NAZM PRINCIPLE IN THE QURAN Although the Quran exegesis made by the Muslims is predominantly atomistic, there have been writers who have tried to see in the Quran elements of coherence and integration. And nazm is the term that many of these writers use to describe such elements in the Quran. The idea of nazm has basically been arisen in connection with the discussion on the ijaz (“inimitability”) of the Quran.Muslim writers have throughout maintained that there is ijaz in the Quran, with the exception of people like Husayn Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn ar-Rawandi (d.298/910). However in what the ijaz of the Quran is found there had been difference of opinion. Nevertheless, there are some who thought that this ijaz is contained in the nazm of the Quran.It is said that Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Jahiz (163-255/780-869) and Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Zayd al- Wasiti (d.309/919) had written books on the nazm of Quran, but the books are not extant. Even books of other few scholars are not also accessible who have written on the subject. The following books are worth mentioning in this respect. Nazm ad-Durar fi Tanasub al –Ayat wa s-Suwar by Ibrahim ibn Umar al-Baqi (809-885/1406-1480); Tafsir ar-Rahman wa Taysir al Mannam bi Bad M a Yushiru ila Ijaz al –Quran by Ala ad- Din Abu L-Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al –Makhdumi al –Mahaimi (776-835/1374-1432); and Tafsir Muhammadi fi rtibat al –Ayat by Jalal a-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Nasir ad-Din (d.982/1574). Even Sayuti has mentioned about a book he himself has written on the subject.175/. In the same way there are two views about nazm, i.e. there are those who interpret nazm as some kind of relationship between words and meanings, and those who understand by it a linear connection existing between the Quranic verses, surahs, or verses and surahs both. The Quranic scholars who lay more stress on word-meaning relationship are Abu Sulayman Hamd ibn Muhammad al-Khattabi (319-388/931-998), the first writer who has definitely suggested that it is nazm that largely explains the ijaz in the Quran. In his book Kitab Bayan Ijaz al –Qurasn, Khattabi says that the key to Quranic ijaz is Quranic balaghah (eloquence). He says: - “The Quran is inimitable, in that it employs the most eloquent words in ideal forms of composition (ahsan nuzum at-talif) embodying the truest meaningds.”Balaghah consists of three elements: words, meanings, and nazm. However, Khattabi considers the element of nazm to be more important than the other two .He says: - “As for the modes of nazm, the need to master them is greater [than the need to choose the right words or reflect on the meanings], for they hold words and meanings together, and it is by virtue of them that the parts of an utterance become well-knit.”176/. It seems that Khattabi thinks that nazm stands for the particular ways in which words are arranged in order to put across the desired meaning. Because the poor arrangement of otherwise appropriate words would impede the conveying of the meaning, no matter how clearly the meaning was conceived mentally. The Quran is inimitable, as it has employed the words that are perfectly suited to the meaning it wants to impart, it generates ideal nazm or structure. Thus nazm is the constituent of balaghah that is independent of the other two constituents, words and meanings, and that he conceives of nazm in terms of word –meaning arrangement. The Quranic nazm seems to be in individual words, phrases, or sentences. Mustansir Mir says: - “ …That he does not, for example, aim to show that a series of sentences taken together, or an extended passage, might be informed by nazm.” 177/ Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn at-Tayyib al-Baqillani (338-403/950-1013), Abu Bakr Abd al-Qahir ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Jurjani (d.471/1078), and Abu L-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar az-Zamakhshari .Baqillani has provided some details about the actual meaning of nazm. As the Quran is characterized by Badi.Badi is a technical term in Arabic and denotes that branch of balaghah which deals with the use of literary devices like mutabagah (contrasting pairs) tajnis (paronomasia), Baqillani says after discussing these terms in detail that in these aspects the Quran can not be imitated. Since bad¢i is related to finally to effective communication in this way in a sense it can be said that even Baqallani regards nazm as the “unique relationship that the Quran establishes between words and meanings. For Jurjani Nazm is the only proof of or fundamental proof of Quranic i¢jaz. He says in his Ar.-Risalah ash-Shafiyah that: -The (Quranic) challenge was that they (Arabs) give expression to any thought they liked but in such a way that the product should, in point of nazm, either compare with the excellence of the Quran or approximate that excellence.”178/ It is Nazm that makes the Quran inimitable and it is Quranic nazm that Arabs failed to match. Nazm according to Jurjani is the relating of the words to one another in a way that establishes between them a causal connection. Thus, in Arabic, words may be related to one another in three ways: noun to noun, noun to verb and particle to noun and verb. But the order in which words are arranged is determined, or ought to be determined, by the order in which meanings exist in the mind of the speaker. In order to achieve perfect translation of ideas into words, it is necessary to adhere to the rules of grammar. By grammar Jurjani means not simply the inflectional endings of words, as he claims most grammarians before him took grammar to be, but also grammatical structures in which the positions of the structural components are significant =I which t¢arif (definiteness) and tankir (indefiniteness), taqdim (preposing) and takhir (postposing), hadhf (ellipsis) and takrar (repetition) etc are meaningful and must be reckoned with. Jurjani calls these aspects of grammar m¢aani an – nahw (grammatical meanings) and makes an understanding of them a prerequisite to the appreciation of nazm. Words should serve as vehicles to thought Jurjani calls them as awiyah li l-m¢aani (receptacles for meanings.). He has expanded the scope of grammar thus. 179/ (Zamakhshari in the introduction of his Tafsir, says while expressing the gratitude to Allah, kalaman muallafan munazzaman (a well –composed and well-knit discourse), he also seems to believe