This paper critically assesses the naẓm (coherence) thesis as developed by Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Farāhī (d. 1348/1930) and Amīn Aḥsan Iṣlāḥī (d. 1418/1997), situating their contributions within a broader taxonomy of Quranic thematic and semantic units — āyah, intra-āyah, sūrah, intra-sūrah, inter-sūrah, and inter-nuṣūṣ themes. The paper begins by establishing this taxonomy through the lexical foundations of the terms āyah and sūrah themselves, before introducing the Prophetic distinction between ẓahr (manifest meaning) and baṭn (hidden meaning) as the governing epistemic framework for coherence inquiry. It then surveys the classical tradition of Quranic coherence studies — from al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī and al-Biqāʾī to Shāh Walī Allāh and Mawlānā Thanwī — demonstrating that a sophisticated, multi-layered approach to naẓm predates al-Farāhī and Iṣlāḥī by centuries and is grounded in both Prophetic practice and Companion scholarship. Against this backdrop, the paper critically examines the Farāhī-Iṣlāḥī theory and finds it epistemically overdetermined and methodologically inconsistent. Key criticisms include their treatment of naẓm as qaṭʿī (decisive) — a claim undermined by their own internal disagreements — their arbitrarily restrictive rules on sūrah pairing and single-theme sūrahs, their selective and unsystematic deployment of asbāb al-nuzūl and prophetic material, and a striking neglect of āyāt with legal import. The paper proposes a more nuanced, layered approach to coherence that preserves the independent intelligibility of Quranic units at every level, respects classical tools of tafsīr, and establishes clearer epistemic criteria for identifying themes and deeper meanings.
