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الۤمۤ
١
-Âl ‘Imrân ( آل عمران )

Al Qushairi Tafsir

3:1 Alif Lām Mīm
By His saying, 'Alif', He alludes to His being sufficient for you in all of your states. You are captive to heedlessness, and are not rightly guided to your [potential] righteousness and integrity. He is the One who sets in motion what restores you, and is solely sufficient for you in what helps you. Without your asking - and even without you knowing your state - He suffices for you even if you do not perceive it. He gives to you without your seeking. The allusion from the Lām is to His kindness (lu?f) to you at the most subtle and hidden level so much so that the locus of favor by which He strengthens you is not apparent to you. The allusion from the Mīm is to conformity (muwāfaqa) to the stream of the [divine] ordainment (taqdīr) through the circumstances requested by the friends. Nothing in the world moves, no particle appears unless it is an occasion of good pleasure with respect to them. It would not be going too far to say that in His words, Every day He is upon some matter [55:29], the 'matter' is an actualization of what the friends desire.
It is said that by listening to these disconnected letters [Alif Lām Mīm], which are contrary to the customs of human discourse, every concept disappears from the hearts, whether it be a known, written, customary or imagined thing, and whether it arises from necessity (?arūra), sensory perception (ḥiss) or independent reasoning (ijitihād). When the hearts are emptied of imagined and known concepts, and the innermost selves are purified of customary and familiar things, the name Allāh comes to a heart sanctified from everything other (than Him) and to an innermost self purified of every mode [of inquiry] (kayf).