ABSTRACT
O f the three principal Qur'anic dogmas, its Arabness, Eternity and Incomparability, the last is the most important and the most controversial. To those who doubted, even denied the truth of Mul).ammad's Prophethood, the Qur'an's Incomparability was the reply, it was the Prophet's miracle. As to what the incomparability,l the iJaz, consisted in, this is a question that has been asked and answered in a variety of ways in the course of the last fourteen centuries or so.2 Jumhur al-mufassir'in, however, have understood this Incomparability in literary terms, and the latest contribution on this issue has endorsed this conception of iJaz and has added the thought that the key to unlocking the secret of iJaz is the Sura of the Poets, (Q. 26) especially verse 226.3
/j;i:.J( /.~ ~"·"~"t,. ...:.; ,;.J ~~.i~rt"!.J
Those who have understood the Incomparability in literary terms went into great details illustrating various aspects and elements of this literary excellence. One of these elements was for some, FawiitilJ, al-Suwar, those mysterious alphabetical letters found at the beginning of 29 suras of the Qur'an.4 These FawatilJ" however, have proven to be related to iJaz in the literal sense, namely, they have reduced those who have tried to solve their problem to a state of helplessness. In spite of the many gallant attempts to understand these FawiitilJ, and in what sense they are part of the concept of Incomparability, no consensus has been reached on either score. Hence this article in a volume titled Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the
Qur'iin, hopefully as a contribution to a fresh understanding of these mysterious letters.
