Raymond FARRIN The Pairing of Suras 8–9 Much attention has focused recently on concentrism, or ring structure, in the Qur an. For example, Mehdi Azaiez and Omer Abid have highlighted its incidence in individual verses (the Throne Verse and the Light Verse, 2:255 and 24:35), Michel Cuypers and Carl Ernst, among others, have identified it in whole suras (al-M ida and al-Mumta ana, S. 5 and S. 60), and this author has pointed out concentric form in the whole Qur an. In fact, concentrism is only one type of symmetry in the Qur an — evidently, the most common one — the others being parallelism and chiasm (the three may be represented as follows, parallelism: A – B – A’ – B’; chiasm: A – B – B’ – A’; concentrism: A – B – C – B’ – A’). Concentrism, then, constitutes one manifestation of the general principle of symmetry. Indeed, as Cuypers has stated and we have tried to show in Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text, symmetry is the fundamental law according to which the Holy Book is arranged 1 . Furthermore, many suras occur as pairs, another manifestation of symmetry 2 . As a rule, paired suras exist in parallel. The idea, simply stated, is that two adja- cent suras complement each other structurally and thematically. Prominent examples of pairs, which others have adverted to and we have tried to explicate in our monograph, are Suras 2–3, «al-Zahraw n» (The Two Luminous Suras, al- Baqara and l Imr n), Suras 54–55 (al-Qamar and al-Ra m n), and 113–114, «al-Mu awwidhat n» (The Two Prayers of Refuge, al-Falaq and al-N s). In each case, the two suras are apparently placed together in order to reinforce each other. With this as a background, we may turn our attention to Suras 8–9. Since classical times, there has existed uncertainty as to whether these two suras are 1 M. Azaiez, «The Throne Verse ( yat al-kurs ) in Light of Rhetorical Analysis», International Qur’anic Studies Project, 4 Mar. 2013, Web, 1 Aug. 2013; O. Abid, personal communication with author, 12 Sept. 2013, as summarized in R. Farrin, «Concentric Symmetry in the Qur n: S ras al- F ti a, al-Ra m n, and al-N s», in R. Baalbaki, ed., Jewett Chair of Arabic Occasional Papers, Beirut 2014, 5; M. Cuypers, The Banquet: A Reading of the Fifth Sura of the Qur’an, Miami 2009, 35; C. Ernst, How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide, with Select Translations, Chapel Hill 2011, 163-166; R. Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text, Ashland 2014. 2 See R. Farrin, Structure and Qur’anic Interpretation, chapters 3-4; cf. the discussion in M. Mir, Coherence in the Qur’ n: A Study of I l i’s Concept of Na m in Tadabbur-i Qur’ n, Indianapolis 1986, 75-84.