AN IN-DEPTH LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE THEMATIC CONNECTIVITY IN THE HOLY QURAN

The analysis of textual relations in the holy Quran, usually regarded as Munasaba or the organic unity, is an intersection between Tafsir and Linguistics. Considerable debates exist on whether the Quran possesses such an integrity or not in terms of linguistic analysis of the verses and suras. The lion’s share of the muslim literature on this issue believe in the existence of unity within the holy scripture whose inimitability and authenticity is beyond dispute. However, there might be cases where the themes in consecutive verses are not related to the same idea unit. Nevertheless, they are unified in terms of conveying the Islamic preaching to the recipients. That is, spiritual unity can be traced in sequence of verses. The present study aims at investigating the issue using a linguistic approach, referred to as Relevance theory. It tries to demonstrate that despite the apparent thematic disconnectivity, we can help the readers through the explanation and categorization see how the operations in the cognitive processes can contribute to the creation of meaning. In so doing, a retrospective overview of the previous attempts followed by an analysis of a Sura are performed to develop our understanding of the Quran.