QJOURNAL OF LITERARY QURANIC RESEARCHES
Year:2019 | Volume:7 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

Deviation is one of the common terms in stylistics created as a result of leaving the normal form of language. This phenomenon occurs in different layers of language including "phonetics", "syntax", "lexical" and "semantics". The present paper, however, solely examined syntactic deviation, which means leaving the syntactic rules of the standard language. Since "alternation", "tazmin" and "iltifā t" frequently appear in Surah At-Tawba, and contribute to the "literariness" of a literary work, the present descriptive-analytical paper thus tried to examine these three devices. This paper mainly aimed to articulate the aesthetics and objectives of these deviating devices. Findings suggests that syntactic tazmin is more frequent than alternation and iltifā t and its aesthetics, in addition to avoiding repetition, is briefness of style and inclusiveness of meaning. Furthermore, three types of iltifā t (mo'jami=dictionary meaning, pronouns, and numbers) have been used in this surah, serving intentions such as emphasis, repetitionavoiding, and catching the audience's interest.

The Holy Qur’ anic text contains advanced aesthetic values and discovering its subtleties by means of systemic methods of modern linguistic theories confirms its superior miraculous aspects. Focusing on "literariness", Russian formalists sought to recognize the criteria for beautifying texts and found a number of techniques such as deviation as its creator. Deviation has extensively been used in the Qur’ anic text at various morphological, syntactic, rhetorical, phonological levels, creating magnificent expressional manifestations. Muslim linguists have each pointed to an aspect of these deviations. Nevertheless, studying the Qur’ anic text from the perspective of deviation can more consistently reveal the glory of the literariness of the Qur’ anic text. The present descriptive-analytical paper thus, besides presenting a theoretical account of the topic, explored the semantic dimension of morphological deviation in the texts of Surah al-Anā m and Surah al-A'raf. Through comparing deviated instances, the authors tried to find out how the given Qur’ anic expressions, via morphological deviation as a literary device for adding to the semantic content, have put on a wide range of semantic elegances to the text that could not be automatically created by the old structures. The results of this study includes the fact that morphological deviation unveils hidden points in the Qur’ anic text that have been left unexplained by old exegetes because they justified them under titles such as syntactic fate and giving attention to the indirect meaning (haml bar ma'na).

Prologue (bera't-e istihlal), good beginning (husn-e ibtida), and good ending (husn-e khitam) are among the semantic literary devices of badī ʿ that play a major role in the beauty of literary prose and poetry, attracting the attention of the audience and compelling it to accompany with the story. The variety in the way to begin a text and the semantic coherence between the introduction, the body and the ending in a story is one of the hallmarks of the ability of the literator and the eloquent in the creation of a work. The Holy Qur’ an as divine words and the unparalleled miracle of the Prophet of mercy (PBUH) has absorbed hearts to the glory of its expression mesmerizing the ears of the soul. One of the indicators of the Qur’ anic miracle is the beginnings and the endings of the surahs that start with attractive words and expressions, articulating the intended messages of each surah using lively and appropriate references and suggestions hence rubbing off tiredness from the audience. In addition, Qur’ anic stories similarly begin in different ways. The introductions of Qur’ anic stories enjoy diversity and a special artistic appeal, arousing enthusiasm and motivation among the readers using its idiosyncratic expressional methods. Besides, the coherence of the words, internal music, close semantic relationship, and proportionality between introduction, body and ending of the story plays an influential role in catching the attention of the readers, and making them interested in accompanying the ups and downs of the story scenes.

Repetition is one of the important manifestations of the science of linguistics. It has invariably been noted by the literary people because repeating each word or phrase has a meaningful purpose and can influence the audience deeply. In the Holy Qur’ an, repetition displays a step forward so that it depicts the miracle of the divine words. This is because the structure and arrangement of repetitive words besides adding to the beauty of the ayahs and surahs, contributes to the rhetoric of the speech and consequently enriches the semantic system and manifestation of important Qur’ anic concepts. The present research is the result of studying geometric repetition in Surah al-Baqarah and because of the prominent role of this type of repetition in this surah, we intended to analyze its application and the degree of its effect in terms of signification using a descriptive-analytical method and based on measuring the frequency of types of geometric repetition. Findings show there are five types of geometric repetition in Surah al-Baqarah: introductory, concluding, pyramidal, circular, and cumulative. Pyramidal repetition aims to repeat and remind concepts, and is used for descriptions, articulation of the details of the blessings and degrees of damnation and salvation. Concluding repetition is a decisive commandment and a beautiful ending for the ayahs; therefore, some attributes of God, such as all-hearing, all-forgiving, all-knowing, and almighty, serve to give warnings and are frequently repeated following ayahs stating commands and laws. Finally, introductory repetition to express ethical dos and don’ ts has the highest frequency.

