The Concept and Usage of Qurʾānic Fāṣilah in Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Taʾwīl

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Hamed Jokar
Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
10.30497/qhs.2026.249533.4294
Abstract
The Qurʾānic fāṣilah (verse-ending) is a rhetorical device within the field of Qurʾānic rhetoric (balāghah) that concerns the structural and stylistic closure of Qurʾānic verses. This concept—also referred to as ruʾūs al-āy (heads of verses)—bears both similarities to and differences from poetic rhyme (qāfiyah) and prose rhyme (sajʿ). It constitutes one of the debated issues among Qurʾānic exegetes concerned with the literary dimensions of the Qurʾān. Among these exegetes, al-Bayḍāwī, in his commentary Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Taʾwīl, frequently engages with this concept in his discussion of Qurʾānic rhetorical features. Consequently, later exegetes have debated his position, either accepting or rejecting the applicability of the notion of fāṣilah in various Qurʾānic contexts. A precise understanding of al-Bayḍāwī’s view on the concept and function of fāṣilah is therefore essential for a proper interpretation of this rhetorical category. This study seeks to reconstruct al-Bayḍāwī’s perspective through a comprehensive survey of all instances in which he refers to this concept, followed by a detailed analytical examination of his usage. It also considers the views of later exegetes and, through an inferential method, offers a more precise depiction of al-Bayḍāwī’s rhetorical framework. The study is organized into two main sections: the first examines the semantic meaning of fāṣilah and its historical development prior to al-Bayḍāwī in order to clarify the extent of his intellectual indebtedness to earlier scholars; the second analyzes the specific contexts in which al-Bayḍāwī employs the term in his exegesis. The findings indicate that al-Bayḍāwī treats fāṣilah and ruʾūs al-āy as synonymous concepts and employs them alongside alternative interpretive possibilities. Moreover, later exegetes generally appear to have been influenced by his formulation and usage of the concept.
Keywords
Anwār al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Taʾwīl
ruʾūs al-āy
Qurʾānic rhetoric
fāṣilah
al-Bayḍāwī&rsquo
s exegesis.
Subjects
The Holy Qurʾān.
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