The seven often repeated..

[Amra94]

What are your thoughts on what the seven often repeated in 15:87 might be?

[Mazhar]

سَبْعٙا مِّنَ ٱلْمَثَانِـى


وَلَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَٟكَ

And indeed Our Majesty have given to you the Messenger [Muhammad Sal'lallaa'hoalaih'wa'salam] —

سَبْعٙا مِّنَ ٱلْمَثَانِـى

Seven explicit Aa'ya'at: Verbal Passages selected-excerpted from the Binary-Symmetrical-analogous Miscellany —

وَٱلْقُرْءَانَ ٱلْعَظِيـمَ .15:87٨٧

And We have given the Grand Qur'ān to you the Messenger [ Sal'lallaa'hoalaih'wa'salam].  [15:87]

[Iyyaka]

Salam brother Amra94 and Mazhar,

Let me develop what Mazhar said.

But before to do it, i must state that i don't assimilate this ayat to surah Al-fatiha because of the presence of the preposition "Mina" (of = Provenance, origin) in (15:87:4). Thus, the word sab'an (seven) must be taken in its Semitic well-known sense as "Multiple, several".

As Mazhar pointed out, the form mśany (twice in the Koran - it returns to it later) carries the fundamental notion of Binarity (the place of the double). If it is sometimes translated by "the oft-repeated" but it is well understood that it is the doubling of something or act.

It is necessary to approach a primordial aspect of the Koran: The "binary" aspect of the Koranic speech. The "binary" opposition between what is positive and what is negative goes through the corpus systematically with many examples that are similar to express this central theme.
Thus, the universe described by the Qur'an is a permanent binary universe.
"Binary" is understood here in the sense of "that which comprises only two states, or two sets of elements" (it will be seen below that this definition can be extended). For example, this appears almost obvious from the beginning of the text in the canonical order: from the sura al-Fatiya the text opposes those who are well-guided and misguided, and those who receive grace against those against which God is angry ...

Other important extended forms of "binarity":
- Binarity "guidance / misguidance": The notion of good or bad guidance permeates a significant part of the text. The Koran and the
Earlier scriptures participate in the fact that God guides on the good way, while those who refuse these scriptures are lost; it reinforces the negative view about them.
- The binarity "blessing / misfortune" and "reward / punishment": This binarity is about what God gives: it's about benefits and rewards for the victors, of calamities and punishments for the iniquitous or deniers.
- The binarity "clarity / darkness": God leads men from darkness to light, and does so by means of the Scriptures and especially the Koran, which makes everything clear.
- A fourth binarity, which is more related to the argumentation concerning the adherence to the Koran: the binarity "faith / denial", "certainty / lie".
etc ...


Now let's go back to the two verses with their literal context or this form appears in (15:87) and (39:23) - Google Translate (Sorry no time but essential is safe) :

[15:86] Your Lord is the One who keeps creating, the all-knowing.
[15:87] We have given you multiple binarities, and the grand Qur'an.
[15:88] Do not take your gaze with envy toward what We have granted enjoyment to certain couples / azwājan of them, and do not grieve over them.
Lower your wing for those who have the faith.

[39:23] God brought down the best of the speech, a scripture involving similarities in a binary way.
The skins of those who fear their Lord shudder.
Then their skin and their heart are to soften to the remembrance of God.
This is the guidance of God by which He guides who He wills.
But whoever misleads God does not have a guide.

Remark n°1:
- God puts us on the track of the meaning of the word "l-mathānī" and (15:87) using the word Zawj in (15:88) => Strong similarity of meaning.

Remark n°2:
- I colored the text using 2 colors (red = negative, Green = positive) to bring out the binarity in play.

Remark n°3:
- God gives us a remarkable illustration of the expression "mutashābihan mathāniya" (39:23) using only the mśany form in these 2 verses (not quite the same but resembling in the positive binarity):
[15:87] We have given you multiple binarities (1),
   And the grand Call (2).
   [39:23] God brought down the best of the speech (2'),
A scripture involving similarities in a binary way (1')

=> Confirmation here :
[39:27] We have presented to people in this Qur'an all kinds of examples (sabʿan/Multiple + mutashābihan/Ressembling) so that they may remember.
[39:28] An Arabic Qur'an, without tortuosity (clear with the help of the binarity), so that they protect themselves.

Remark n°4:
- [15:86] Your Lord is the One who never ceases to create (Equivalence of the word "sab'an / multiple"), the All-Knowing (Through the best play of binarism, God unambiguously clears the right path to follow).


Furthermore, around verse 39:23, God gives us other examples of binarity that are alike:

[39:17] Those who avoid the idols not to worship them, and to repent to God: to them the good news. Announcement to My servants,
[39:18] Those who listen to the Word, then follow the best. These are the ones whom God has guided, these are the gifted with intelligence.
[39:19] He against whom the word of punishment is fulfilled: do you save him who is in the fire?
[39:20] But those who have guarded their Lord: for them rooms, above which other chambers are built and under which rivers flow.
God's promise! God breaks no promise.
[39:21] Do you not see that God sends down water from the sky? He introduces it in the form of springs into the earth, and then leaves out cultures of various colors, which then fade, so that you see them yellowed. Then, He reduces them to withered twigs.
In this, there is a reminder for the gifted.
[39:22] Does he whose God opens his chest to self-surrender (to God) and so stands on a light from his Lord ... Woe to those whose hearts are hardened against reminder of God.
These are in an obvious misguidance.

[39:24] Whoever, on the Day of Resurrection, will have the foresight of the worst chastisement with his face ... One will say to the unjust ones, "Taste what you have acquired".
[39:25] Those who lived before them denied, the punishment came to them by which they did not feel it.
[39:26] God made them taste humiliation in the life of this world. But the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they knew!
[39:27] We have presented to people in this Qur'an all kinds of examples so that they may remember.
[39:28] An Arabic Koran, without tortuosity, so that they protect themselves.
[39:29] For example, God presents a man whose partners are quarreling, and a man at peace with another man: are they equal in comparison? Praise to God !
But most of them do not know.


Lastly, the essential characteristic of Koranic language and Semitic rhetoric is binarity. Here we must understand by binary the fact that two linguistic elements or two signified elements are put intentionally in relation in the text. Through this definition we find the great law of symmetry that underlies all the rhetoric of the Koran. The bilingualism can be understood at the level of the terms and concepts but also at the level of the speech (in this forum I already gave many examples).


Peace