Thematic Unity of the Surah — Does Each Surah Have a Central Theme?

The question:
Does each Quranic surah have a unifying central theme that connects all its verses? — A contested issue among scholars.

First view: Agreement among verses does not require a single topic (classical majority view): The Quran was revealed in stages — verses are grouped in a surah by the mushaf, not by topical constraint — it is not required that verses serve a single theme in the modern literary sense.

Second view: Each surah has a unifying axis (position of later scholars): Al-Razi, preceded by Al-Ghazali and followed by Sayyid Qutb and Said Hawwa, held that each surah has a "pillar" that holds it together — this formed a distinct field called "al-munasabat" (coherence/interrelation).

Examples of axes:

• Al-Baqarah: "The states of the morally responsible toward the Quran" — believer, disbeliever, hypocrite, then legal obligations.
• Yusuf: "Trial, relief, and good expectation of Allah."
• Al-Kahf: "Fitnah — trial of religion, wealth, knowledge, and power."

Conclusion: Thematic unity of the surah is a useful scholarly exercise for understanding the Quran — but it does not constrain interpretation and is not obligatory.