Saturday, May 4, 2024

Tanzil - Context: Faith and Practice

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Tanzil: ‘Sending down’; a Qu’anic term referring to the revelation of ‘the Book’ as transmitted by the prophets.

And thus We have sent it down as an Arabic recitation (anzalnāhu qurʾānan ʿarabiyyan), and We have turned about in it something of threats, that haply they may be godfearing, or it may arouse in them remembrance. 
So high exalted be God, the true King! And hasten not with the recitation ere its communication is accomplished unto thee (wa-lā taʿjal bi-l-qurʾāni min qabli an yuqḍā ilayka waḥyuhu); and say, ‘O my Lord, increase me in knowledge’. Q 20:113-4 



The concept of divine sending down (tanzīl) refers to a spatial event in the celestial realm when the celestial source book of the revelation and thereby the revelation itself was ‘sent down’ by God. This event made the revelation available, although not necessarily accessible to prophets and mankind
Revelation in the Qur'an: from Divine Sending Down (Tanzil) to Divine Communication (Wahy):
Two words have been understood to refer to revelation in the Qur’an, namely tanzīl (sending down) and waḥy (communication) as well as their cognate verbal forms. The roots n-z-l and w-ḥ-y represent different processes in the Qur’anic concept of revelation and that these are used for different rhetorical means in the text. the concept of divine communication (waḥy) signifies a particular mode of communication that is only decipherable by God’s elect. It is through this mode that the revelatory message is communicated to the Qur’anic Messenger. divine sending down affirms the divine origin of the revelatory message itself whereas divine communication attests that the Messenger is a genuine prophet. Moreover, each concept is concentrated in certain chronological periods. When the status of the Messenger as a prophet is under attack in the Meccan period, the concept of divine communication is predominant, whereas when the revelatory message itself is contested in the late Meccan and Medinan period, it is the concept of divine sending down that is prevalent.

RELATED: RESEARCH
One version of understanding:


Another version:

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