al-Badihiyat fi al-Quran al-Karim
- Author died
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Badihiyat fi al-Quran al-Karim (Self-Evident Truths in the Holy Qur'an) is a contemporary treatise on Quranic rhetoric by the Saudi scholar Fahd al-Rumi (Fahd ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman al-Rumi), exploring the rhetorical wisdom and communicative functions of self-evident propositions in the Quran . The work was published as a monograph in Riyadh and also featured as a research study in the Journal of the Islamic University of Madinah in 1423 AH / 2002 CE .
Subject and Scope
The study investigates Quranic statements whose explicit meaning or conclusion appears self-evident (badihi) and readily graspable by the mind at first glance . al-Rumi defines al-badihiyat in the Quran as verses that explicitly state the necessary concomitant (lazim) of preceding speech, its instrument (alah), or an arithmetical total of two numbers that requires nothing more than initial mental apprehension . He observes that while reciters often pass over these verses without pausing because their basic meaning is entirely obvious, classical exegetes with rhetorical interests frequently examined them to uncover why the Quran explicitly verbalizes what is already known .
The author classifies self-evident propositions into two broad categories according to their origin:
- Propositions whose self-evidence arises because the second statement is an obvious result of the first, such as the mathematical total in the verse: فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ فِي الْحَجِّ وَسَبْعَةٍ إِذَا رَجَعْتُمْ تِلْكَ عَشَرَةٌ كَامِلَةٌ ("a fast of three days during the pilgrimage and seven when you return; that is ten complete [days]") .
- Propositions whose self-evidence relies on direct initial mental recognition without depending on a prior textual premise, such as: ثُمَّ إِنَّكُمْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ لَمَيِّتُونَ ("Then after that, you will surely die") .
Rhetorical Connection and Typology
al-Rumi links the study of badihiyat directly to Arabic rhetoric (balaghah), noting that stating self-evident facts touches upon core rhetorical principles such as matching the requirements of the context (mutabaqat al-kalam li-muqtada al-hal), amplification (itnab), and corroboration (ta'kid) . Through an inductive survey of the Quranic text, he categorizes badihiyat into three primary types :
- Mathematical Truisms (Badihiyyah hisabiyyah): Divided into two categories:
- Stating the summary total (fadhlikah) of two explicitly mentioned numbers that the mind naturally sums on its own, such as summarizing three and seven as ten (Quran 2:196) or thirty and ten as forty nights for Moses (Quran 7:142), which scholars explain as removing potential ambiguities such as optionality or partial overlap .
- Stating two numbers in a specific ratio followed by another two numbers in the exact same ratio, rendering the second pair mathematically redundant yet rhetorically purposeful, as in the verses on military odds in Surah al-Anfal (Quran 8:65–66) .
- Linguistic Truisms (Badihiyyah lughawiyyah): Statements whose obvious nature is already inherent in the lexical meaning of a preceding word, such as adding مِنَ السَّمَاءِ ("from the sky") after mentioning صَيِّبٍ (sayyib, downpour), where scholars like al-Zamakhshari and Ibn Ashur discussed the stylistic purpose of the specification .
- Customary Truisms (Badihiyyah 'adiyyah): Statements whose self-evident nature is established by common human experience or habit . al-Rumi outlines five subtypes for this category:
- Combining an action with its inseparable concomitant (al-jam' bayn al-shay' wa-lazimih), such as describing the murder of prophets as being "unjustly" ( وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ ), since killing a prophet is inherently unjust .
- Combining an action with its instrument (al-jam' bayn al-shay' wa-alatih) .
- Affirming something while negating its contradictory (ithbat al-shay' wa-nafy naqidih) .
- Commanding something while prohibiting its contradictory (al-amr bi-al-shay' wa-al-nahy 'an naqidih) .
- Categorical declarative statements of absolute certainty (al-jumlah al-khabariyyah qat'iyyat al-thubut) .
Publication History
The theoretical framework was published as al-Badihiyat fi al-Quran al-Karim: Dirasah Nazariyyah (second edition, 1418 AH), accompanied by an applied study covering the first hizb of the Quran entitled al-Badihiyat fi al-Hizb al-Awwal min al-Quran al-Karim: Dirasah Tatbiqiyyah (second edition, 1418 AH) . The theoretical study was subsequently reissued in the journal of the Islamic University of Madinah in 1423 AH / 2002 CE .
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