'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : and on his authority>'abdullah ibn al-mubarak>'ali ibn ishaq al-samarqandi>muhammad ibn marwan>al-kalbi>abu salih that ibn 'abbas said, concerning allah's saying, exalted is he, (alif. lam. mim): 'alif stands for allah, lam for the archangel gabriel (jibril) and mim for muhammad. it is also said alif stands for allah's blessings (ala'uh), lam for his kindness (lutfuh) and mim for his dominion (mulkuh). it is also said that alif stands for the beginning of the name allah, lam for the beginning of his name the kind (al-latif) and mim for the beginning of his name the glorious (al-majid). it is also said that only allah knows the meaning of these disjointed letters; while some maintain that it is an oath that he made.
Sahl al-Tustari
تفسير : alif lām mīmsahl said:alif lām mīm is a name of god, mighty and majestic is he, and within it are meanings and attributes that people of understanding (fahm) know, not to mention the many meanings that it holds for the people of outward [knowledge]. if these letters are read separately, alif stands for god’s assembling [things in their creation] (taʾlīf), mighty and majestic is he, for he brought together all things as he willed. the lām stands for his pre-eternal grace (luṭfuhu al-qadīm) and the mīm stands for his great glory (majduhu al-ʿaẓīm).sahl said:each book that god, exalted is he, sent down contains a secret, and the secret of the qurʾān is contained within the letters which open the sūras, because they are names and attributes, such as when he says alif lām mīm [2:1; 3:1; 29:1 and 31:1], Ṣād [38:1], alif lām rā [10:1; 11:1; 13:1; 14:1 and 15:1], kāf Ḥā yā ʿayn Ṣād [19:1], tā sīn mīm [26:1 and 28:1], Ḥā mīm [41:1], ʿayn sīn qāf. when these letters are brought together they make up the greatest name of god — that is, if a letter is taken from each [group] of the opening letters of the sūras, one after the other in the order that the sūras were revealed, that is, alif lām rā, Ḥā mīm, and nūn, they form the divine name al-raḥmān.’ ibn ʿabbās and Ḍaḥḥāk, on the other hand, said that alif lām mīm means ‘i am god and i know’; while ʿalī <img border="0" src="images/radeyallahanhom.jpg" width="24" height="22"> said that these are names [in the form of] ‘disconnected’ [letters], but if a letter is taken from each of the opening groups of letters, on the condition that it is not the same as the letter adjacent to it, and then they are assembled, they form one of the names of the merciful. if this name is known and used in supplication, it will be the mightiest name by which the prayer of the supplicant who uses it will be answered.sahl said:in the words alif lām mīm, ! that book [2:1–2], alif stands for god (allāh), lām stands for the servant (ʿabd), and mīm stands for muḥammad <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22">. so, [through these letters] the servant may gain access to his master from the position of affirming his oneness (tawḥīd) and by followingthe example of his prophet. sahl further said:i received [a tradition] on the authority of ibn ʿabbās according to which he said: ‘god, exalted is he, has sworn that this book which was revealed to muḥammad <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22"> is the book from god’s presence, exalted is he. so he said: alif lām mīm, that book... [in these words], alif stands for god (allāh), lām stands for gabriel <img border="0" src="images/alyhialsalam.jpg" width="34" height="19"> and mīm stands for muḥammad <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22">, thus god, exalted is he, has taken an oath by himself, by the angel gabriel <img border="0" src="images/alyhialsalam.jpg" width="34" height="19"> and by muḥammad <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22">.’he also said:god, exalted is he, extracted from his greatest name [allāh] the letters alif, lām and hāʾ and said: indeed i am god, the lord of the worlds [28:30], and for [his creatures’] sake he derived a name from among his names and made it the name of his prophet <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22">, and he derived from the end of the name of his prophet <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22"> the name of his prophet adam <img border="0" src="images/alyhialsalam.jpg" width="34" height="19">. thus he says: that is because god is the patron [or friend] of those who believe, and those who disbelieve have no patron [47:11] — except the devil, that is, satan.
