Aesthetics in Surat al-Mulk: Mathematical Typology as Metaphysical Mirror

Qur’an 67, Surat al-Mulk (‘Surat of the Kingdom’), describes the seven heavens in a sharply contoured image. This cosmographic image is one of the few textual icons forming the ‘Quranic literary iconography’. The divine light contained in a lamp within a niche in Surat al-Nur (‘Surat of the Light’, 24), or the glass sarh of Solomon’s palace, in Surat al-Naml (‘Surat of the Ants’, 27), constitute other examples among these icons. This essay argues that, by means of the heavenly description, Surat al-Mulk conveys an aesthetic meaning that is pivotal to its religious rhetoric. As a complement, this study includes an examination of the surat’s phraseology by the linguist Muhammad Husain Kazi