Finding the Denotation of the Verse of Perfection (Ikmāl) by Referring to the Function of the Rhetorical Technique of “Inversion”

In explaining the meaning of kamāl al-dīn in the verse three of Sūrat al-Mā’ida, three different viewpoints can be seen among the interpreters. Some of them have considered it the result of the “comprehensiveness of religion” after completing the revelation of the revelatory commands; others have taken the “sovereignty of religion” equal to perfection with the expansion of the spread and influence of Islam; and the third group have considered “immortality of religion” with wilāya as synonymous with perfection. Given the fact that the verse of perfection of religion is among the verses with a special revelation occasion and on the other hand the dependent (muta‘allaq) of perfection is omitted and the appearance of the verse at least at first glance does not clearly indicate what perfection is based on, most commentators have sufficed to mention exegetical narrations concerning revelation occasions and have turned less to a deeper examination of the intra-textual evidences. Therefore, in order to discover the intra-textual evidences that can be used to prefer one of the aforementioned concepts; the author reached the conclusion that perhaps the precedence of time adverbial of al-yawm can itself be considered as intra-textual evidence.
Therefore, the present article has been organized with the aim of answering the question of which of the three aforementioned concepts, namely “sovereignty”, “comprehensiveness” and “leadership” has necessitated the precedence of time, in order to provide an intra-textual approach to finding the meaning of the verse.