Abstract

The fragmentary letters at the beginning of some of the chapters in the Holy Qur'an have always been of particular interest to Qur'anic researchers, and all prominent interpreters have presented an interpretation in this regard in their works. Most of these interpretations have been studied critically by Mulla Sadra. The author of this paper intends to clarify the nature of these letters from the viewpoint of the sublime interpreter and supreme philosopher, Mulla Sadra, by reference to his magnificent works, al-Asfar and Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Karim.From among all related views, Mulla Sadra only prefers Ibn-Sina's view and expresses his ideas in this regard on the basis of the principles of the Transcendent Philosophy. The reality of the Qur'an is one and of different levels; therefore, everyone enjoys a specific knowledge of this graded reality, since what is required here consists of different conditions such as faith, piety, and relation with the Prophet's Household. Besides, each of these attributes has some levels, and each person is qualified by a specific level of them. When interpreting the fragmentary letters, Mulla Sadra believes that each of these letters refers to a particular level of the world, and his method of justification in this regard is based on the instrumental employment of the well-known Abjad letters system so that, through the combination of these letters by summing up or multiplication processes, they could be related to or adjusted with a certain level of the world of being.At the end of his discussion, Mulla Sadra explains how all Qur'anic fragmentary letters refer to a specific level of being.