Sūrah 108 · Āyāt 1–2

Al-Kawthar 1–2 — "Surely We have given you abundance; so pray to your Lord and sacrifice"

These two verses open the shortest sūra in the Qurʾān (so al-Mīzān notes, "it is the shortest sūra in the Qurʾān") with a divine bestowal and the gratitude it demands. al-Ṭabarsī and the Enlightening Commentary both frame the address as consolation: like Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā and al-Inshirāḥ, says the Enlightening Commentary, the Prophet is directly addressed "to console him" amid the taunts of his enemies, God "enumerating His blessings upon him" (al-Ṭabarsī).

What is al-Kawthar? Lexically, al-Ṭūsī, al-Ṭabarsī and al-Mīzān (quoting the Majmaʿ) agree it is fawʿal from kathra — "the thing whose nature is abundance," i.e. "the abundant good (al-khayr al-kathīr)." On its concrete referent the sources preserve a striking spread of opinion. A river in Paradise is reported from ʿĀʾisha and Ibn ʿUmar (al-Ṭūsī, al-Ṭabarsī), and from Imam al-Ṣādiq as "a river … given in compensation (ʿiwaḍ) for his son" — al-Qummī specifying the son as Ibrāhīm. The Pool (ḥawḍ) at which the community will throng on Resurrection Day is reported from ʿAṭāʾ, and al-Ṭabarsī cites the Anas tradition recorded by Muslim. Others gloss it as the abundant good (Ibn ʿAbbās), the Qurʾān (al-Ḥasan), prophethood and the Book (ʿIkrima), the multitude of followers (Abū Bakr b. ʿAyyāsh), the intercession (al-Ṣādiq), or the abundance of progeny — al-Ṭabarsī noting it "has appeared in his progeny from the children of Fāṭima until they cannot be counted."

al-Ṭabarsī harmonizes: "the word bears all of these, so it must be carried upon all that has been mentioned." al-Mīzān reports the glosses were tallied "up to twenty-six," holds that only the first two (good, river) rest on narration while "the rest are not free of arbitrariness," and then advances its signature argument: because the sūra seals with "your reviler is the one cut off (al-abtar)," a sentence of qaṣr al-qalb (restriction by inversion), what is meant by al-Kawthar is the abundance of offspring — "the children of Fāṭima are his offspring … among the prophecies (malāḥim) of the Qurʾān." The Enlightening Commentary reaches the same harmonizing verdict (citing Fakhr al-Rāzī's fifteen narrations): the named meanings are "clear examples of this broad concept."

al-Burhān supplies the distinctively Imāmī coloring through hadith: al-Kawthar is "a river that flows beneath the Throne … whiter than milk, sweeter than honey," which the Prophet declares "for me, and for you [ʿAlī], and for those who love you after me," and elsewhere "for me, for you, for Fāṭima, for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn."

"So pray to your Lord and sacrifice." al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān read the command as thanksgiving for the gift — al-Mīzān: "since We have favoured you … give thanks by prayer and sacrifice." On wa-nḥar the sources lay out four readings: (1) sacrifice the camels (al-budn) seeking nearness to God, against those who slaughtered to idols (Ibn ʿAbbās, Anas, Mujāhid, ʿAṭāʾ — al-Ṭūsī, al-Ṭabarsī); (2) the Feast prayer and offering (ʿAṭāʾ, ʿIkrima, Qatāda); (3) facing the qibla with the upper chest (al-Farrāʾ); and (4) the distinctive Imāmī reading, raising the hands to the throat at the takbīr — attributed to ʿAlī and the Imams (al-Ṣādiq via ʿUmar b. Yazīd, Jamīl, and Ḥammād) and to the Gabriel "this is not a sacrifice (naḥīra) … it is raising the hands" tradition. al-Mīzān notes "both parties [Sunnī and Shīʿī]" relate this and prefers it; al-Burhān adds al-Bāqir's gloss that "al-naḥr is standing erect"; and the Enlightening Commentary, surveying all four, judges the verse "general and inclusive" while calling the qibla-facing reading "the most appropriate."