إمعان في أقسام القرآن

Im'an fi Aqsam al-Qur'an

Note : This edition is over 30 years old thus slight imperfections should be expected, like discolouring on the edges of pages, slight scuffs on the cover etc.

A distinctive study of the oaths of the Qurʾān (Aqsām al-Qurʾān) by the Indian Qurʾānic scholar Ḥamīd al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Farāhī (d. 1349 AH / 1930). Al-Farāhī originally conceived the work as part of the general methodological introduction to his larger Qurʾānic project, Niẓām al-Qurʾān wa Taʾwīl al-Furqān bi’l-Furqān, but treated the subject independently because of the frequency of oaths in the Qurʾān and the interpretive difficulties surrounding their purpose and meaning.

The central concern of the book is not simply to catalogue the Qurʾān’s oaths, but to establish a general theory for understanding why Allah swears by particular objects and phenomena and how the oath relates to the statement for which it is given. Al-Farāhī develops the important argument that the objects by which the Qurʾān swears are not introduced merely for their glorification. Rather, the oath frequently functions as testimony, evidence or argument (istishhād and istidlāl): the muqsam bihi itself bears witness to, or provides evidence for, the truth expressed in the muqsam ʿalayhi. This principle becomes a key to interpreting many otherwise difficult Qurʾānic oaths.