فصلنامه پژوهش های ادبی - قرآنی
سال دهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 40، زمستان 1401)

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.

Argument is one of the uses of language that is used to influence others and to persuade the audience. The importance of argument in contemporary research goes back to its place in new rhetoric in such a way that this scientific field is divided into the two main dimensions of expression and argument. By criticizing Aristotelian logic, Stephen E. Toulmin took it out of its dry and predetermined format and moved it to linguistic reasoning and gave it a practical aspect. Toulmin's reasoning method has six parts where every cogent and convincing argument includes at least the first three parts. Focusing on opinions and changing the status quo as well as rebutting the discourses of polytheism and disbelief, the Qurʾān contains argumentative discourses. Prophet Ibrahim's (AS) arguments when confronting the infidels and polytheists comprises the six parts of Touliman's model. In this descriptive-analytical research article, we intend to analyze the ayahs that are related to Prophet Ibrahim's (AS) linguistic arguments for different audiences according to Touliman's theory. The findings show that the arguments of Prophet Ibrahim (AS) in the face of infidels and polytheists incorporates the six parts of Touliman's model and his arguments enjoy the power of persuading the audience.

Cognitive sciences deal with research about the mind. Scholars of cognitive sciences consider explaining cognitive functions and hidden processes of the mind possible only through indirect methods such as the study of language. Therefore, cognitive linguistics has a privileged place in cognitive sciences. Motion verbs are one of the most focal fields of study in the meaning-based approach of cognitive semantics. Movement, embodied by means of verb as an active proposition in a sentence, is an important and effective element in conceptualization. The present descriptive-analytical research article studied participial and motion verbs used to refer to celestial bodies in the Holy Qurʾān and drawing on the principles of cognitive semantics examined the way events were conceptualized in the ayahs. In the Holy Qurʾān motion verbs of celestial bodies have been used in order to conceptualize abstract concepts such as the movement of celestial bodies, the way of movements, their occurrences, etc. and as a result different types of semantic concepts of the movement of celestial bodies have been represented in the Qurʾānic ayahs. Half of the verbs used for these objects are motional and the other half are participial. Participial verbs delicately describe the circular path of objects, how they move through the galaxy and where they start and return to their place. Motion verbs also indicate the movement and transition of these objects, which, except when it emphasizes the events of the Resurrection, is still an emphasis on the circular movement and rotation of the heavenly bodies.

The stories of the Holy Qurʾān can be analyzed from the perspective of narratology as a scinece, as they have a narrative context. In this type of analysis, intratextual connections between narrative components are examined. Among the stories of the Qurʾān, the story of Musa (AS) has the most extensive narrative text, revealed in different surahs of Qurʾān in a scattered form. By inventing the concept of chronotope in which the relativity between the two elements of time and place and their mutual relationship as well as comparing these two components with their objective and earthly measures are dicussed, Mikhail Bakhtin analyzed a given story. The main aim of the present article, which uses chronotope as a tool, is the identification of the unique features of the Qurʾānic story of Musa (AS) that distinguish it from the story of this prophet in the Torah, and the similarities and differences between the story of this prophet and other prophets in the Qurʾān. The result of the analysis shows that the Holy Qurʾān does not follow measurable time and place in the parts that are compatible with the Torah, and in parts of the story of Musa that is not narrated in the Torah and are only mentioned by the Qurʾān, such as the story of Musa and Khidr, time and place find symbolic and magical features.

One of the theories about the Holy Qurʾān is the theory of Michel Cuypers, who has a new approach to the order and coherence of the Qurʾān by using the method of symmetrical and inverse order. He divides the text into different levels, then introduces the various forms of symmetry in this theory with the help of authorial indicators and examines the forms of symmetry. Other forms of symmetry, i.e. synonymic parallelism, antonymic parallelism, authorial or evolutionary parallelism, axial order or circular composition, inverse order or mirror composition, or photographic contrast that are used for textual analysis with the help of authorial indicators of duality, synonymy, antonymy, similarity, repetition or identity, phonetic or consonantal allegory, morphological similarities, identical syntactic structure. In this article, after explaining the theory, its comprehensiveness and efficiency have been examined by applying the rules cited by Cuypers in Surah Al-Aʻlā, and it has been determined that the implementation of the aforementioned rules in this Surah and the classification of ayahs into sub-section, section, and part does not apply to a considerable number of ayahs. However, at the level of mafsal and maghta', it corresponds to all the ayahs.

The use of Qurʾānic ayahs and themes is one of the main sources of Persian language and literature poets and writers who have used this it in different ways, to the extent that complete intertextual relationships between the Qurʾān and literary texts can be seen. This relationship begins with adaptation and allusion and ends with deeper levels of intertextuality. In the current research, Monsha'at Qa'em-Maqam Farahani is discussed from the perspective of intertextuality, and as it will be seen, Qa'em-Maqam's use of Qurʾānic ayahs has been done in numerous ways: sometimes the author uses the same ayahs with the same Qurʾānic context, sometimes he uses the same ayah in a different context, and at other times the rhetorical and literary use of the ayah is more important to him. In some letters, he focuses more on persuading the audience and the reader and uses ayahs for this purpose, sometimes he interferes in the apparent structure of the ayah and mentions parts of it, and by doing so, he advances his goal. In some letters, there is a trace of the thematic content of the ayah intended by the author, while sometimes an ayah is used in accordance with a textual sign, and a lexical or semantic sign guides the author to use the ayah. In order to make the discussions more methodical and fruitful, the research findings are categorized in the lexical-syntactic, rhetorical, semantic, and pragmatic or contextual level of the language.