A Critical Analysis of the Application of Cuypers' Theory of the Symmetrical Order and Its Application to Surah Al-Hadid

One of the theories applicable to the Holy Quran is the theory of Michel Cuipers, who has introduced a new approach to the order and coherence of the Quran by using the method of symmetrical and inverse order. He divides the text into different levels, then divides the various forms of symmetry, i.e., sequential parallelism, contradictory parallelism, authorial or evolutionary parallelism, axial order or circular composition, inverse order or mirror composition, and photographic contrast with the help of convergent authorial indicators. It discusses and examines duality, synonymy, contradiction, similarity, repetition or similarity, phonetics or consonantal allegory, morphological similarities, and identical syntactic structure. After explaining the theory, its comprehensiveness and efficiency have been examined in Surah Al-Hadid by applying the rules provided by Cuipers, and it is concluded that the rules mentioned cannot be applied to all verses in this Surah at sub-section, section, and part levels, but they can be applied to all verses at maghta' and mafsal levels.