The Onomastic Researches of the Qur’an and their Pathologies

The Qur’an’s names have since early times been subject to debate among Qur’an researchers; however, from a new perspective and with a historical approach one can raise new questions to this debate. Questions concerning the whyness of the multiplicity of Qur’an’s names, the reason for application of specific names in each of the Islamic sciences and the absence of applying these names interchangeably, as well as questioning the reason for different implication of the Qur’an’s names by its early addressees and the scientists of the latter centuries, are among the questions to which no befitting answer can be found in traditional studies. As the first step toward answering these questions and preparing the ground for application of new methods for studying conceptual development, this paper is undertaking to reappraise the onomastic researches in various exegetical books and books on Qur’anic sciences with a descriptive-analytical method and from a pathological perspective. Based on this research, most pathologies of this field are rated as methodological and a result of a collective approach and lack of a historical, comparative, and diagnostic approach.