Exordium to Coherence in the Qur’an

by عبد الحميد الفراهي Hamiduddin Farahi, Tariq Mahmood Hashmi (Translator)

Hamid al-Din Farahi (India, died 1930) contests the received viewpoint that the text of the Holy Qur’an can be understood by treating each surah and verse independently and without tracing the thematic and structural coherence of the holy text. He proposes that each surah of the Qur’an deals with a specific central theme and the book as a whole is thematically structured. Through this approach, he establishes that the Qur’an is the only authority for deciding on its interpretation; all other resources are subservient to it. Thus the interpretative roles of the hadith literature, the opinions of the Companions and their successors, the tafsir literature and the narratives regarding the occasions of revelation – all are revisited by him, to show that they do not – and cannot –override the text of the Qur’an. This translation of Farahi’s introductory prologues to the unfinished commentary on the Qur’an, written originally in Arabic, will show how Farahi seeks to change our approach to the Qur’anic tafsir once and forever. Tariq Mahmood Hashmi is Assistant Editor, Research and Academics Department, al-Mawrid.

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 8, 2013

About the author

Hamiduddin Farahi (18 November 1863 – 11 November 1930) was an Indian Islamic scholar known for his work on the concept of nazm, or coherence, in the Quran.

He was instrumental in producing scholarly work on the theory that the verses of the Quran are interconnected in such a way that each surah, or chapter, of the Quran forms a coherent structure, having its own central theme, which he called umood. He also started writing his own exegesis, or tafsir of the Quran which was left incomplete on his death in 1930. The muqaddimah, or introduction to this is an important work on the theory of Nazm-ul-Quran.

Reviews

[Saif Ali Ahmad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamiduddin Farahi explains that the Quran is not just a collection of verses without order, but carefully placed and ordered, and has meaning in its order. All the chapters have certain themes to which they adhere, and explain them in a subtle manner

[Ajwad · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an outstanding work. such a Genius and Giant born in the midst of Chaos.