The Number of 40

What is number? and what are its effects? have been historically considered, and this matter is not specifically belongs to a certain people or nation, but Numbers and their position have been considered by different tribes and religions. Past scholars have divided theoretical sciences into natural sciences, mathematics and theology, and this issue that, and this always has been questioned that, what the relation, and correspondence between the mathematics, which pays to numbers, and natural sciences are? In modern era, also, Galileo believed that the universe is written in the mathematical words, and some numbers have been more notified than others by some tribes and nations, e.g. in verse 142 of Surah Al-Araf God says “And We made an appointment with Moses for thirty nights and perfected them by [the addition of] ten; so the term of his Lord was completed as forty nights….” In this verse the emphasis is on completion of that appointment to forty nights, or verse 51 of Surah Al-bagharah (the cow) refers to this 40 nights, in this verse God says: “…. We made an appointment with Moses for forty nights…”. why 40 nights, and the philosophy of the number of 40 are questions that have been always considered, and this number has been considered in Islamic mysticism. This issue leads us to the issue of Peculiar science, that was taken into consideration by past scholars, and currently is considered by scientists. But an exact and deep research in this field needs a new approach some industrious researchers, and many requirements. This book (Comprehensive Encyclopedia of the number of Forty) is an effective step to Pave the way for researchers. Dr. Saeed Ghazipour, who made his M.A thesis in this matter and didn’t left his work unfinished, wrote this book, and in his turn, he has taken an effective step and gathered, impartially, different topics about the number of forty from several references, and we hope it will be more completed and will be a start for exact researches, in modern methodologies, about this matter, and for him and the scholars in this way, I wish their more success in research.

Hassan Abbasi Hassan-Abadi

Islamic dialectic and philosophy faculty member at Payam Noor University

2018/05/12