Yusuf 12:1 - Linguistic Miracle

Alif Laam Ra. Those are verses of the Mubeen Book

Alif Laam Ra

The meaning of these letters is not clear to me yet as I begin this Surah. Perhaps, after going through this Surah their meaning will become clear. I will come back to it when I complete this Surah In sha Allah but based on the Surahs which start with the same letters Alif Laam Ra, there is a common theme and that is that all of these Surahs mention the stories of previous prophets to make their central point. You can see that in the name of the Surahs as well. Surah Yunus, Hud, Ibrahim and this Surah - also named after a Prophet - start with the letters Alif Laam Ra. The central theme of all of these Surahs is to make their central points by taking the stories of the previous prophets as evidence.

Next, the ayah says "Those" are the verses of the Mubeen book - not "these." It uses the demonstrative pronoun for an object which is far away. In Arabic, you can point to something as being far away even when it is near to indicate its high status and loftiness and this is the case here as well. The demonstrative pronoun in this verse indicates the high and lofty status of the verses being recited.

Next, The demonstrative pronoun 'those' refers back to the Mubeen book. Mubeen comes from the root Ba Alif Nun which means to separate things from each other and Mubeen means something that causes this separation. Hence the verse is 'Those are verses of the book that separates', but separates between what? This will be clarified in the next verses.

Book in this verse refers to this Surah. The word Kitaab - translated as book- means anything that is written down. This refers to the writing down of this Surah in the preserved tablet that contains the Quran, and it is also a declaration that the Quran shall eventually take on a written form. Something getting written down implies strong, sound and correct transmission of it. This Surah was revealed in early stages of revelation and it is already declaring that the Quran and this Surah, will take on a written form and be transmitted soundly from one person to another and from one generation to another, giving a subtle hint to those who paid attention that the Quran is telling the Prophet that his enemies who seek to defeat, humiliate and kill him will not succeed and he will succeed in his mission and the Quran will be completed and passed down generation after generation. It is quite interesting that the brothers of Yusuf in this Surah have the same intentions regarding Yusuf as the Quraysh and Makkans had regarding Muhammad. So just as the brothers of Yusuf were defeated, so shall the Quraysh be defeated. This is a prophecy and we will see at the end of the Surah that Allah will state this explicitly and draw a parallel not only between the brothers of Yusuf and the Makkans; but also between between Yusuf and Muhammad; two brothers in revelation. And it is no wonder that when the Prophet defeated the Quraysh and conquered Makkah, He stood up and said the same words to Quraysh as what Yusuf said to his brothers:

قَالَ لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ ۖ يَغْفِرُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۖ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ

He said, ´No reproach this day shall be on you; Allah will forgive you; He is the most merciful of the merciful.