A Review of Synonymy Symbols and their Analysis in Tafsir-e Majma ol-Bayan

As an important lexical issue, synonymy has always been disputed in discussions on different semantic relationships between words. The opponents and exponents have confirmed or declined the synonymous words citing examples for it. Since synonymy plays an important role in translation and interpretation of the Quranic words, it has been of interest to interpreters in discussions related to the literary aspects of interpretation. This article aims at exploring synonymy in Tafsir-e Majma’ol-Bayan due to the outstanding literary position of this work of interpretation. Hence, reviewing the background of synonymy in literary language and referring to the viewpoints of the opponents and exponents, synonymy in Quranic sciences and its position in Majma’ol-Bayan are explored in this article. The results of our investigations indicate that Tabarsi did not believe in absolute synonymy and his reference to ‘closely-related words in meaning’ is merely intended to make the points understood by the readers and at utmost he believed in partial synonymy.