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SKR-T Kursi

 

شرح آية الكرسي

[Tafsir] Sharḥ āyat al-kursī

("Commentary upon the `Throne-Chair Verse").

The important and much commented upon qur'ānic verse of the Chair (kursī) or Throne (`arsh), Qur'an 2:255 reads as follows:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ أَنفِقُواْ مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَ يَوْمٌ لاَّ بَيْعٌ فِيهِ وَلاَ خُلَّةٌ وَلاَ شَفَاعَةٌ وَالْكَافِرُونَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ اللّهُ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ لاَ تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلاَ نَوْمٌ لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الأَرْضِ مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ إِلاَّ بِإِذْنِهِ يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلاَ يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلاَّ بِمَا شَاء وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ وَلاَ يَؤُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ

"O believers, expend of that wherewith We have provided you, before there comes a day wherein shall be neither traffick, nor friendship, nor intercession; and the unbelievers -- they are the evildoers. God there is no god but He, the Living (al-hayy), the Everlasting (al-qayyūm). Slumber seizes Him not, neither sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. Who is there that shall intercede with Him save by His leave? He knows what lies before them and what is after them, and they comprehend not anything of His knowledge save such as He wills. His Throne comprises the heavens and earth; the preserving of them oppresses Him not; He is the All-high, the All-glorious" (trans. A. J. Arberry)

The Sharḥ āyat al-kursī = Tafsīr āyat al-kursī (Commentary on the Verse of the Pedestal [Chair = Throne] Qur'an 2:255) of Sayyid Kazim Rashti.

See Fihrist SK: ms. p. XX; Fihrist- Ibrahimi,  No. 270 p. 331; Nicholas 1914, No. 3 p.32.

The Sharḥ āyat al-kursī was apparently written in 7,000 verses when Sayyid Kāẓim was about 20 years old. A ms. copy can be found, for example, in School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS., London), Mss No. 92308, Item no. 8  [unpaginated], fols. Xa-Xb  No. 1141. Rashti claims at the outset of his `Commentary on the Throne verse' to be giving a deep mystico-philosophical exegesis expressive of the ta`wīl ("allegorical") and of the bāṭin ("Interior dimension") of this Qur'ānic verse. This work is an extended, several hundred page very complex  exegesis-eisegesis of the Throne Verse.

Mss and printed editions

  • [Tafsir] Sharḥ  āyat al-kursī ("Commentary on the Throne Verse", Q. 2:254). 19th cent. lithograph edition.
  • Sharḥ āyat al-kursī.

This first lithograph printing is the first item within the composite volume of the writings of Sayyd Kazim Rashti entitled Kitāb Sharḥ āyat al-kursī : wa ... Kitāb Sharḥ ḥadīth ʻImrān Ṣābī ; wa ... Kitāb Lawāmiʻ al-Ḥusaynīyah. Tabrīz: Add here,   1271/1854-5. Following a prescript, this work opens as follows:

شرح آية الكرسي
من مصنفات السيد الاجل الاوحد المرحوم
السيد كاظم بن السيد قاسم الحسيني الرشتي اعلي الله مقامه
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Commentary upon the "Throne Verse" (Āyat al-kursī = (Q. 2:255) from the compositions of the most glorious and unique, the late Sayyid Kāzim ibn Sayyid Qāsim al-Ḥusaynī al-Rashtī, (may God make his station sublimely transcendent).

in the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

الحمد لله الذي اجلي افئدة العارفين لتجليات ظهوره و انار قلوب السالكين لاشراقات نوره و شرح صدور العالمين لتشعشع لمعات بدوره و الصلوة علي سيدنا محمد الذي به استقر عرشه و كرسيه و هو الاسم الذي استقر في ظله فلايخرج منه الي غيره و هو الاسم الاعظم المكنون و النور الانور المخزون به نورت الانوار و به ظهرت الاسرار و به اشرق النور من صبح الازل و به وجدت الموجودات ما قل و جل و علي آله و اصحابه شموس الهدي و بدور الدجي و اعلام التقي و ذوي النهي و اولي الحجي و كهف الوري و ورثة الانبياء عليهم صلوات الله ما دامت الارض و السماء .

"Praised be unto God Who shed the splendor of His radiance upon the inmost hearts of the mystic knowers so as to actualize the disclosure of the orient lights of His theophany. He set ablaze the hearts of the mystic wayfarers through the orient splendors of His Light and explicated the inner retreats [bosoms] of all the worlds for the purpose of dazzlingly illuminating the radiances of His cyclic schemata.

And blessings be upon our Master [the Prophet] Muhammad through whom He settled down upon His Throne (`arsh) and His Seat (kursi) for he is the Name through the shadow of which eyes were solaced. Wherefore there did not emerge from before me aught save what is of Him for he [Muhammad] is the Hidden, Mightiest Name (al-ism al-a`zam) and the Light of Lights treasured up, the very one through whom the Lights found illumination. Through him were mysteries disclosed and Light irradiated from the Dawn of Eternity (subḥ al-azal). And through him did all existence find realization.... " (Trans. Stephen  Lambden)

FURTHER SELECT MSS AND PRINTED EDITIONS

Tafsīr Āyat al-kursī : buḥūth muʻammaqa  fī al-maḍāmīn wa'l-dalālāt li-maʻānī Āyat al-kursī

تفسير آية الكرسي : بحوث معمقة في المضامين والدلالات لمعاني آية الكرسي

  • Tafsīr Āyat al-kursī : buḥūth muʻammaqa  fī al-maḍāmīn wa'l-dalālāt li-maʻānī Āyat al-kursī. ed. ʻAbd al-Munʻim ʻImrān. 3 vols. In series Muʼassasat al-Muṣṭafá li-Iḥyāʼ al-Turāth, 7-9.  Beirut : Muʼassasat al-Muṣṭafá li-Iḥyāʼ al-Turāth : Dār al-Maḥajjah al-Bayḍāʼ, 2007.

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Some Extracts from the Tafsīr āyat al-kursī  (Commentary upon the verse of the Throne [= Q. 2:255]) of Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī .