Rereading the Structural Coherence of the Holy Qurʾān in Light of Raymond Farrin's Theory of Symmetrical Order (the Case of Surah al-Baqarah)

Writing about the coherence and continuity of the text of the Qurʾān goes back to the distant past in the thought of the Muslim Qurʾānic scholars. In spite of the general belief of the Western Qurʾānic scholars in the dispersion of the Qurʾānic text, in the modern era, a group of them, relying on literary and linguistic knowledge, have sought to prove the coherence and continuity of this holy text in the form of the theory of symmetrical order. The present descriptive-analytical research article examined the approach taken by Raymond Farrin, a contemporary Qurʾānic scholar. He proves the structural coherence of Surah al-Baqarah within a literary approach. This article first introduces the concept of symmetrical order and then expresses Raymond Frein's view on the order of Surah Al-Baqarah and reviews it. Raymond Farrin divides Surah Al-Baqarah into nine parts and inversely establishes some links between the parts of the surah and presents a general and comprehensive model of the relationship between the parts of the surah. Among the criticisms laid against his work we can point out the lack of mention of the basis of division, presenting wrong interpretations of Surah Al-Baqarah, the defectiveness of some of the internal structures of Surah Al-Baqarah, the inability to place the final eleven ayahs of section C' in the overall structure of the surah, the insufficiency of the evidence of symmetry between the sections. This research, among others, proved the regular structure of Surah Al-Baqarah in the form of the theory of symmetrical order, which shows that Surah Al-Baqarah is coherent and each ayah is placed exactly where it should.