Understanding the Implications of Fronting and Delaying in the Holy Quran

Abstract

The aim of this research is to uncover one aspect of the secrets of Qur’anic rhetoric, namely the technique of anticipation and delay, which is considered one of the most prominent features of the miraculous Qur’anic style and structure. In this study, I have focused on the implications of anticipation and delay in the Qur’an, and on the rhetorical secret behind bringing forward a word in one context and delaying it in another, whilst explaining the intended purpose behind this. The Qur’anic text contains various techniques of anticipation and delay in the arrangement of Qur’anic sentences, leaving a semantic and meaningful impact that is not achieved with the original order of the context. This research may serve to supplement certain shortcomings in previous studies that have addressed this topic; these have generally focused on grammatical meaning and have only rarely touched upon rhetorical significance. I therefore wished to contribute this study in the hope that it might help to bring rhetorical meaning closer to the reader’s understanding. I have divided this research into three main sections: Section One: The concept of fronting and delaying: its definition and causes; Section Two: The implications of fronting a word relative to its modifier: including related issues; and Section Three: The implications of fronting and delaying in relation to what the context requires: including related issues.