Semantic and Rhetorical Aspects of Chiasmus in the Holy Quran

Awareness about eloquent points and their hidden meanings is of much importance in Quranic science, so much so that the scholars from early Islamic periods paid attention to it. They believed that eloquence is the foundation for understanding the Quranic meanings. This research aims to investigate the semantic significance of a rhetorical device called chiasmus. Application of this technique results in the replacement of part of the word or language chunk with another verbal chunk. As studying this figure of speech has been very difficult and involved complications, scholars have not paid much heed to it. But chiasmus plays an important role in understanding many Quranic verses. Some commentators, in spite of their mastery of Arabic language, have not been able to provide the true meaning of the verses in the holy book. The reason is that they did not pay sufficient attention o the deep meanings expressed through rhetorical devices. They also have not grasped the eloquent mysteries and miraculous character of the Quran, for they did not consider chiasmus, neither briefly nor elaborately. This study does not want to deal with the definitions of this device which can be found in books on rhetoric (e.g., Minhag al-Bulagha) but attempts to show the semantic and rhetorical consequences of this figure of speech in some Quranic verses, something which has not been dealt with in books on rhetoric. This is what is needed very much in order to get to many rhetorical beauties in the Holy Quran.