Rhetorical Mysteries of Interrogation in the Noble Quran

Rhetoric – which means correspondence of discourse to the conditions of the audience – has always been considered as the manifestation of the Quran’s inimitability and matchlessness. Accordingly, semantics has been invented to obtain an exact understanding of the different dimensions of rhetoric in discourse in general, and in the Divine Word in particular. This science sets out to inspect discourse since it conveys a connotative and implicational meaning. To this end, it addresses different kinds of discourse, including statement and composition. The latter can be divided into purposive and non-purposive branches, based on the point that if it is uttered to attain a purpose or not. The purposive compositions are highly important in semantics since they convey connotative meanings. Interrogation is one of the most useful types of this composition, which can be frequently found in the Quran, and examination of its connotative meaning is certainly effective on illumination of the Quran’s rhetoric and inimitability. Investigation of the interrogative sentences of the Quran reveals that only 19 Quranic interrogations have been used in their real meanings, i.e. to know the answer. The remaining majority of the interrogative sentences have been intended to convey figurative meanings like refutation, admonitory denial, tacit approval, rejection, surprise, persuasion, and equalization.