The Intellectual Genealogy of balāghah: Historical Development and Its Role in Understanding the Qur'an

Abstract

This article examines the intellectual genealogy of balāghah and its role in shaping the interpretation of the Qur’an as a rhetorically organized and semantically layered discourse. The study addresses the problem that balāghah is often treated either as a chronological history of rhetorical terminology or as a technical background to Qur’anic stylistics, without sufficient attention to its function as a historically formed hermeneutical tradition. Using a qualitative textual research design, the article combines historical-genealogical analysis, philological-conceptual reading, and hermeneutical-rhetorical interpretation. The primary textual corpus consists of selected classical works by al-Jurjānī, al-Sakkākī, and al-Qazwīnī, while contemporary scholarship on Qur’anic linguistics, coherence, semantics, and digital Islamic knowledge provides the analytical context. The findings show that balāghah developed from early reflections on eloquence, Qur’anic inimitability, and the relation between wording and meaning into a systematic science of maʿānī, bayān, and badīʿ. Al-Jurjānī’s theory of naẓm established a relational theory of meaning, al-Sakkākī transformed rhetorical concepts into a disciplinary architecture, and al-Qazwīnī contributed to their pedagogical consolidation. The study further demonstrates that balāghah functions as a Qur’anic hermeneutics by explaining word order, ellipsis, emphasis, figurative expression, coherence, and communicative force. Its theoretical contribution lies in repositioning balāghah as a bridge between classical Arabic rhetoric, contemporary Qur’anic Studies, and emerging digital approaches to Islamic knowledge.