Deconstructing Semitic Rhetorical Analysis: Confronting Hermeneutical Drift and Restoring Epistemic Integrity in Qur’anic Interpretation

Abstract

For Qur’anic studies, Michel Cuypers’ Semitic Rhetorical Analysis (SRA) has been positively received as the first providing a structural approach to the harmony of the verses. However, as it comes from a Biblicist tradition, it has had problems from an epistemological perspective within the confines of Islamic exegesis. This article considers these problems in the SRA vis-a-vis the Islamic epistemology which is anchored within nubuwwah and revelation. This work involves, as it is set out, a qualitative and conceptual-critical engagement with SRA along with classical Islamic tradition structural exegesis, in this case, al-Biqāʿī’s Naẓm al-Durar. This speaks to the theological and ontological aspects which underlie Islamic interpretative epistemology, particularly ontological dimensions. SRA’s lack of appreciation of prophetic authority, the riwāyāt, and the context of revelation risks treating the Qur'an as if it were a mere linguistic text in isolation. It is fundamental to devise an interpretative epistemology that is based on revelation, maqāṣid, and the integrative tradition of Islamic scholarship to respond to the impact of Western hermeneutical traditions.