The Linguistic Miracle of the Qur'an: Balāghah Perspectives on Tanāfur Al-ḥurūf, Gharābah, and Mukhālafat Al-Qiyas

Abstract

This article examines the linguistic miracle of the Qur’an through the classical balāghah perspective on faṣāḥah, with particular attention to tanāfur al-ḥurūf, gharābah, and mukhālafat al-qiyās. The study addresses the problem that modern discussions of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān often remain either broadly theological or stylistically general, without sufficiently reconstructing the technical criteria by which classical Arabic rhetoric evaluates linguistic perfection. Using a qualitative textual research design, the article combines philological-conceptual analysis, classical balāghah theory, and Qur’anic hermeneutics. Its primary focus is the reconstruction of three negative criteria of faṣāḥah: phonetic disharmony, lexical obscurity, and deviation from accepted grammatical or morphological norms. The findings show that Qur’anic discourse demonstrates linguistic inimitability through the absence of these defects. The Qur’an avoids tanāfur al-ḥurūf by achieving phonetic harmony and articulatory balance; it avoids defective gharābah by combining semantic density with communicative clarity; and it avoids mukhālafat al-qiyās by employing syntactic and morphological variation within the normative possibilities of Arabic. These findings indicate that the Qur’an’s linguistic miracle operates through the integration of sound, vocabulary, structure, meaning, and context. The theoretical contribution of this article lies in repositioning faṣāḥah as a central analytical category for studying iʿjāz lughawī, thereby bridging classical Arabic rhetoric with contemporary Qur’anic linguistics and hermeneutical inquiry.