SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This is a study of textual relations in the Qur'an which explores the possibility of looking differently at the relations holding between the variety of topics that are usually encountered in the long Qur'anic suras. It adopts principles from linguistic and pragmatic theory, and attempts to explain textual relations in accordance with those principles. The main argument of the thesis is that the study of textual relations may be based on a search not necessarily for unity of theme, but rather for whatever types of relations do exist, how they work, and what linguistic tools can be used in directing the reader towards understanding them. The study is divided into an introduction and five chapters. In the first chapter I discuss the development of the view of textual relations in the field of Qur'anic studies and suggest the need for a new methodology that is more systematic and more theoretically guided. In the second chapter I explain the theoretical framework adopted and its implications for the study of the Qur'an, with particular focus on the role of context in understanding text and textual relations. The third and fourth chapters are devoted to analyzing two sample suras from the Qur'an and discussion of their problematic textual relations in the light of the linguistics and pragmatics of their texts. The discussion of the two sample suras covers many aspects of textual relations that are encountered elsewhere in the Qur'an, and the findings of the analysis are used to propose a generalized solution of the problem and a methodology and guiding mechanisms for further applications. The fifth and final chapter draws conclusions from the study and considers the implications of this research for tafsir in general and in understanding the structure of information and textual relations in the Qur'an in particular.