The Factors Creating Rhythm in the Qur an

Rhythm or īqā‘ is a rule on which every literary or artistic work is based and it stands out in the Qur’an as a sublime literary example. One of the outstanding features of the Qur’an’s expressive styles is its harmonious and rhythmic changes, in such a way that one feels liveliness in its phonemes and words and a well-calculated rhythm rules over the course of speech, which, besides its harmony and beauty, it moves along with the meaning.
This research is intended to figure out what tools the Qur’an has used to make this exclusive rhythm and what factors have made it harmonious. The article tries to find the factors creating rhythm in the Qur’an. Furthermore, after exploring into this term in literary and phonetic discourses, it introduces, analyzes, and compares five elements of phonetic system, balance and equilibrium, proportion, recurrence, and alteration as the most important factors creating the Qur’anic rhythm. Accordingly, the Qur’anic interval has a significant role in harmonizing the verses and incorporates various aspects of the rhythm’s factors.
According to a generally accepted view, the music of the Qur’an is of an internal type and not external, which is the outcome of cadence and rhyme; and the Qur’an’s rhythms are of the advanced type as the relations between its elements are sensual-rational and the perceiver is to enjoy a certain level of intellectual and cultural maturity.