Welcome to the program. This episode will focus on the issue of coherence and self-consistency in the Qur’an.

The coherence and self-consistency of the ayahs and surahs of Qur’an is one of the important Qur’anic sciences. God says in ayah 23 of surah Zumar, “Allah has sent down the best of discourses, a scripture of similar motifs, whereat quiver the skins of those who fear their Lord, then their skins and hearts soften to Allah’s remembrance. That is Allah’s guidance, by which He guides whomever he wishes; and whomever Allah leads astray has no guide.”

The word Qur’an itself derives from Qara’en which is the plural of Qarina meaning similar and symmetry; since each of the ayahs of this Book is the similar and symmetry of another ayah. One ayah gives evidence on another ayah. In view of this one can interpret one ayah through another ayah. This coherence and conformity prevails throughout the Qur’an. Thus, judging the holy Qur’an by a single ayah is wrong and one should take into consideration all related ayahs and then come to a conclusion. Dr. Mohammad Diraz of Al-Azhar University in Cairo likens the Qur’an to a beautiful picture and says, “If our eyes are restricted to a minute part it won’t look except variegated and incoherent colours. But if we broaden the scope of our glance we will witness a beautiful, novel and attractive picture.”

  In view of this it should be stressed that the holy Qur’an is not a set of inconsistent and irrelevant subjects. Rather it is a consistent and coordinated set which maintains an internal order.

According to Imam Khomeini even the Bismillah (In the name of God) in the beginning of each surah is related to the very surah and is not a repeated phrase.  

When we look at the book of a prominent writer or exegete we expect to find coherence, coordination and conformity among its subjects. Otherwise we will conclude that the writer or exegete is not a skilled and learned person. Hence, this is an important principle of Qur’an, too. In the first ayah of surah Hud God says, “This is a Book whose signs have been made definitive. And then elaborated from an All-wise, All-aware.”

With emphasizing on the two epithets of wisdom and awareness and elaboration of the ayahs by God, can anyone claim that there is no consistency among the ayahs and surahs of the Qur’an? Perhaps for this reason God says in ayah 82 of surah Nisa, “Do they not contemplate the Qur’an? Had it been from someone other than Allah, they would have surely found much discrepancy in it.”

The message of the ayah is that since the holy Qur’an is from God there is not discrepancy, contradiction and inconformity in it. One has to look deeply at the Qur’an and avoid studying the surface.

Some people have tried to rule out consistency of the holy Qur’an saying that the Qur’an was descended to the heart of the Prophet as a whole in the night of Qadr while it was sent down gradually within 23 years; whereas sending down the Qur’an gradually or as a whole occurred through the Will of God.

The fact of the matter is that there is consistency in terms of wording, purport, and all the issues of the Qur’an.

RM/SS