al-Risala al-Shafiya
- Author died
- 471 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Ma‘ārif bi-Miṣr
al-Risala al-Shafiya (The Healing Treatise, also titled al-Risala al-Shafiya fi Wujuh al-I'jaz) is a concise theological and rhetorical treatise on the inimitability of the Quran (I'jaz al-Qur'an) by the Persian grammarian and rhetorician Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani (d. 471 AH / 1078 CE; another report gives 474 AH) .
Context and Authorship
Al-Risala al-Shafiya is one of three primary treatises that al-Jurjani wrote concerning the inimitability of the Quran and the principles of Arabic rhetoric, alongside his major works Dala'il al-I'jaz (The Proofs of Inimitability) and Asrar al-Balagha (The Secrets of Rhetoric) . The work was not explicitly recorded by classical biographers among al-Jurjani's titles in biographical compendia . Because many of its arguments and phrases closely resemble passages in Dala'il al-I'jaz, it has been suggested that it may represent an excerpt or an offshoot extracted from that larger work . In manuscript collections, such as the Hüseyin Çelebi manuscript, it was preserved alongside appended treatises and supplementary sections of Dala'il al-I'jaz .
Content and Arguments
Spanning roughly forty pages, the treatise sets out to establish the inimitability of the Quran through the documented failure of the Arabs to produce a counterpart (mu'arada) to it, and to refute rival theological explanations :
- Preface on Meaning and Phrasing: Al-Jurjani opens with an introduction asserting that every distinct meaning demands a specific mode of expression most suited to conveying it, and emphasizes the pedagogical utility of illustrative models for explaining abstract concepts .
- The Arab Standard: He argues that speech naturally admits varying degrees of excellence and that the pre-Islamic and early Arabs are the foundational benchmark of eloquence . Therefore, appreciating Quranic eloquence requires direct engagement with Arab poetry and prose, and it cannot be claimed that later generations exceeded the early masters in rhetorical mastery .
- Incapacity of the Contemporaries: The decisive proof of the Quran's inimitability is the historical incapacity of the Arabs who witnessed its revelation . Al-Jurjani analyzes both their historical conduct (ahwal) and their verbal testimony (aqwal), noting that contemporary opponents would never have conceded defeat in literary rivalry had they possessed the ability to match it .
- Refutation of al-Sarfa: A central focus of the treatise is refuting the theological doctrine of sarfa (the claim that the Arabs were inherently capable of matching the Quran's eloquence but were supernaturally turned away or deterred from doing so) . Al-Jurjani argues that this proposition leads to untenable conclusions—namely, that Arab rhetorical ability must have suddenly degraded during the prophetic mission, that early poetry and speeches would have deteriorated, and that admiration would be directed toward the supernatural intervention rather than the intrinsic text of the Quran itself .
Publication History
The treatise was edited by Muhammad Khalaf Allah Ahmad and Muhammad Zaghlul Sallam and published in Cairo by Dar al-Ma'arif as part of the compilation Thalath Rasa'il fi I'jaz al-Qur'an (Three Treatises on the Inimitability of the Quran), alongside al-Nukat fi I'jaz al-Qur'an by Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isa al-Rummani (d. 384 AH) and Bayan I'jaz al-Qur'an by Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi (d. 386 AH) . It was also published alongside Dala'il al-I'jaz under the editorship of Mahmud Muhammad Shakir .
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