ALIF LAM RA. These are the verses of the Book and the perspicuous oration.
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : and from his chain of transmitters on the authority of ibn 'abbas that he said in explanation of allah's saying (alif. lam. ra.): '(alif. lam. ra.) he says: i am allah, and i see; it is also said that this is an oath, allah swore by the alif and by the lam and by the ra. (these are verses of the scripture) this surah consists of verses from the scripture (and a plain reading) he says: i swear by the qur'an which makes plain the lawful and the prohibited, the commands and prohibitions.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : alif lām rā’: god knows best what he means by these [letters]. those — these verses — are the verses of the book, the qur’ān (āyātu’l-kitābi: this annexation functions in the sense of min, ‘from’) and of a manifest qur’ān, one that makes evident what is truth and what is falsehood (wa-qur’ānin mubīnin is [made up of] a supplement with an added adjectival qualification).
