scientific journal Political Sociology of the Islamic Revolution

The semantic correlation of religion and power based on a comprehensive analysis of the uses of the word religion in the context of Quranic verses.

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Maliheh Alizadeh Baygi 1
Farzaneh Rohani Mashhadi 2
Yousof Khanmohammadi 3

1 Interdisciplinary Quranic Studies Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti university , Iran, Tehran

2 Interdisciplinary Quranic Studies Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Interdisciplinary Quranic Studies Research Institute,. Shahid Beheshti University. Tehran. Iran.

Abstract
The relationship between religion and power is one of the topics that has attracted the attention of scholars in the fields of political and social sciences. Despite the presentation of Quranic analyses to explain this issue by scholars, no research has so far examined the semantic correlation of religion and power based on a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the applications of the word "religion" in the context of Quranic verses. The research method is based on an interdisciplinary approach, based on interpretative-semantic analysis of data extracted from all verses containing the word "religion"; out of a total of 101 uses of the root "religion", after eliminating cases related to loan and debt, 84 verses were examined. First, two semantic domains of "rite" and "judgment" were identified, then the cognates indicating power were extracted and analyzed. The main question is: based on the cognates of religion with the concepts of power, what relationship between the two can be explained? The findings show that the word "religion" is associated with concepts such as ownership, succession, obedience, honor, fear, declaration, security, and jizyah in about twenty verses. The analysis of these associations shows that religion, in addition to being an individual sphere in the Quran, is a social institution that requires power for its realization and survival.

Keywords

Qur’anic Studies
Dīn (Religion) in the Qur’an
Religion and Power
Political Theology
Structural Semantics
scientific journal Political Sociology of the Islamic Revolution

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 12 September 2026

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