Umm al Kitab "The mother of the Book" : Surat al Raad: 13: 39

{ يَمْحُواْ ٱللَّهُ مَا يَشَآءُ وَيُثْبِتُ وَعِندَهُ أُمُّ ٱلْكِتَابِ }

" Allah effaces and confirms what He wishes. With/By Him is the mother of the book"

The designation "Umm al Kitab" occurs three times in the Qur’an in Surat aal Imran 3:7, Surat al Raad13:39, Surat al Zukhruf 43:4

Imam Haqqi :

The Arabs call Umm (mother) anything that is a source from which other (things) flow continuously. For example, the brain is referred to as the mother of the head; Makka is referred to as mother of the cities (Umm al Qura)...This also means that it is its unchangeable origin.

Umm al Kitab is what Allah (swt) has written in the eternality before time/sempiternity (Azal); it is a knowledge originating from sempiternity (Azal) for eternity (Abad). Its existence is in Divine Perpetuity (Sarmadi), it is established in its own-essence/self (not contingent on any other knowledge), it encompasses everything with no addition or lack, everything in it is decreed in a specific measure.

Imam al-Razi adds to the above: There are 2 further sayings on this matter:

1.      Umm al Katab is the Preseved Tablet (al Lawh al Mahfouz) wherein all the events of the higher and lower Universes are fixed as stated by the Prophet (saaws): “ Allah was and nothing was with Him, then He created the Tablet and fixed in it the various states of everything in the creation until the occurrence of the Hour.”

2.      Umm al Kitab is the knowledge of Allah the most High, for He is all-Knowledgeable of all the knowledges of what is existent (Mawjood) and what is non-existent (Maa’doom). Even if the existent and the non-existent were to incur changes, the Knowledge of Allah of both does not change. That is what is referred to as Umm al-Kitab.

*  There is an implicit and at times explicit understanding that Umm al Kitab is the origin of all the scriptures.

** Furthermore the commentators speak of two Kitab (Book/record) in the Knowledge of Allah:

1.      The Book of the Knowledge of Allah

2.      The Book that is kept of the deeds of the slaves.

Imam Bukhari reported in the “Book of Qur’an Commentary” ( Kitab al-Tafsir) and so did others that Umm al Kitab is the designation of Surat al Fatiha, as it is the Opening of the Qur’an. Imam Suyuti adds to this that al Fatiha contains all the subsequent knowledge that will be explicated in the rest of the Qur’anic Chapters ( Surah).

And Allah knows best.

The Obedience of Maryam : Surat aal-Imran 3:43

{ يٰمَرْيَمُ ٱقْنُتِي لِرَبِّكِ  }

"Ya maryamu oqnutee lirabbiki"

"O Maryam! "Submit yourself with obedience to your Lord""

The companion Ibn Abbas explicates Qunut as obedience.

While the companion Mujahed goes on further to the inner meaning of the word to state Qunut is "stillness (rukud) with humility (kushu')"

Al Shaykh al Hakeem al-Tirmidhi states:
In the case of Maryam, the inner Qunut is that she approaches Allah(swt) with her Heart, suppressing all the desires of her Nafs (self,ego), so that the Nafs does not move, becomes unruly, boils and envelops with its dark vapors the chest (sadr) which is the place of the Divine Illuminations (Ishraqat Ilahyat) . For it is not befitting that, when the Lord bestows the Illumination of the Light of His Supremacy in the chest of a slave that the slave neglect its guard and protection....if he does, the Illumination is withheld, veils descend
and the slave remains veiled as if empty from purification.

Maryam is commanded here to be CONSTANTLY in a state of Qunut and stillness so that her Heart faces constantly the Supremacy of Allah(swt) and so that she is maintained in perpetuity in the station of Praise of the Supremacy of the Jalal (the Exaltedness,Nobility,Glory).

Similarly, in the absolute last prayers of the evening ( witr), the invocation of Qunut starting with the Takbeer takes the slave beyond the prayers that have been decreed upon him, with their attended station of subjugation and humility, to the station of desire (rughba) and awe(ruhba) in the Hands of the Nobility and Generosity of the Lord-

Thus does the slave move between two stations....

"Nahj al Burdah" [In the manner of the Cloak]

In praise:

ريم على القاع بين البان والعلم *** أَحَلَّ سَفكَ دَمي في الأَشهُرِ الحُرُمِ

لَمّا رَنا حَدَّثَتني النَفسُ قائِلَةً *** يا وَيحَ جَنبِكَ بِالسَهمِ المُصيبِ رُمي

جَحَدتُها وَكَتَمتُ السَهمَ في كَبِدي*** جُرحُ الأَحِبَّةِ عِندي غَيرُ ذي أَلَمِ

.............................................................

يا رب أحسنت بدء المسلمين به *** فتمم الفضل وامنح حسن مختتم


Lyrics of the Egyptian poet Ahmad Shawqy inspired by the poem of al-BuSsiri's (11the Century AD) Qasidat al Burdah in praise of the Prophet (saaws). Music by Riad Sunbati, sung by Umm Kulthum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qa%E1%B9%A3%C4%ABda_al-Burda
http://www.toarab.ws/modules.php?name=poet&file=showpoem&pmid=859
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMImF-DHMvg