Methodology of Structural Research in the Qur’ān; Case Study: Surah Nās, Surah Falaq and Surah ʿAṣr

Studying and researching the structural aspects of the Holy Quran, despite its extraordinary value and importance, has always faced challenges and obstacles. The defining and appropriate position has been reconsidered as it deserves in the field of Surah studies. The researcher does not encounter the Quran as a multi-page book with structural divisions rather than content-based parts and chapters, but rather sees the Quran as a collection consisting of one hundred and fourteen small and large Surahs and five hundred and fifty-five sub-Surahs or thematic units, which are studied, contemplated, and utilized Surah by Surah and unit by unit. The position, goals, and purposes of each Surah of the Holy Quran are recognized; the thematic axis or axes of each Surah are discovered, examined, and activated, and the characteristics of each Surah become apparent. The Surah researcher quickly realizes that contrary to the common perception of Muslim Quranic scholars and some non-Muslim Quranic scholars, the Surahs of the Quran are not just pieces of a book that has taken the name of the Quran, but rather the Surahs of the Quran are diverse facets of the noble Quran and various manifestations of the noble Quran, which the owner of the Quran has spread out before the wide-ranging servants and made available to them, so that gradually, they may find their way to the sea of knowledge and depths of truths of the noble Quran. Surah studies, which is essentially “Quranic studies Surah by Surah,” is one of the most necessary and dignified areas of modern Quranic studies. Understanding the relationship between the verses within a Surah and investigating the structure of that Surah is a new approach that, although detailed in previous interpretations, has not received serious attention from Quranic scholars. According to the “Surah recognition,” each Surah has its own specific goal and thematic axis, so that all the verses of the Surah revolve around that axis, and in this way, a meaningful relationship between the verses is recognized.