Question:
Asalaamu Aleykum Oh True Pious Ones – May Allah SWT keep us in your presence Here and Hereafter
Could you please explain this verse from Surah 17, verse 80?
Say: “O my Lord! let my entry be by the Gate of Truth and Honour, and likewise my exit by the Gate of Truth and Honour; and grant me from Thy Presence an authority to aid (me).”
Jazakamullah Khair
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
It means:
– O my Lord make me enter the grave pure from sins and honored, and rise pure and honored on Resurrection (Ibn `Abbas); because the verse comes after the mention of the Prophet’s Maqam al-Mahmud on the Last Day:
{soon will thy Lord raise thee to a Station of Praise and Glory!};
this is the choice of al-Zamakhshari, al-Baydawi, al-Nasafi and Isma`il Haqqi;
also:
– O my Lord, make me enter into Mecca the Day of Victory and exit it safely from the harm of the enemies (al-Dahhak);
– or the cave during the Emigration to Madina;
– or entering Madina and exiting Mecca during the Hijra (Ibn `Abbas, Qatada, Ibn Zayd, al-Hasan, al-Suddi, `Abd al-Rahman b. Zayd b. Aslam); this is the choice of al-Tabari, al-Baghawi, and Ibn Kathir who said it is the most famous of commentaries;
– or from Mecca to Paradise (al-Hasan al-Basri);
– or the matter of Prophethood and conveyance of the message from its beginning to its end (Mujahid, Sahl al-Tustari);
– or from dunya to Islam (Abu Salih);
– or from disobedience and kufr to obedience and belief;
– or from my nafs to Your Will and permission in all matters (Ibn `Ajiba, al-Bahr al-Madid) Imam al-Fakhr al-Razi mentions most of the above and says: “A more complete interpretation is: ‘O my Lord, bring me to establish all the duties of observing Your Religion and Your Law, and bring me out of that task having discharged everything I owed without fail.’ And higher than all of the above is: ‘O my Lord, enter me into the ocean of the proofs of Your Oneness (tawhid) and Transcendence (tanzih) and Sanctity (quds), then bring me out of the preoccupation of proofs to the light of the gnosis of the proved (diya’ ma`rifat al-madlul), and from the contemplation of the traces of the created nature of contingencies to the immersion into the gnosis of the One Alone Who is transcendent
beyond multiplications and changes.'”
The best linguistic explanation of mudkhala sidq and mukhraja sidq was given by al-Naysaburi: “It is a verbal noun (masdar) of hyperbole (mubalagha) as in ‘Hatim al-jud’ (the Hatim of generosity, a reference to Hatim al-Ta’i who was proverbially generous), meaning an entry and an exit truly worthy of those names and unalloyed with anything disliked.”
Sources:
al-Tabari, Tafsir;
al-Baghawi, Ma`alim al-Tanzil;
Sahl al-Tustari, Tafsir;
al-Zamakhshari, Kashshaf;
al-Baydawi, Anwar al-Tanzil;
al-Nasafi, Madarik al-Tanzil;
al-Mawardi, al-Nukat wal-`Uyun;
Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi, Bahr al-`Ulum;
al-Razi, Mafatih al-Ghayb;
Ibn Kathir, Tafsir;
al-Naysaburi, Ghara’ib al-Qur’an;
Ibn `Ajiba, al-bahr al-Madid;
Haqqi, Ruh al-Bayan.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
