The treasures of Surah Al – Kahf: the cave “Episode 3: Appearances and Reality; VS1-3 »
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- Episode 3: Appearances and reality; VS1-3
– one of the advances of our Literal exegesis of the Koran is to have highlighted that each of the suras whose text is sufficiently ample, up to Sura 90 included, includes an introduction constituted by its first verses. However, the purpose of these introductions is to provide the theme that is specific to each sura. This explains that in our Literal translation of the Koran The theme is indicated just below the title. This notion of theme is fundamental since all sura is conceived as development. The theme of a sura therefore provides the common thread, the major understanding of understanding, that of sura 18 is: Appearances and reality.
Here is an extract from our Literal exegesis of the Koran(1) As for this chapter II. The text of this passage is given according to our Literal translation of the Koran(2) published in 2024:
– Introduction
- Praise is to God, He who revealed to his servant the text and who has not instituted ambiguity, in no way,
- perfectly straight so that he warns of an inflexible rigor on his part and makes good announcement to the believers who work in good: they will be present,
- forever resting.
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– ” Praise is to God, He who revealed to his servant the text and who has not instituted ambiguity, in no way “, V1.
By ” Praise is to God It is not a question here of thanking God, but of recalling that the very creation of the heavens and the earth generates the Universal praise :: Al –ḥamd which, in this sense, is as much praise coming from God as praise returning to God, on this point cf. La Fâtiha, V2. This verse has the particularity of considering the theme of Surah: Appearances and reality According to an approach comparable to semi-hermeneutic theory, cf. Our methodological article: The three intentions. (3)
– Indeed, the intentions of the three “actors” in question carrying out the meaning of a text are currently involved.
– Firstly: what is called the author’s intentionhere God: ” He who revealed ” THE ” Text/Al – KithasB “Qualified as” perfectly straight “, V2. It is therefore postulated that the text revealed is in perfect adequacy with the intention of the author.
– second: what is called the intention of the texti.e. The text as it gives itself to be read in accordance with the intention of the author. Its intelligibility depends on the rigor of the statement, so according to its quality of writing it may be that a text said more, or less, that the author wanted to mean. Regarding the Koran, ” the text/Al – Kitāb “(4), God specifies that his text is without” ambiguity/‘iwaj ». The term ‘iwaj means torturewhich technically is understood as indicating that ” the text Is not equivocal, i.e. univocal,, unambiguously. In other words, the intention of the text is perfectly assimilated for the author’s intention. These are The univocity of the KoranSecond of the Koranic postulates leaving our literal analysis of the Koran. (5)
– Third, reader’s intentionit can be guessed in the hollow of the indication: ” and who (God) is not established of ambiguity ». The text being unequivocal, this implies that at the very moment of reading the text if the reader deduces a meaning which is not that of the statement, itself faithful to the intention of the author, is that it is then an interpretation due to the only reader. Interpretations and overinterpretations are therefore only the intention of the reader.
– It is through this introduction that the theme of Surah is discussed, namely that our interpretations are responsible for the difference between appearances and their realities. If the real meaning of what is apparent escapes us, it is because believing that we understand it, we interpret it, and the question of the hermeneutics of our being in the world is here central. Thus, the Part I,, VS4-44is devoted to the appearances and reality of the facts which we dismiss ourselves by our interpretative speculations, the account of Caverne companions perfectly illustrates this. There Part II,, VS45-59on the other hand, deals with the aspect of our world with regard to the reality of the other. There Part IIIV60-98, takes up the theme of Part I from a purely hermeneutic angle and teaches that our understanding of appearances is most often wrong due to our interpretation and that the real or first meaning, the ta’wīL Apparent facts escapes us, V78 And V82since an interpretation is not the search for causes, but consequences, the two stories of Moses are the exemplative model.
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Dr Al Ajamî
(1) For our Literal exegesis of the Korancf. https://www.alajami.fr/ouvrages/
(2) For our Literal translation of the Korancf. https://www.alajami.fr/produced/le-coran-le-message-a-lorigine/
(3) Cf. The theory of three intentions and literal sense: https://www.alajami.fr/2020/07/03/la-theorie-des-trois-intentions-et-le-texte-coranique/
(4) Regarding the Koran, for ” the text »Put for Al – Kitābsee volume 1 of our literal exegesis at S2.V2.
(5) On this methodological point, cf. The five Koranic postulates of the literal sense : https://www.alajami.fr/2018/01/22/les-cinq-postlats-coraniques-du-sens-litteral/#:~:Text=USS%20nomMes%20donc%20ces%20CRCRI%C3%A8res,que%20l’on%20Doive%20interpr%C3%A9ter.
