Questioning Styles in the Qur’ān and Their Impact on Human Thinking a Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

Questions and questioning represent one of the most important
communicative and illustrative mediums of the Qur’an. Qur’ān exegetes
devoted signifi cant efforts to the study of styles of questioning across various
disciplines of the Qur’ān sciences, and as such, have addressed the topic
of questions from the perspectives of language, theology, jurisprudence,
dialectics, philosophy and ethics. Little interest, however, is shown to the
relationship between questions and thinking. This textual analysis of selected
Qur’ānic questions examine Qur’anic questions, their forms, scope, functions
and effects with respect to development of human thought. This study shows
that questions in the Qur’ān serve a broad range of objectives. The style of
questioning inherent the Qur’ān presents an intuitive and familiar method that
may be included in current Muslim education and learning to revive critical
thinking and creativity known to early generation.