Abstract
In this chapter, the conception of qubḥ as it pertains to conceptual semantic groupings in the Qur’an is categorised by isrāf (excess), taʿaddī (transgression), and jahl (lack of reason) and extended to speech. The Qur’an treats language as any other behaviour; the categories of qubḥ are relevant to speech as well but they are manifest differently.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Protection in paradise extends itself to the physical (from Hell and punishment) and the emotional (grief, fear, and so on), see Abdel Haleem, ‘Paradise in the Qur’an’ in Understanding the Qur’an, 95–6.
- 2.
al-Naḥḥās, Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿı̄l, Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, ed. Zuhayr Ghāzı̄ Zayed (Beirut: ʿAlām al-Kutub, 1988), 4:59.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
al-Naḥḥās, Maʿānı̄ al-Qurʾān, ed. Muḥammad ʿAlı̄ al-Ṣabūnı̄ (Mecca: Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurā, 1409 A.H.), 4:342.
- 5.
Ibid., 4:442.
- 6.
Ibid., 6:263.
- 7.
al-Baghdādı̄ al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwı̄l fı̄ Maʿānı̄ al-Tanzı̄l, 5:32.
- 8.
Ifk means kadhib in the Quraysh dialect, See, Ibn ʿAbbās, Kitāb al-Lughāt fı̄ l-Qurʾān, 44.
- 9.
The ‘rumors that swirled around the Prophet’s wife when she was accidentally left behind in the desert during the return from a military engagement and was rescued by a young man. The attacks on her virtue were finally squelched only by a revelation (Q. 24:11–20) condemning the scandalmongers and admonishing the believers to recognize a lie (ifk) a slander (buhtān) as such and to refrain from passing on that of which they have no knowledge.’ Everett K. Rowson, ‘Gossip’ in EQ.
- 10.
al-Jāḥiẓ, ‘Risāla fı̄ l-Jidd wa l-Hazl’ in Majmūʿ Rasāʾil al-Jāḥiẓ, ed. Muḥammad Ṭāha al-Ḥājirı̄, (Beirut: Dār al-Nahḍa al-ʿArabiyya, 1983), 100.
- 11.
For more on the language of the Qur’an, see, Afnan H. Fatani, ‘Language and the Qur’an’ in The Qur’an: an encyclopedia, ed. Oliver Leaman, 356–72. See also Kermani, Balāghat al-Nūr, 29ff.
- 12.
al-Shāfiʿı̄, al-Risāla, ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, n.d.), p. 21.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Ibid., 21–4.
- 15.
Ibid., 24.
- 16.
In addition to the appeal of the Qur’an’s moral message, Kermani also discusses its concomitant aesthetic appeal that comprised part of its very early reception, which became later canonised in the discipline of Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān (The Inimitability of the Qur’an). See Kermani’s discussion on the reception of the Qur’an, 63ff.
- 17.
Ebrahim Moosa, ‘Textuality in Muslim Imagination: from authority to metaphoricity,’ Acta Academia Supplementum, (1995): 1:57.
- 18.
The argument proposes that these qualities became canonised and not simply features that belong to the cultural products of a certain era, hence part of a heritage; it created a continuum. The Qur’an canonised these qualities, which were also present to some level in pre-Islamic culture.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
bin Tyeer, S.R. (2016). Language: Beautiful Speech/Ugly Speech. In: The Qur’an and the Aesthetics of Premodern Arabic Prose. Literatures and Cultures of the Islamic World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59875-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59875-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59988-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-59875-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)