ṬIBĀQ AND SAJʿ IN SŪRAT AL-MULK: A CONTEXTUALIST READING OF DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY OVER SUSTENANCE AND ITS CRITIQUE OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15408/quhas.v15i1.54360Keywords:
ʿIlm al-Badīʿ, Ṭibāq; Sajʿ, Sūrat al-Mulk, Socio-Economic InequalityAbstract
Studies of ʿilm al-badīʿ in the Qurʾān have largely remained at the level of formal identification and seldom connect rhetorical devices with social concerns such as socio-economic inequality. This study analyses ṭibāq and sajʿ in Sūrat al-Mulk as representations of divine sovereignty over sustenance and formulates their relevance for a critique of inequality. Using library research within Abdullah Saeed’s contextualist approach, it classifies the devices according to Jawāhir al-balāghah and reads them through al-Kashshāf, checked against al-Rāzī, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Qurṭubī. The sūrah contains nine instances of ṭibāq al-ījāb: three canonical oppositions build a cosmic-theological frame, while six contextual oppositions cluster around sustenance and resources. Its verse endings form a rāʾ block (verses 1–21) and a mīm–nūn block (verses 22–30) and contain no sajʿ muraṣṣaʿ, which corrects an earlier classification of verses 10–11. Both blocks close on sustenance and water, locating ownership of the means of life with God. Placed within Saeed’s hierarchy of values, this pattern yields three values: equality before the divine test, trusteeship over resources, and accountability for what is hidden. The study shows that ṭibāq and sajʿ form a single architecture of meaning. It also grounds a social reading of a Meccan sūrah in a verse-by-verse linguistic inventory.
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