Question
There are some palindromes in the Quran and I’d like to ask if there are more in the Quran and how their placement in the Quran reflects on the meaning of the ayah.
Answer
The most significant part of understanding the Qur’an is to gather guidance from the meanings that are clearly apparent to the mind. The Qur’an is the spiritual compass of the believers. Its message is to be pondered and applied to one’s life; for it revives the wilted soul and nourishes the moral appetite. When humans reach out and try to grasp for an answer to the question, “What does my Lord require of me?” The answer must be clear and harmonious regardless of its depth. Thus, one must realize that such a message should not be esoteric or inscrutable. It should not contain numerical codes or puzzles of word formations or sentence constructs. These types of gimmicks undermine the message and shrouds its very import to self-projected meanings.
Palindromes are words or sentences that can be read forward and backward the same way. In addition to the above, consider that if words or sentences were read the same way forward or backward how would that affect meaning or what is being said? It will be as it was intended either way. They have no value and have no bearing on the Qur’an conveying its message. As such, there may be a number of them but we do not put any emphasis on such research as it provides nothing in the way of better understanding the Qur’an. There could be a literary component, which has its own value that is unrelated to meaning.1
I hope this helps.
God knows best.
- Edited [↩]