Analysis of the Substantive Distinction between Medina (City) and Gharieh (Village) in the Quranic Literature

The holy Quran as the most significant religious text of Muslims has a remarkable aptitude in various aspects of human knowledge which is often neglected. Many researches have studied the Islamic city since city and city elements are mentioned in this holy book. Accordingly, this paper tries to investigate if the common difference between city and village is a matter of importance in the holy Quran. In other words, this paper seeks the indicator(s) of city and village distinction in the holy Quran. Therefore, Medina (village) and Gharieh (village), as the two main keywords, are analyzed in the holy Quran and investigated by a combination of research methods (combination of qualitative content analysis method and logical reasoning method). The findings suggest that unlike the current theories in the field of urban development, Quran does not recognize different economic, social and even population factors as the main factors in distinguishing villages from cities. In Quranic literature, the factor that makes a city distinct from a village is the level of faith in God and commitment to Islam. So that a habitat, disregarding of population and size city, cannot be entitled as Medina (city) in case it lacks these factors. The claim has been established and proved in the body of this study by comparison of various Quranic literatures containing the words Medina (city) and Gharieh (village).