In 2006, Gabriel Sawma wrote the book The Qur'an: Misinterpreted, Mistranslated, and Misread. The Aramaic Language of the Qur'an. He claims in this book that the language of the Qur’ an is Syro-Aramaic and tries to prove the adaptation of the Qur’ an from Jewish-Christian sources. In order to prove his claim by investigating Qur’ anic surahs, he mentions many words as evidence and analyzes them. Examining the ayah, "wakaffalahā zakariyyā Kullamā dakhala ‘ alayhā zakariyyalmiḥ rā ba" (Al-e Emran: 37) (Zachariah taking charge of her whenever Zachariah went into her in the Sanctuary), and according to Syro-Aramaic language, Sawma has translated the phrase "wakaffalahā zakariyyā Kullamā dakhala ‘ alayhā zakariyyalmiḥ-rā ba" as "When Zacharias went to go to Mary, he bowed to him and bowed with fear". In the present article that aims to meticulously examine the ayah's meaning, we propound Sawma's viewpoint from the perspective of comparative historical linguistics in the three languages of Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic to see to what extent the linguistic evidence coming from kaffala and dakhala confirms his opinion. Evidence based on derivations of kaffala in Jahiliyyah literature and its structural and semantic similarities in Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic indicate that although this root has a Syriac origin, it has witnessed its own semantic development in each of Syriac branches. There are also plenty of evidence related to derivations of dakhala in Jahiliyyah poetry that besides the multiplicity and diversity of the usage of this root in the Qur’ an along with its non-existence in Hebrew, Syriac, and the Bible corroborate the possibility that it is a pure Arabic root and that Arabs have correctly understood its structure and meaning. The analyses performed thus go contrary with Sawma's claim.

One of the very argumentative and doubt-creating issues in the minds of those who advance in the direction of the cognition of Qur’ anic ayahs and their explication for the readership, is the nature of mutashabih ayahs and their basic difference with muhkam ayahs, which might otherwise set the ground for the interpretability, plurality, polysemy and sometimes the misunderstanding of those addressees whose have not reached the purity of heart. Pondering over the Qur’ anic ayahs explicates two basic philosophies of mutashabih ayahs: on the one hand the rhetorical language of the Qur’ an and its being symbolic in bringing up some topics, both of which, on the other hand, having to do with hermeneutics whether in its traditional or modern form especially in mystical interpretations. One of the notable mystical interpretations, is Abulfazl Meybodi's (6th century AH) Kashf al-Asrar that in the third turn addresses the interpretation Qur’ anic ayahs using a literary and mystical language. The present study's major question concerns the possibility to analyze, from the perspective of traditional or modern hermeneutics, important mutashabih ayahs in the mystical interpretation of Kashf al-Asrar expressed using an interpretable secret language and with rhetorical beauties. The research method used is content analysis. Analyzing mutashabih ayahs in Meybodi's interpretation taking a hermeneutic approach is worth investigation. Therefore, we will first focus on hermeneutics and its varying meanings in the Qur’ an as well as its alignment with types of hermeneutic and then we will address the classification of mutashabih ayahs in terms of form and meaning, muhkam and mutashabih ayahs in connection with unity of acts, in the being of humans, and in the world of creation and exegetes' ideas in this regard.

Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis is an important theory of discourse analysis. While expressing the relationship between the internal and external evidences of the text and relying on linguistic forms and signs, this theory seeks to examine the dominant power of society and the space in which the literary work is formed through the three axes of description, interpretation and explanation, and to read through some kind of ideological concept beyond the text. Using a descriptive-analytical approach and based on the analysis of Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, the present study concluded that at the «description» level, the key words used to describe and critique the speech and behavior of the polytheists with varying frequency in the context of Al-Tahaddi Ayahs have played a central role in the representation of the ideology governing the society, and serve as a comprehensive and accurate reflection of the circumstances of the society in the era of the coming down of the Qur’ an. The level of «interpretation» is a combination of textual content and contextual knowledge, consistent with historical mutual action that shows how social structures describe and define discourse as social action. At the level of «explanation», the Qur’ anic rhythmical order and rhetoric are the most important factors in people's trying to emulate the Qur’ an. However, the social relations of the era of the descent and the extratemporal dimensions of the Qur’ an have also been influential in the revelation of the ayahs.

‘ Verb’ is a main constituent of each sentence carrying its aspect and time. The Holy Qur’ an is rich in past tense verbs whose various applications have so far been left mostly unexplored. Among the different types of verbs, the ‘ past’ tense is extensively used in various structures in both Persian and English, showing the temporal aspect besides conveying the concepts of present and future. The present study, adopting a descriptive-analytical approach in the field of comparative grammar, is an attempt to deeply explore the past structures in these languages and to explicate the various applications of this tense so as to clearly differentiate them and help translators not to misunderstand the different forms of verb tenses. In addition to integrating the past tense in Persian and Arabic grammar into a Qur’ anic approach, the rules for simple past tense, present perfect, past continuous, past perfect and subjunctive mood along with their usages were explained. Furthermore, two new forms, namely ‘ primitive past’ and ‘ purposive past’ , were added to the past tense, which have not been noted in the Persian and Arabic grammar sources or otherwise for which no clear framework and rule has been given. Finally, to expand on grammatical rules, 30 examples from Persian poetry, 13 Arabic couplets, and 50 Qur’ anic ayahs were cited and overall 125 rules for different applications of the past tense in both Persian and Arabic were formulated.