Exploring the function of the discourse analysis to prove the coherence of the Holy Qur'an's text Based on Neal Robinson's Approach

The study of continuity and coherence of the Qur'anic text have been discussed in Muslim tradition for a long time. Meanwhile, the contemporary views and approaches to this issue have been specially placed among the western Qur'anic scholars. In spite of the popular conviction of the western Qur'anic scholars that the Qur'an's text is dispersed, in the contemporary era, a group of them have relied on literary and linguistic approaches to prove the coherence of this sacred text. For the meantime, Neal Robinson is the first scholar that opposes the dominant approach with the use of new linguistic theories, and examines the coherence of the Holy Qur'an's text, especially in long madani surahs. Considering the importance of Robinson's position and method, we analyzed his method in this paper. The review of Robinson's latest works, which is devoted to the coherence of Sura Al-Imran, shows that he, with no mention of discourse analysis, has used components of discourse analysis, including Bottom-up Processing and Top-Down processing, as well as strategies of discourse analysis. Thus, he has shown the coherence and cohesion of the verses of the sura. Therefore, we could conclude that Robinson's method in proving coherence of sura is discourse analysis method.