Sūrah al-Baqarah (Part 7)
Part 7 of observations on how Sūrah al-Baqarah is organized
Last week we observed the structure and coherence of Section [D] - The Change of Prayer Direction to the Ka‘bah and Section [C’] - Restoring Abraham’s Legacy. This week we will continue our breakdown of Sūrah al-Baqarah with the next section, Section [B’] - Laws for the New Muslim Nation.
As a reminder, the entire sūrah is structured as so:
Connections to Previous Sections
Before the newly founded community can engage in battle, it is in need of laws. The concluding statement of the last section, known as the Āyah of Piety, sets the ethical tone for the body of legislation that will follow it.
This section will also address one of the chief problems of warfare; that of orphans and widows. Marriage is a means of solving the problem of widows. Accordingly, the end of Section [B’] - Laws for the New Muslim Nation provides regulations concerning marriage and divorce. However, one brief passage appears towards the end of the section that appears disconnected from the surrounding discussion of divorce and widows:
“Guard the ritual prayers, especially the middle ritual prayer, and stand before Allah in devout obedience. And if you fear [an enemy], then [pray[ on foot or while riding. Then when you are secure, remember Allah, as He taught you what you did not know” (238-239).
Since divorce is the severing of one of the most emotionally involving of human relationships, the instruction to “guard the ritual prayers, especially the middle ritual prayer” reminds individuals in the process of divorce not to forget the most important relationship, which is one’s relationship with Allah ﷻ.
This instruction also recalls the earlier instruction, at the beginning of Section [C’] - Restoring Abraham’s Legacy (“The new nation will be tested”), to “seek help” in times of adversity “through perseverance and prayer” - a piece of advice that is relevant in times of divorce (hence āyah 238) and which was also revealed concerning the context of war (hence āyah 239).
Moreover, the instruction in āyah 239, to pray on foot or while on horseback “if you fear” an enemy (239), also recalls the beginning of Section [C’] - Restoring Abraham’s Legacy: "We will test you with something of fear” (155). Additionally, the instruction in āyah 239 to “remember Allah as He taught you what you did not know” recalls the command repeated throughout earlier parts of the sūrah, and especially this section, to “remember Allah” (āyāt 152, 198, 200, 203) and to “remember [His] favor” (āyāt 40, 47, 122, 231).
The parallels we have just noted between the end of Section [B’] - Laws for the New Muslim Nation and the beginning of Section [C’] - Restoring Abraham’s Legacy connect the two sections together, as if they were a single, continuous section. Indeed, when these sections are read together, a number of interesting literary patterns emerge. We will just mention one of these here.
Section [C’] - Restoring Abraham’s Legacy contained a discussion on the topics of monotheism (163-164), polytheism (165-167), and dietary restrictions (168-169 and 172-173). This is followed shortly after, in the beginning of Section [B’] - Laws for the New Muslim Nation, with regulations concerning the sanctity of human life and the crime of manslaughter (178-179). Neal Robinson observes that this sequence of topics parallels material in Section [B] - Criticism of the Israelites:
“The Children of Israel were commandwed to revere the One God (cf. v.40), but they fell into idolotry and worshiped the calf (cf. vv. 51-54). Their idolotry led them in turn to be discontent with the food with which God provided them (cf. v. 61) and to commit manslaughter (cf. v. 72).
Ring Structure of Section [B’] - Laws for the New Muslim Nation
Finally, this section may be organized in the following ring structure:
والله أعلم - And Allah knows best
Sources
The above quote is from Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, 213.
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, 9-24