at students’ request

Not yet ingested. al-Ikhlāṣ is a third of the Qurʾān because the Qurʾān is command and prohibition, outward and inward, and ikhlāṣ is tawḥīd entire; al-Kāfirūn a quarter, negating worship of any other.

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 28, ¶77 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 5, p. 70 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

ألفا فداء من النار وعلمت صحة كشف الغلام أيضا1. هذه فداء من النار وكذلك عشرة آلاف من بسم اللّٰه الرحمن الرحيم وكذلك عشرة آلاف من قل هو اللّٰه أحد 2 وقال البكري وأيده شيخنا أن مرة واحدة من صلاة الفاتح فداء من النار 3 "ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُوتِيهِ مَن يّشَآءُ (وَيُضِلُّ اُ۬للَّهُ اُ۬لظَّٰلِمِينَۖ ) الكفار فلا يهتدون للجواب بالصواب بل يقولون لا ندري أما المسلم إذا سئل فيجيب ربي اللّٰه ومحمد نبيي والكعبة قبلتي والإسلام ديني والقرآن دليلي.

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Lesson 28 runs Q 13:19–Q 14:52. 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-textunbracketed quotation

1383 / 1964 · Arabic · Lesson 43, ¶133 · numbered by Ḥafṣ · lesson opens at vol. 8, p. 105 · the annual Ramaḍān cycle

محكمات ومتشابهات، محكمات هن أم الكتاب ومتشاهات، قسم محكم وقسم متشابه، والمتشابه لا يعلم معناه إلا اللّٰه والراسخون في العلم يقولون آمنا به، والمحكم هو أكثر القرآن، فيه شيء واضح لا يحتاج للتفسير مثل "فُلْ هُوَ اْللَّهُ أَحَدٌ" كل أحد يعلم معناه، وهذا كثير في القرآن؛ وفيه شيء يحتاج لمعرفة اللغة العربية والتأويل والتبحر في العلم والحديث والشريعة، فلهذا يفسَّر القرآن، هو كله متشابه وكله محكم وقسم منه محكم وقسم منه متشابه؛ فهو أحسن حديث يسمع، فكان الصحابة إذا اجتمعوا لا يفترقون إلا إذا تلي شيء من القرآن.

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Lesson 43 is titled by sūra rather than by āya, and its bounds (Q 37:145–Q 39:75) 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.

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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