An Introduction to Ontology of Quran and Its Effect on Terminology of the Concept of  Amal-e-Sālih

the terminology of the Quranic term ‘Amal-e-Sālih remains a challenging topic for Islamic researchers. Semantic studies on the term are mostly based upon lexical and idiomatic analysis as well as individual understandings made by the scholars and interpreters out of Quran’s verses or other Islamic sources, and the process of discovering the terminology of the term is rarely pursued systematically. While Semantics, as a branch of the fast-developing science of Linguistics, has experienced much improvements in the past decades and it is necessary to follow the systematic procedures for semantically discovering the Quranic terms synchronous with the advancement of this knowledge. As proposed by contemporary Semantics, Terminology discovering might be presented at three levels of Term, Context, and Discourse. This paper tries to present semantic analysis of the Quranic term of ‘Amal-e-Sālih on the level of discourse by introducing and applying Ontology [on this Quranic concept]. Ontology as a new tool in computer and information technology, specifies the key words involved in a domain of knowledge, as well as their relationships and therefore standardizes the meanings. In the proposed Quranic Ontology, by considering several semantic relationships (generalization, procedure, and combination), the connections between related concepts are presented in a suitable template in the form of network diagrams, simple arrows, dots and lines. It will be witnessed that applying Ontology in semantic analysis of the level of discourse for the term, ‘Amal-e-Sālih clearly offers a new understanding of this Quranic concept, which can bring about new educational approaches and outcomes.