Coherence of Quranic Verses and its Role in Interpretation from Allama Tabatabai's Perspective

The present article deals with certain semantic links among the Quranic verses from Allama Tabatabai’s perspective. In Allama’s view, the holy Quran reflects the coherent facts of the universal existence like a mirror. Thus its teachings are coherent, and interpreting one another just as the facts in the universe are. The whole verses of the holy Quran are linked in the light of the unique aim of guiding men. The verses within each Sura are also linked through a single or common purpose. In addition, there is a firm link among each Sura’s verses which are revealed all at once. The firm verses of the Quran having an explicit signification are the source or the reference in understanding the holy Book and removing ambiguity from ambiguous verses. Allama holds that the teachings of the Quran play as a closely – linked network the center of which being the verses concerning Tawhid. Other verses are understood in the light of these central verses. The semantic links are not unidimensional. At least, there are manifold links among certain Quranic verses. The outcome of each link is the emergence of a new meaning and a fresh piece of knowledge. There are even particular links among Quranic words. Each word acquires its sense in relation with other words. An accurate and authentic understanding of the Quran is not possible without due consideration of these links.