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Last week we observed the structure and coherence of Section [B] - Criticism of the Israelites. This week we will continue our breakdown of Sūrah al-Baqarah with Section [C] - Abraham’s Legacy.
As a reminder, the entire sūrah is structured as so:
The previous section on the Children of Israel leads to a new section on Abraham, the physical ancestor of both the Israelites, who included the Jews of Medina, and the Ishmaelites, who included the Messenger ﷺ, his Meccan followers, and the disbelievers of the Quraysh. Accordingly, Allah ﷻ summons both the Israelites and the Ishmaelites to be muslims (those who submit) and to believe in all the prophets of Abraham’s line.
This section highlights Abraham’s spiritual legacy which is captured in the following symmetrical structures:
Ring Structure of Āyāt 122-133
Ring Structure of Āyāt 134-141
والله أعلم - And Allah knows best
Sources
Ali Khan, Nouman and Sharif Randhawa. Divine Speech: Exploring the Quran as Literature. Bayyinah Institute, 2016
Amīn Aḥsan Iṣlāḥī, Tadabbur-e-Qur’ān: Pondering Over the Qur’ān Volume 1: Tafsīr of Sūrah al-Fātiḥah and Sūrah al-Baqarah, trans. Mohammad Saleem Kayani (Kual Lampur: Islamic Book Trust, 2006), 526-527
Mustansir Mir, “The Sūra as a Unity: A Twentieth Century Development in Qur’an Exegesis” in Approaches to the Qur’an, eds. G. R. Hawting and Abdul-Kader A. Shareef, eds. (London: Routledge, 1993), 211-224
Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, 201-223
A. H. Mathias Zahniser, “Major Transitions and Thematic Borders in Two Long Sūras: al-Baqara and al-Nisā’” in Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, ed. Issa J. Boulatta (RichmondL Curzon, 2000)
Raymond Farrin, “Surat al-Baqara: A Structural Analysis,” Muslim World 100.1 (2010): 17-32
Nevin Reda El-Tehry, Textual Integrity and Coherence in the Qur’an: Repetition and Narrative Structure in Surat al-Baqara (PhD diss., University of Toronto, Toronto, 2010)
Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation, 9-21
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