Some of my readers may know that I was most taken by the book ‘Coherence in the Quran’ where Mustansir Mir expounded on the concept of sura twins, that is two chapters which are next to each other and seem to mutually compliment the other. I have discovered this to be true for many chapters, like 10 and 11, 13 and 14 and many more. However, in the ‘juz amma’, I believe there is a sura triplet. These are chapters 91-93, ash-shams, al-layl and adh-dhuha.
Why do I think they’re triplets? For a start, all of them begin with the mentioning of natural metaphors. These natural metaphors involve the sun, moon, day, night and others. These metaphors help us get a concrete meaning of the ideas which are about to come. Lets take chapter 91 for example, It starts with the sun, the moon, the night then goes on to mention the soul. What follows are the evil-doers of the past and a summation of why they’re evil. For a chapter of 15 ayat, this is a jam packed chapter! We must take all the ayat as gradual expositions of the main idea . It’s the same with chapters 92 and 93 as well.
Next, we find that these chapters seem to have a gradual focus on the nafs. The nafs, the human personality or I prefer person-ness the quality of being human, In chapter 91, this is given 4 ayat to describe what the nafs is about and the forces acting upon in it. In chapter 92, the nafs is set against the principles of good and the nafs is said to be unable to grow without giving. In chapter 93, the nafs isnt mentioned at all but the states of experience of the nafs are set against the positive events. The reader is then told to enact certain things if he wishes to achieve those positive events.
I highly recommend reading these chapters in oscillations, 91-93, then 93-91 and observing the gradual exposition of ideas found in these chapters. You may come to agree that they are indeed triplets
Next, the bracketing of these chapter triplets.
