[5] He advocates an approach to the Quran that considers the text as a whole, avoids breaking it up into a verse-by-verse study that loses sight of the coherence of the whole, and advises on the contrary to bring together verses that deal with similar themes.
[7] He takes seriously the assertion of the incomparable character of the Qur'an and launches into the study of the rhetorical means used to disseminate the prophetic message.
[8] Following al-Jurjani, Khuli emphasizes the need for a literary approach to understand what makes the Qur'an a unique work of its kind.
[10] At a conference in Cairo in 1957, the subject of which was to know if the Koran contains the announcement of the launch of the Sputnik satellite, he affirmed that the holy book of Islam is above all intended to guide believers in the spiritual domain.
[11] His disciple was Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah, who published in 1947, under his supervision, a thesis on "The art of narration in the holy Qur'an" (al-fann al-qasasî fî al-qur'ân al-karîm).
[13] Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd explains Khalafallah's idea in these terms: "The Quranic stories are literary works serving ethical, spiritual and religious objectives.
For example, the references to witchcraft, or to angels, are according to him concessions made to the superstitions of the Bedouins, intended to make the prophetic message more convincing to them.
A letter was published, demanding that Khalafallah and his thesis supervisor al-Khuli be brought to justice for crimes against the Qur'an.
She implemented al-Khuli's ideas to write a commentary on the Qur'an, the Tafsīr al-Bayānī, in which she applied the methods of literary criticism to exegesis.