Академия Корана:Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān/Adoration

John Renard, "Adoration" in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: J. D. McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

The acts and attitudes of praise and honor accorded to God. The standard English renderings of the Qurʾān typically use «adoration» and its cognates to translate sajada (to prostrate oneself; see bowing and prostration), the quintessential Islamic ritual of adoration (see prayer). There is, however, a great deal more to adoration than a physical gesture. A variety of qurʾānic terms vividly communicate the sense of «adoration» as a response to the divine being, including various forms of the roots ḥ-m-d (praise), s-b-ḥ (glorify), m-j-d (exalt) and ʿ-ẓ-m (magnify). Certain verses combine two or more of these terms (especially the first two, e.g. q 2:30; 20:130; 39:75) to intensify the meaning, sometimes explicitly associating praise and glorification of God with prostration (q 15:98; 32:15; 50:39-40). One widely-used Arabic-language concordance glosses the word ḥamd in q 15:98 with all of the above-mentioned roots, adding thanāʾ (lauding), which is not used in the Qurʾān, but found in the ḥadīth, «I cannot adore you adequately» (Haykal, Muʿjam, i, 309).

More attitude than action, adoration encompasses various aspects of the orientation of creation toward the creator. All created things naturally adore God (q 13:13: «the thunder adores by praising him»), but human beings need constant reminders. Adoration is thus an integral part of islām (surrender, see islam), representing its more spiritually advanced and active aspect.

The exclamation subḥāna llāh (Praise be to God!) is a widely-used expression of admiration. Subḥāna and its cognate tasbīḥ are from a root associated with «swimming» or «floating», which is applied metaphorically to the heavenly bodies (e.g. q 21:33; 79:3). It is often linked in the Qurʾān with ḥamd (Dāmaghānī, Wujūh, i, 446-7; Mir, Dictionary, 84), which is in turn related to one of the divine names (see god and his attributes), al-Ḥamīd (Worthy of Adoration), and typically paired with other names such as al-ʿAzīz (Mighty) and al-Ghanī (All-Sufficient). Many commentators (e.g. Ṭabarī, Commentary, i, 61-3; A. Rippin, Tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās, 79, 81) gloss the word «adoration» (ḥamd) in the phrase with which the first sūra begins, al-ḥamdu li-llāh «Adoration belongs to God», as «thanks» (Dāmaghānī, Wujūh, i, 263-4; Mir, Dictionary, 86), underscoring an understanding of adoration as the natural response of all creation to the source of all blessings.

Mystical exegesis often draws out more personal implications of adoration, emphasizing, for example, that bridging the infinite gap between the adorer and the one being adored implies annihilation of the one adoring (Nwyia, Exégèse, 284-5). Shīʿī commentators (see shīʿism and the qurʾān), many of whom also have been mystically inclined, sometimes attached a significance to each of the letters of a word. For example, the imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (ca. 80/699-148/ 765) identified the root letters of ḥamd (ḥ-m-d) with divine unity (waḥdaniyya), kingdom (mulk) and divine immutability (daymūmiyya), respectively (Nwyia, Exégèse, 166). Ayatollah Khomeini (1902—1989), commenting on the meaning of ḥamd, emphasizes the impossibility of directing adoration to any other than God, for all that is not God lacks truly adorable qualities. Picking up a theme important in some medieval mystical exegesis such as that of al-Qūnawī (d. 673/1274 , Iʿjāz, 271-5), Khomeini explores the metaphysical intricacies of adoration.

Bibliography

Primary

• Dāmaghānī, Wujūh, ed. M.Ḥ.A. al-Zafītī, 2 vols., Cairo 1992
• R. Khomeini, Lectures on sūrat al-fātiḥa, in Islam and revolution. Writings and declarations of Imam Khomeini, trans. H. Algar, Berkeley 1981, 365—434
• Saḍr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, Iʿjāz al-bayān fī taʾwīl umm al-Qurʾān, ed. ʿA.Q.A. ʿAṭā, Cairo 1969
• Ṭabarī, The commentary on the Qurʾān, ed. and trans. J. Cooper et al., Oxford 1989

Secondary

• M. Ayoub, Thanksgiving and praise in the Qurʾān and in Muslim piety, in Islamochristiana 15 (1989), 1-10
• M.H. Haykal et al., Muʿjam al-alfāẓ al-Qurʾān al-karīm, 2 vols., Cairo 19702
• Mir, Dictionary
• Nwyia, Exégèse
• A. Rippin, Tafsīr Ibn ʿAbbās and criteria for dating early tafsīr texts, in jsai 18 (1994), 38-83, esp. 79-83