Coherence in the Qur'an

A widely held view about the Qur an is that, in its received form, it lacks coherence. Not surprisingly, most approaches to the Qur an have remained atomistic in characters. Also, some western scholars have tried to rearrange the Qur an in order to make it more comprehensible . The contemporary scholar Amin Ahsan Islahi rejects the view that the Qur an is disjointed. Developing the seminal ideas and insights of his teacher, Hamid ad-Din al-Farahi, he has argued in Tadabur-I- Qur an, his multi-volume Qur an commentary (Urdu), that the Qur an possesses a nazm or coherence that is not only aesthetically pleasing but carries profound hermeneutical significance. Coherence in the Qur an is the first detailed study of Islahi s contribution to Qur an exegesis. After putting a historical perspective on the idea of nazm in the Qur an, it makes a critical examination of the major aspect of Islahi s theory of Qur anic nazm, and tries to assess the significance of this new approach to the Qur an.