that the i¢jaz of the Quran lies in the nazm of the Quran. Apart from the points which have been discussed by Baqillani and Jurjani about nazm, he, however, lays much emphasis on the suitability of Quranic words to Quranic ideas, and also deals with the structure of the Quranic sentences and tries to bring out the relation between the verses of a passage. Like Jurjani, Zamakhshari also conceives of nazm in grammatical –rhetorical terms, though in more complex way. Thus Khattabi presents the idea that nazm constitutes balaghah, and balaghah explains Quranic ijaz.,Baqillani elucidates nazm in the terms of badi,trying to establish that the Quran is free from the imperfections that mark Arabic poetry. Jurjani thinks that the grammatical meanings to be constituting nazm ,and in the explanation relies on Arabic poetry and refers to the Quran relatively infrequently. Zamakhshari cites extensively from Arabic poetry ,and shows how the Quran exceeds the highest standards of human eloquence .He also established nazm relationships that are subtler and more complex than found in any of the other three writers. The word used by Zarakshi for the interrelationships between the Quranic verses is munasibat (pl. munasabah), though a difficult one and attempted only by very few scholars like Razi. Razi is the first scholar who has applied the idea of nazm to the whole of the Quran, as according to him most of the lataif of the Quran are yielded through the nazm of this or that verse and criticizes certain interpretations of the Quran if, in his view they violate the nazm of the Quran. Razis’ method of establishing nazm in a Quranic surah consists in showing how verse 1 of the surah leads to verse 2,how verse 2 is related to verse 3, and so on until an unbroken linear connection between all the verses of the surah is established. Sometimes Razi seeks to connect surahs in similar fashion. He uses munasibat for denoting nazm, wajh an –nazm. Mawdudi talks of nazm that in the Quran the central thesis of the Quran and the subject matter of the Quran is man, and it revolves around the same. Muhammad Mahmud Hijazi talks of the “topical unity” in the Quran. Fazlur Rahman says that the Quran possesses a cohesive out look on the universe and life. But according to Farahi school of though the basic nazm unit in the Quran is the surah. Every surah has a central theme called ¢amud, around which the entire surah revolves .The ¢amud is the unifying thread in the surah, and the surah is to be interpreted with reference to it. Not only is every surah a unity, there is logical link between all the surahs as they follow one another in the present Quranic arrangement .The surahs fall into nine groups, and each group is, like a surah, a unity. Every group begins with a Makkan surah and ends with a Madinan surah. A surah may have parenthetical verses in it, which means that sometimes its verses will be connected with one another at one or several removes. In a surah groups, likewise, there may be a surah that is supplementary to the preceding one, which means that two surahs may be connected with each other at one remove. Although Amin Islahi takes over the design of Quranic nazm as presented by Farahi. But he makes a few changes in it. First, he classifies the surahs into seven rather than nine groups. Further, he regards all surahs, with the exception of a few, as paired. The important point is that, for seven –fold division and for the surah pairing, Islahi seeks to adduce evidence from the Quran itself. Second, according to Islahi, in each of the seven-surah groups, the Makkah and Madinan surahs form distinct blocs, with the Makkan bloc proceeding the Madinan. That is, the Makkan bloc contains no Madinan surah and the Madinan bloc contains no Makkan surah. This distinction is significant in the eyes of Islahi. Farahi does not insist on this distinction. Third, Islahi thinks that each of the seven-surah groups treats all the phases of Islamic movement as led by Muhammad in Arabia, though the emphasis in each group is different. This idea, in this form, is not found in Farahi. 180/ “Of these several differences between the Farahi-Islahi principle and the traditionally held principles of Quran exegesis, the most significant pertains to nazm: while other scholars make no mention of nazm as an exegetical principle, Farahi and Islahi not only regard it as one, they regard it as a principle of supreme importance. The constituents of nazm according to Farahi are three: order, proportion and unity. Basically, Islahi takes over Farahi’s nazm framework, but makes a few changes in it. Both Farahi and Islahi believe that it is a nazm that, by providing a definite context for Quranic verses, yields the correct interpretation of the Quran. He says in the introduction of his Tafsir that he wants to show the interrelatedness between the Quranic verses and to identify the meaning of a particular verse in the light of the identical verses and has tried to delve deep in the depths of each verse to unearth its meaning and after reaching to the meaning to articulate every verse in the light of Shariah and reason. Farahi claims that he is not follower of any other person in the identification of nazm. The difference in the tawil of the Quran owes its origin to the negligence of the people about nazm in the Quran.Because had the people kept the nazm of the Quran before them and had they identified the umud of the surah or central idea, there would have been no difference in the tawil. In that case there would have been no difference in the tawil and all the people would have come under one banner and raised the same voice. Muslims in that case would have held the rope of Allah very strongly. But when they reached to the situation which was its antithesis, and people left the rope which was called by the Quran as hablil ala al Mateen and which could never be invaded by falsehood and they considered it as disintegrated there was no way out of this dissension and conflict. The result was that every group started interpreting the Quran in his own way and tried to mould the meanings of it as he wishes to mould. Because it is the nazm of kalam which leads to the right direction of the speech and the only way to reform the innovators and the people who transgress, and the Speech of the Allah (Quran) can thus be safeguarded from their erroneous interpretations and distortions.181/
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:00:20 +0000
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