Merging Words and Making Connections in Sūrat Ṭaha

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the story of Mūsā in SūratṬaha, and looks at the rest of the sura and connections between the various parts. It explores ways in which the narrator creates and develops consonance through: connections between characters, connections with the audience and connections between various parts of the Qur’ānic text. It discusses examples of creating consonance through the following categories: (1) the narrator confirming God’s words, (2) the narrator confirming people’s words and (3) making connections through semantic echoes. In the first section, God as Creator and author shows to be true what God the character in a dialogue says. The second section examines how the Creator develops the relationship between God as character and other characters in the text. This is by confirming people’s words, by showing what they say in dialogue to be true in narration. The final section is a semantic and intertextual analysis that analyzes the connections throughout the sura and with other suras that are made through semantic echoes.