METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN
by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein
Harmony in the stars and in the Qur’ān
The Qur’ān has invited mankind to embark on a search to find any discordance or anything which disrupts the perfect harmony that exists in the sky above:
“[Hallowed be] He who has created seven heavens in full harmony with one another: no fault will you see in the creation of the Most Gracious. And turn your vision [upon it] once more: can you see any flaw?
“Yea, turn your vision [upon it] again and yet again: [and every time] your vision will fall back upon you, dazzled and truly defeated …”
(Qur’ān, al-Mulk, 67:3-4)
Only after having challenged mankind to find any discrepancy or disharmony in the pattern of the stars above, did the Qur’ān then explain that the stars were placed in the sky as lamps (which show the way to go):
“And, indeed, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights, and have made them the object of futile guesses for the evil ones [from among men]: and for them have We readied suffering through a blazing flame –”
(Qur’ān, al-Mulk, 67:5)
The lesson in methodology that was thus taught should have been clear to the scholars of the Qur’ān, namely that there is perfect harmony with no inconsistency and no contradiction in all the verses of the Qur’ān. Indeed this perfect harmony is a Sign of its divine origin:
Will they not, then, try to understand this Qur’ān? Had it issued from any but Allah, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction (i.e., many verses contradicting each other)!
(Qur’ān, al-Nisā, 4:82)
Hence in studying the verses of the Qur’ān to discover the system of meaning of a subject, the student must always struggle to locate that explanation which harmoniously integrates as a perfect whole all the data in the Qur’ān on that subject. In the same way that no star is out of place in the sky above, so too no verse is out of place in the Qur’ān. No verse contradicts another verse, and no verse cancels another verse!
It would benefit the gentle reader if some examples of the applications of that method of study of the Qur’ān of locating the system of meaning, can be provided in this essay, and it is to this that we now turn.
to be continued .....
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