Clustering the Sūras of the Qur’an with Data Mining Techniques

The Qur’an is the miracle of the Prophet of Islam and the Revealed Book of the Muslims. This Holy Scripture comprises of 114 chapters, each of which contains various subjects. Most of the subjects that the Qur'an has dealt with have been brought up in more than one sūra and these subjects common among sūras denote relationship between them. Getting to know these relationships is an important issue that can help better understand the Qur'an. In this article, the subjects brought up in each of the sūras are identified with the help of one of the interpretations of the Qur'an (Tafsīr Rahnamā), and the decree of the similarity among the suras are measured on the basis of the subjects common among them with the use of a quantitative criteria and employment of data mining methods. In conclusion, the tree-diagram of the thematic similarity of the sūras is drawn on the basis of quantitative criteria in question and, with its use, the sūras of the Qur’an are separately set up in clusters.