The Lingual Signified of Promise and Threat in the Qur’an

One of the most versatile linguistic forms in the Qur’an is promise “Wa’d” and threat “Wa’id”. A total of 1800 Quranic verses involves promise and threat, which this plurality in the Qur’an, has a great influence on the general formation of the Quranic language and its coordinates. Using the descriptive, analytical and comparative method, this paper seeks to identifies and analyzes the coordinates of the lingual signified of the Qur’anic promise and threat in the form of speech act, with an approach to the theory of speech act of Austin and John Rogers Searle. Findings of this paper show that, the lingual signified of promise and threat is delivery and induction of the promisor’s intention and its certainty to the audience; and declaring the demand and will of the speaker for leading the audience to action and desirable states, in relation to an obligation that fulfills the requirements of the promise and threat. The result of this intention, demand and will is the same motivation that leads to fear, hope and other possible actions. So, the lingual signified of promise and threat is a kind of motivation that is followed by the fears, hope and the subsequent acts of the audience. Accordingly, the lingual signified of promise and threat is in the motivational language of the Holy Qur'an. .