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Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān / Sword

Unlike in the Bible, there are no direct references to the sword (commonly known in Arabic as al-sayf) in the Qurʾān. However, various Islamic exegetical works, traditions, Ṣūfī texts, and folk stories (ḥikāyāt) suggest a connection between the sword and particular verses of the Qurʾān (see Daneshgar). As such, Muslims have, for instance, often embellished their swords and other weapons with Qurʾānic verses, such as Q 61:13 (Daneshgar).

The most direct reference to a sharp blade, of any kind, is found in Q 12:31, in which Zulaykhā shows off Yūsuf’s (Joseph’s) beauty to five (or a different number, depending on the tradition cited) noble/court women (Muqātil, 2:331; Ibn Kathīr, 4:329), all of whom cut their hands upon seeing him because of his striking physical appearance. However, the noun “sword” (pl. suyūf) and its adjectival form are primarily ascribed to events and [biblical] stories and figures mentioned within the Qurʾān only by post-Qurʾānic literature, rather than by the text itself.

The sword was included in Qurʾān commentaries from the earliest period of Islam, where it is presented as having been an object by which people killed, struck, or hurt other people or animals. For example, on the basis of Q 38:33, Muqātil b. Sulaymān (d. 150/767) stated that the sword was the tool by which Sulaymān (Solomon) cut the legs (al-sūq) and necks (al-aʿnāq) of horses in acts of sacrifice. However, this interpretation was and continues to be disputed by some exegetes (e.g. al-Ṭabarī 23:100; al-Rāzī 26:391; al-Shaybanī 4:318; al-Bayḍāwī 5:29; al-Ṭabrisī 3:436; al-Maḥallī-al-Suyūṭī, 1:458; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, 17:203) whether Solomon struck or touched the horses’ body or cut their legs and necks with his “sword” or with something else. This obvious disagreement over whether Solomon started to “slash” their legs and necks with “his sword” or his sharp blade, is seen in various translations of the Qurʾān into different languages, such as the rendering of the term masḥ into English in Pickthall’s translation and in the Persian translation by Jalāl al-Dīn Fārsī. An Indonesian translation of the Qurʾān also says that Solomon cut their legs and necks.

On another occasion, the sword is used simply for killing something. According to Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, the first part of Q 7:77 refers to the killing of Ṣāliḥ’s she-camel by the sword (al-Maḥallī-al-Suyūṭī, 1:163; see al-Qurṭubī 7:240). This story is more comprehensively explained by some exegetes in commentaries on Q 54:29. According to them, Qudār (Qudhār [?]) b. Sālif, generally known as “Aḥmar of Thamūd,” was tempted by two women (Kāshifī 1:1196) to hamstring the animal, which he did using his sword (Muqātil 4:182; see also al-Maḥallī-al-Suyūṭī 1: 533; al-Baghdādī 4:220; al-Nawawī al-Jāwī 2: 473). In contrast, a very small number of scholars declared that Qudār hamstrung the she-camel with “a knife” (see Qarāʾī’s translation of the Qurʾān) or slew her with “a sword” (see Shakir’s, Yusuf Ali’s, Abdel Haleem’s, and ʿAbd al-Muḥammad Āyatī’s translations of the Qurʾān).

Muslim commentators also expound on the sword as part of their efforts to show its central position in the lives of Muslims. Q 57:25, for example, talks about “the revelation of iron” (wa-anzalnā al-ḥadīd) – which is seen as either having been taken from Paradise by Adam (see al-Thaʿlabī, cited Ibn ʿAbbās, 9:246) or being taken from the mines (al-maʿādin) (al-Thaʿlabī, 9:246; al-Maḥallī-al-Suyūṭī 1:544) – from which swords are made that will be used (istiʿmāl al-suyūf) to fight the enemies of the religion (e.g., al-Zamakhsharī 4:481). The divine origin of iron in Q 57:25 is also linked to that of the sword dhū l-fiqār, also known as the sword of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib in some tafsīrs, and particularly in Shīʿī writings, which Adam brought to earth from Paradise (al-Baḥrānī, citing Ibn Shahr Āshūb 5:304). However, the main focus of the exegetes is on iron’s use as a military weapon or in battle (lil-ḥarb) (Muqātil, 4:245). Some commentators also pay attention to the role of sayf, which, along with the book and the balance, maintains justice (e.g. al-Ālūsī, 14:188). As such, Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. c. 1240) explicitly highlights the role of the sword in society in his interpretation of this verse (Ibn ʿArabī 2:322).

