Ra'd

Well, this bodes . . . something.  Hulusi doesn't even agree with any other version of the Quran on the title of this book.  My mouth waters anticipating the bizarre tangents he might take.

Sadly he has yet to offer an explanation of his obsession with the letter بٖ

 1: . . .or of the meaning behind these cryptic beginnings.  One would assume that if anyone was unsatisfied with the "It is known to Allah alone" explanation, it would be the Sufi.  My digging often leads back to Al-Imran 7, which says that some of the signs are clear and some are not, and that only those who have reached the essence can perceive them.  This will never be enough for me, and I expect not for hulusi either.

2: which makes the assurance here, that the signs are clear, a bit amusing.

3: It would be tempting to say that the interpretation of the earth here as a metaphor for the body and its organs is a Sufi stretch, except for the word  زَوۡجَيۡنِ, which is translated in the other three version I'm consulting as mates, kinds, and pairs,  but which Hulusi renders "pairs", and to which he ascribes something very like the Hermetic concept "As above, so below".  It makes one want to investigate the connections between Sufism and Hermetecism.

4: Without drowning in the allegory here, I wish to point out the difference between this sort of parable, and the ones found in the Christianist Bible: the latter explains what it means.  Here, they are simply given and  IYKYK.  It certainly is more satisfying to a modern reader than "Lightning is the whip of an angel".

5: Now this is fascinating on so many levels.  Without a Sufi perspective, this verse is inscrutable.  in the frame of the aforementioned allegory, however, it tracks perfectly.

6: Hulusi loses me again here with his liberties.  It makes me want to find a better Sufi.

7: Is this to mean that each civilization has had its prophet, even as the Muslims, Hebrews, and Christians have?  What a fun idea to explore.  Who was the guide of the Aztec?  The Hmong?  The Maori?

8-10: One wonders if any Islamic scholars wrestle with this sort of verse as much as I do?  Predetermination and spiritual transparency, especially when combined with the Muslim version of "salvation" seem absolutely incompatible.

11:This might be the first hint of an answer to the above dilemma I've seen so far.  The idea that a people is given the ability to change what is in themselves, and therefor their condition in Allah's eyes, may well be the key.  And it is even a point of translation upon which all four versions more or less agree (Hulusi being the more or less).

12-13: If one is to adhere to the Sufi allegory, even verbs like بِحَمۡدِهِۦ take on allegorical significance.

14-15:For all his obsession with orthography and semiotics, it is astonishing the there is no mention by Hulusi of the symbol ۩, supposedly meant to indicate prostration.  One wonders what the Sufi interpretation of this symbol is.

16: A fascinating extension of the idea of رَّبُّ as something like a personal genius, rather than a divine ruler, is missed here.  If one's own رَّبُّ is the higher self, then the idea that Allah is the رَّبُّ of a larger system, that of the entire heavens and Earth, opens up lovely lines of reasoning.   

17: And it is only natural that rain and rivers are expression of unseen truths, both above and within, even as thunder and lightning are. 

18-19: Interesting that is is not only necessary to listen to the voice of the higher self (or Allah, depending on how Sufi you want to get), but also to respond to it. 

20-24: The response being relatively straightforward:  surrender, submit, prostrate yourself to the ultimate truth of unity.  This is the divine contract that must be joined, fulfilled, and followed.  The only way to enter into Paradise, whether the Sufi or the more mainstream, literal version, is together.

25: And to exist in a world of division is its own punishment.

27: The will of Allah, of the divine, can not possibly be this whimsical.

28-30: It is much more palatable to say "You either get it or you don't" than to say "Allah either guides you or he doesn't".

31: The question remains, why did Allah not do as posited here: simply reveal the absolute reality to everyone?

32-33: Setting aside that larger conundrum, however, one is left with the perfectly clear and reasonable foundation: all is one, and don't you forget it.

34-35: One is tempted to dig into the theology that has arisen from verses like this, an whether it has translated into a belief in an immortal soul

36-39: A more succinct and poetic phrasing of the truth in 33, and it is worth memorizing.

40-43: And nothing more need be said, let alone done or expected.  Though plenty has been and will be.