Nursi’s Approach to the Qur’anic Sciences

Abstract

This chapter discusses the sciences of the Qur’an (‘Ulūm al-Qur’an), analysing the views of modern Muslim scholars, particularly A. Khan and ʿAbduh, on these topics. In the context of the modernist views, the chapter focuses on Nursi’s approach to the major Qur’anic sciences, which are occasions of revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), abrogation (naskh), clear and ambiguous (muhkam wa-mutashābih), inimitability of the Qur’an (iʿjāz al-Qur’an), Qur’anic narratives (qaṣaṣ al-Qur’an), difficult words and passages (mushkil al-Qur’an) and intratextual hermeneutics (tanâsub). The chapter contributes to the study and provides various aspects of Nursi’s exegetical methodology, along with the views of modernist exegesis.