Islam as Religion
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ous Sufis have provided such commentaries, from al-Tustarī in the fourth/tenth century to Ibn ‘Arabī in the seventh/thirteenth century and up to those in the present period; also included are many works in Persian, such as the vast commentary of Mībudī. Such a celebrated work of Sufism as the Mathnawī of Rūmī is in reality an esoteric commentary on the Quran according to the author himself. These commentaries deal with the inner meaning of various verses and even letters of the Quran, which have their own symbolic significance and are of prime importance in the development of Islamic metaphysics and cosmology. Shī‘ite commentaries, too, have usually been concerned with the inner meaning of the sacred text in relation to the reality of the Imām, who is for them the interpreter par excellence of the inner dimension of the Word of God. In the climate of Shī‘ism, some of the most important commentaries, such as that of al-Tabarsī, have been written by the ‘ulamā’, or offi. cial religious scholars, but many others have been written by those who were also philosophers and theosophers. The extensive commentaries of Mullā Sadrā are the prime exam. ple of this latter category. The text of the Quran has been rendered often into English and numerous other European and non-European languages, although in its total reality the Quran is inimitable and untranslatable. Some of the translations have succeeded in conveying something of the poetic power of the original Arabic and others some of the external meanings. But no translation has been able or ever will be able to render the full meaning and “presence” of the text, which has many levels of