Question: I
have a query about the names of Qur’anic surahs. I have come to
note that the name of a surah usually has no link with its contents.
This is indeed quite strange. Please clarify.
Answer: Most
surahs of the Qur’an were named by the Prophet (sws) and
some by his companions. Being Arabs, they naturally followed the Arab tradition
in this regard. According to this tradition, the Arabs would name some
of their literary compositions after some unique or conspicuous word found
within the text of these compositions. Generally, this word had no relation
to the overall theme.
Suyuti, while recording the
opinion of Zarkashi writes:
The general Arab custom of naming things was that they
would name things after some unique or unusual characteristic that may
be intrinsic or extrinsic to a particular thing … they would name writings
and compositions after some prominent aspect the work possessed. The surahs
of the Qur’an were also named on this basis. For example Surah
Baqarah is so called because of the cow incident mentioned in it. (Suyuti,
Itqan Fi ‘Ulumi’l-Qur’an, 2nd ed., vol. 1, [Qum: Manshurat,
1967], p. 197)
While sometimes the word selected for
the title of the surah is the very first word of the surah,
mostly this word is from within the surah. Examples of the former
are Taha (20), Yasin (36), Rahman (55), Nazi‘at
(79), and of the latter are Baqarah (2), Ma’idah (5),
An‘am (6), Nur (24), Shu‘ara (26), Zukhruf (42),
Hadid (57) and Ma‘un (107).
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