Thaqalayn
Thaqalayn (Arabic: ثَقَلَین or ثِقْلَیْن) refers to the Qur'an and the Prophet’s Household. In the Hadith of Thaqalayn, the Prophet Muhammad (s) recommended adherence to both. The expression is derived directly from this hadith.
In Arabic, "thiql" means "burden,"[1] thiqal denotes "heaviness,"[2] and thaqal signifies a "valuable possession."[3] Hence, thaqalayn is interpreted as "two precious things." The Qur'anic term thaqalān appears in verse 31 of Qur'an 55, where most exegetes understand it as referring to humankind and jinn.[4] Some, however, interpret it as the Qur'an and the Prophet's progeny. [5]
According to the hadith, the Prophet (s) entrusted his community with these two weighty legacies—the Qur'an and his Household—so that by adhering to them they would not go astray.[6] In some versions, he (s) refers to the Qur'an as the greater weight (thaqal al-akbar) and the Ahl al-Bayt (a) as the lesser weight (thaqal al-asghar).[7]
Notes
- ↑ bn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, vol. 11, p. 85.
- ↑ bn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, vol. 11, p. 85.
- ↑ Qarashī, Qāmūs-i Qurʾān, vol. 1, p. 307-310.
- ↑ Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm, vol. 4, p. 447; Abū l-Futūḥ al-Rāzī, Rawḍ al-Jinān, vol. 10, p. 396.
- ↑ Qummī, Tafsīr al-Qummī, vol. 2, p. 345; Baḥrānī, Al-Burhān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. vol. 4, p. 267.
- ↑ Nasāʾī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā. vol. 5, p. 45; Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 294.
- ↑ ʿAyyāshī, Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, vol. 1, p. 5.
References
- Abū l-Futūḥ al-Rāzī, Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī. Rawḍ al-Jinān wa Rawḥ al-Janān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Edited by Abu l-Ḥasan Shaʿrānī and ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī. Tehran: [n.n], 1387 Sh.
- ʿAyyāshī, Muḥammad b. Masʿūd. Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī. Edited by Sayyid Hāshim Rasūlī Maḥallātī. Tehran: Chāpkhāna-yi ʿIlmiyya, 1380 AH.
- Baḥrānī, Hāshim b. Sulaymān al-. Al-Burhān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Edited by Maḥmūd b. Jaʿfar Mūsawī Zarandī. Tehran: Chāpkhāna-yi Āftāb, 1334 SH.
- Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. Mukarram. Lisān al-ʿArab. Edited by Aḥmad Fāris. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr li-Ṭabʿat wa al-Nashr wa al-Tawzī, 1414 AH.
- Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm. Edited by ʿAlī Shīrī. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1415 AH.
- Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al. Al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, [n.d].
- Nasāʾī, Aḥmad b. Shuʿayb. Al-Sunan al-Kubrā. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1411 AH.
- Qurashī Bunābī, Sayyīd ʿAlī Akbar. Qāmūs-i Qurān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1412 AH.
- Qarashī, Sayyid ʿAlī Akbar. Qāmūs al-Qurʾān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1412 AH.
- Qummī, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm. Tafsīr al-Qummī. Edited by Ṭayyib Mūsawī Jazāʾirī. Qom, Dār al-Kitāb, 1404 AH.