Plans for Heavenly Order Going Forward
An update on the state of this blog and the plans for its publication for the immediate future
﷽
As-Salām ʿalaykum,
Al-ḥamdulillāh, this blog has been going on weekly since May 2020. Since then, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the topic of Quranic Structuring and have been fortunate enough to be able to publish on it for many months.
I am now at a point where I have published some aspect of organization for half of the suwar of the Quran. I have even more research I could publish, but I also have a commitment to writing the Heavenly Order Book, which I have fallen behind on.
So in order to compromise and balance my time, I will be republishing all my posts over the coming weeks, but they will be updated to be written like I’m writing a chapter of my book. This way, those who joined this email list relatively recently will be able to see many of the suwar that they already missed.
As for those who already read them once… let’s be honest. We could all use a refresher! Even I forget the structure of some suwar, and I’m the one who recorded them!
So starting next Friday, I will be editing and rewriting my original posts, but this time with the intention of drafting them so that they can be cut and pasted into the Heavenly Order Book document. I’m sorry to those who were waiting on a particular sūrah, but life circumstances mean I have to budget my time accordingly.
If you want a free copy of the book when it’s done, you can support this newsletter by subscribing here:
Below is a tentative outline I have for the book. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
Bārak Allāh fī-kum
Title: Heavenly Order: Exploring the Divine Structure and Coherence of the Quran
Chapter 1 - Structuring in Literature - What is it and why does it matter?
Chapter 2 - Examples of Structuring and Cohesion in the Quran
This chapter will go sūrah-by-sūrah and show how each sūrah we have research on is organized. So this is where we’d take all the posts from this blog and make them into different sections under this chapter.
Specifically though, this chapter will only focus on suwar that have an individual structure. Not those that pair with surrounding ones.
Chapter 3 - Sūrah Pairs
Here we will look at suwar that have a complimentary structure with a sūrah adjacent to it.
Chapter 4 - Sūrah Groups
Same as previous chapter, but for groups of three or more suwar
Chapter 5 - Dovetailing
How does the ending of one sūrah lead into the beginning of the next? This adds to the argument that the canonical/compiled order of the Quran is divinely ordained, not randomly based on how the Companions chose.
Chapter 6 - Conclusion: Why it is a Miracle
Wrap up the ideas presented so far, explain the improbability of it all being done by an unlettered man, mention plans for future works, conclude.
Have any feedback on this outline? Should I split up the chapters more? Combine chapters? Good as is? Simply reply to this email to let me know your thoughts :)
And Allah knows best - والله أعلم