al-Sumu al-Ruhi al-Azam wal-Jamal al-Fanni fi al-Balagha al-Nabawiyya
- Author died
- 1356 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashīr lil-Thaqāfah wa-al-‘Ulūm
al-Sumu al-Ruhi al-Azam wal-Jamal al-Fanni fi al-Balagha al-Nabawiyya (The Greatest Spiritual Loftiness and Artistic Beauty in Prophetic Eloquence) is a literary treatise by Egyptian author Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi'i (1880–1937 CE / d. 1356 AH) examining the aesthetic, psychological, and rhetorical dimensions of Prophetic speech .
Background and Composition
Al-Rafi'i wrote the essay in 1352 AH (1933 CE) in response to a request from Jam'iyyat al-Hidaya al-Islamiyya in Baghdad to be published for the commemoration of the Prophet's Birthday (al-Mawlid al-Nabawi) . He regarded the treatise as a thematic continuation of his discussion of Prophetic rhetoric in his earlier book I'jaz al-Qur'an (The Inimitability of the Qur'an) .
According to Muhammad Sa'id al-'Iryan, al-Rafi'i prepared for composing the essay by reading the entirety of Sahih al-Bukhari analytically over a period of ten-plus days, dedicating eight consecutive hours daily to studying the eloquence and precise meanings of the texts . He then drafted the treatise in three days, after which al-'Iryan transcribed the final manuscript over another three days .
Themes and Content
Al-Rafi'i opens the work with a hypothetical intellectual scenario: imagining how the foremost European philosopher of rhetoric—if versed in the nuances of Arabic and having studied the Prophet's life, law, and hadith literature through literary criticism—would explain the artistic beauty of Prophetic eloquence . He posits that both such an inquiry and the instinctive reflections of an eloquent contemporary companion of the Prophet would arrive at the same conclusion: that the artistic beauty of the Prophet's eloquence is the direct impression of his unique Prophetic spirit upon language .
The treatise characterizes the style of Prophetic speech as possessing the steady calm of certainty, the authority of divine law, and enduring rhetorical vitality . Al-Rafi'i illustrates this through close literary analyses of select hadiths:
- The Parable of the Ship: Analyzing the hadith describing passengers casting lots for the upper and lower decks of a ship, where an individual seeks to breach his own section . Al-Rafi'i interprets this as a rhetorical exposition of social responsibility, critiquing modernists and self-styled reformers who compromise communal foundations under the banner of individual liberty .
- The Three Men in the Cave: Analyzing the narrative of the three travelers trapped in a cave by a falling boulder who supplicated through their most sincere acts . He explores the psychological and moral hierarchy embedded in the story—moving from filial piety, to chastity in love, to absolute trustworthiness in business—identifying universal mercy and self-restraint as the core of human virtue .
Publication and Editions
The treatise was incorporated as the opening chapter of the third volume of al-Rafi'i's essay collection Wahy al-Qalam (Inspirations of the Pen) . It was also published as an independent monograph, edited by Wa'il ibn Hafiz ibn Khalaf, which was first issued by Dar al-Bashir in Cairo and subsequently published in an expanded second edition .
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