to the letters. Keith Massey (1996), noting the apparent set ranking of the letters and mathematical improbability that they were either random or referred to words or phrases, argued for some form of the Nöldeke-Hirschfeld theory that the "Mystery Letters" were the initials or monograms of the scribes who originally transcribed the sūras. Though, Massey explains that "the letters, which appear alone (qaf, nun), may not have the same purpose as the collection themselves", he furthermore admits that the "Mystery Letters" in Surah 42 violate his proposed ranking-theory, thus offering 2 possible scenarios for his theory. The Hebrew Theory assumes that the letters represent an import from Biblical Hebrew. Specifically, the combination Alif-Lam would correspond to Hebrew El "god". Abbreviations from Aramaic or Greek have also been suggested. Bellamy (1973) proposed that the letters are the remnants of abbreviations for the Bismillah. Bellamy's suggestion was criticized as improbable by Alford T. Welch (1978). Christoph Luxenberg in The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran (2000) proposed that substantial portions of the text of the Qur'an were directly taken from Syriac liturgy. His explanation of the disjoined letters is that they are remnants of indications for the liturgical recitation for the Syriac hymns that ended up being copied into the Arabic text. Numerology There have been attempts to give numerological interpretations. Loth (1888) suggested a connection to Gematria. Rashad Khalifa (1974) claimed to have discovered a mathematical code in the Qur'an based on these initials and the number 19, namely the Quran code or known as Code 19. According to his claims, these initials occur throughout their respective chapters in multiples of nineteen. which is mentioned in Sura 74:30 The Báb used the muqaṭṭaʿāt in his Qayyúmu'l-Asmáʼ. He writes in an early commentary and in his Dalá'il-i-Sab'ih (Seven Proofs) about a hadith from Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Shiʻi Imam, where it is stated that the first seven surat's muqaṭṭaʿāt have a numerical value of 1267, from which the year 1844 (the year of the Báb's declaration) can be derived. Mystical Sufism has a tradition of attributing mystical significance to the letters. The details differ between schools of Sufism; Sufi tradition generally regards the letters as an extension to the ninety-nine names of God, with some authors offering specific "hidden" meanings for the individual letters. In 1857–58, Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith, wrote his Commentary on the Isolated Letters (Tafsír-i-Hurúfát-i-Muqattaih, also known as