In addition to its place in commentaries on Q 26:130 and a few other verses, the sword is frequently seen, by Muslim and non-Muslim scholars, as holding an important place in Sūrat al-Tawba (Q 9), and particularly in Q 9:5, which is known as the “sword verse” (āyat al-sayf; e.g. al-Marāghī 10:58; al-Qāsimī 5:353). According to this, Muslims are allowed to slay the idolaters wherever they find them when the sacred months have passed. However, there are different exegetical views that explain under what circumstances Muslims are allowed to kill idolaters. The majority of appearances of the sword in commentaries on this sūra are related to interpretations of Q 9:5 “…fa-qtulū al-mushrikīn…” (“...then slay the idolaters…”), which should, it is claimed, be done with or without the sword (e.g., al-Ṭabrisī 2:38), and of Q 9:73, which details the necessity of “fighting against the unbelievers and hypocrites” (…jāhidi l-kuffāra wa-l-munāfiqīn…), again with or without the sword (e.g. al-Rāzī 16:103). Using the sword against unbelievers is also mentioned by some commentators and translators in their interpretations and translations of Q 8:12 (e.g. Muqātil 2:104; see Paret’s and Garmārūdī’s translations of the Qurʾān), which is about the battle of Badr and striking the unbelievers’ necks.

Although hard to believe, most commentators and translators of Q 5:38 do not mention the name of the tool by which the hands of the thief, male or female, should be cut as a punishment for what they have committed, although they often discuss the quality of amputation from different perspectives (e.g., philology, literature, fiqh).

Bibliography

Sources

al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-maʿānī fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm, ed. ʿAlī ʿA. ʿAṭiyya, 16 vols., Beirut 1415/1994

al-Baḥrānī, al-Burhān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, ed. Maḥmūd Jaʿfar al-Mūsawī al-Zarandī, 4 vols., Tehran 1416/1995

al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-tanzīl wa asrār al-taʾwīl, ed. Muḥammad ʿA. al-Marʿashlī, Beirut 1418/1997

Ibn ʿArabī, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-karīm, Beirut, 1422/2001

Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm, ed. Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shams al-Dīn, 8 vols., Beirut 1419/1998

Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī Vāʿiẓ-i Kāshifī, Mavāhib-i ʿAliyya, Tehran 1369/1990

al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-taʾwīl fī maʿānī al-tanzīl, ed. Muḥammad ʿAlī Shāhīn, 4 vols., Beirut 1415/1994

al-Maḥallī and al-Suyūṭī, Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, Beirut 1416/1995

Aḥmad b. Muṣṭāfā al-Marāghī, Tafsīr al-Marāghī, Beirut n.d.

Muqātil b. Sulaymān, Tafsīr, ed. ʿAbdallāh Shiḥāta, 5 vols., Beirut 1423/2002

Nawawī al-Jāwī al-Bantinī, Marāḥ labīd li-kashf maʿnā al-Qurʾān al-majīd, ed. Muḥammad Amīn al-Ṣanāwī, Beirut 1417/1996

al-Qāsimī, Maḥāsin al-taʾwīl, ed. Muḥammad Bāsil ʿUyūn al-Sūd, 17 vols., Beirut 1418/1997

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān, Tehran 1364/1985

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-ghayb, Beirut 1420/1999

al-Shaybānī, Nahj al-bayān ʿan kashf maʿānī al-Qurʾān, ed. Ḥusayn Dargāh, Tehran 1413/1992

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, Beirut 1412/1991

al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzan fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, Qum 1417/1996

Faḍl b. Ḥasan al-Ṭabrisī, Jawāmiʿ al-jāmiʿ, ed. Abū l-Qāsim Garjī, Tehran 1377/1998

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qurʾān, ed. Naẓīr al-Sāʿidī, Beirut 1422/2002

al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf ʿan ḥaqāʾiq al-tanzīl wa ʿuyūn al-aqāwīl fī wujūh al-taʾwīl, 4 vols., Beirut 1407/1987.

Study

Majid Daneshgar, A sword that becomes a word, Mizan (2017), 1-18, http://www.mizanproject.org/a-sword-that-becomes-a-word-part-1/ and http://www.mizanproject.org/a-sword-that-becomes-a-word-part-2/.

Qurʾān Translations M. A. S. Abdel Halim (English translation), The Qurʾan, Oxford 2004

Abdullah Yusuf Ali (English translation), The Holy Qurʾan, New York 2001

ʿAbd al-Muḥammad Āyatī (Persian translation), Qurʾān-i majīd, Tehran 1374/1995; and its Tajik version, Tehran 1997

Jalāl al-Dīn Fārsī (Persian translation), al-Qurʾān al-karīm. Bā tarjumah, Tehran 1369/1990

ʿAlī Mūsā Garmārūdī (Persian translation), Qurʾān karīm, Tehran 1384/2005

Rudi Paret (German translation), Der Koran, Stuttgart 1979

Muḥammad Marmaduke Pickthall (English translation), The meaning of the Glorious Qurʾan, Beltsville 1996

Sayyid ʿAlī Qulī Qarāʾī (English translation), The Qurʾān, London 2005

Mohammad Hamid Shakir (English translation), Holy Qurʾan, New York 1982

Several Translators (Indonesian tranlsation), al-Quran dan terjemahnya kepada Bahasa Indonesia, Medina 1412/1991.

• Daneshgar, Majid, Sword // Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. — Leiden : E. J. Brill, 2006. — Vol. V (Si—Z). (англ.)