Particularization in The Qur'anic Composition

Abstract

"Particularization in the Qur'anic composition" does not deal with its subject from a doctrinal viewpoint as is often the case with Islamic scholars nowadays- but from a rhetorical and stylistic perspective. It stresses the inherent interrelations between particularization/specification and the overarching Qur'anic composition. The study thus distinguishes itself from the doctrinal approaches by its wider perspective, which seeks to understand and analyze the tools and techniques used in particularization, the diversity of their significations and the impact they have on the various pedagogic and educational dimensions, in addition to their role in exemplifying the miraculous nature of the Qur'an and the Qur'anic composition. The research examines these tools and techniques used in particularization from this rhetorical perspective. It sees them as cognitive and/or logical evidence cited, paying special attention to their context- sometimes occurring before the specified object, as in referentiality, instantiation, reversal, etc., or after it as in description, condition, conjunction, exception, etc. The research elucidates the reasons for particularization in the Holy Quran and refers to their most salient forms, like honoration, prioritization, relevance, insinuation, etc. It also reveals the ideological, doctrinal, educational and rhetorical effects of particularization so as to underscore the close relation between, on the one hand, particularization and the Qur'anic meaning and, on the other, the aesthetic dimensions of the Qur'anic sematic significations..