50. Qaf [45 verses]
Mecca Period 34
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
50:1. Qaf.
C4939. This is an Abbreviated Letter. For Abbreviated Letters generally, see Appendix I.
This particular Abbreviated Letter Qaf occurs only here as a single letter, and in combination at the beginning of Surah 42, where I was unable to explain the full combination.
Here the Qaf is taken by several Commentators to represent Qudiyah al amr, “the matter has been,” with reference to the eschatological trend of the Surah. Allah knows best.
... وَالْقُرْآنِ الْمَجِيدِ ﴿١﴾
By the Glorious Qur'án (Thou art Allah's Messenger).
C4940. Majid (translated "Glorious") is one of the beautiful appellations of the Quran.
Its glory is that of the rising sun: the more it rises on your mental and spiritual horizon, the more you are lost in admiration of its glory.
Its meanings are manifest and inexhaustible. The greater your experience, the more light is your spiritual eye able to bear.
And in that glory is a beauty that none can tell who has not experienced it in his soul. It is in itself the proof of the mission of the Holy Prophet.
KNOWN only by the letter-symbol q (qaf) preceding the first verse, this surah appears to have been revealed in the fourth year of the Prophet's mission. Commencing and ending with a reference to the Qur'an, it is devoted in its entirety to the twin problems of death and resurrection.
In The Name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace:
50:1 Qaf CONSIDER this sublime Qur'an!
[[Asad’s note - 1 Chronologically, the above is the second occurrence (after surah 68) of one of the disjointed letter-symbols which precede some of the Qur'anic surahs. For the theories relating to these symbols, see Appendix II. As regards my rendering of the adjurative particle wa which opens the next sentence as "Consider", see first half of note 23 on 74:32, where this adjuration appears for the first time in the chronological order of revelation. ]]