Structure and Semantics in Surah al-Nisa': on marriage, wealth, and building a community

This paper asks whether existing scholarship on the unity and structure of Surah al-Nisāʾ can be used as a hermeneutic tool. The first part of the paper attempts to find if there is meaning in the structure, particularly in the final verse on Kalālah, verse ۱۷۶ which seems to be misplaced. The second part of the paper explores some of the key words used to describe gender/marital relations in Surah al-Nisāʾ, which are actually repeated throughout the surah in different capacities. Drawing on three classical and modern tafsīrs with an eye to coherence (al-Rāzī, al-Biqāʿī, and Tabataba’i) this paper recontextualises such words as qiwāmah, faḍl, and nushūz. In the final discussion, concepts of femininity and masculinity as they relate to the surah are analysed.

کلیدواژه ها:

the Qur’an ، Surah al-Nisāʾ ، Qur’anic coherence ، Faḍl ، Munāsabah ، Qiwāmah ، Kalālah ، Nushūz ، Gender relations in the Qur’an