The Semantic Study of Yaḥyā b. Salām’s Perspectives Concerning the Qur’anic Terminology

Understanding the meaning of the Qur’anic terminology is the first and foremost step in Qur’an interpretation, as testified by authoring various works in this field since early Islamic centuries. Yaḥyā b. Salām is among the second century Qur’anic scholars, whose closeness to the Revelation era would double the importance of his methodology in the field of the semantics of the Qur’an’s terms (mufradāt). We have, therefore, undertaken to study two of his works in the present article; the first, Taṣārīf, which is on the semantic aspects of the Qur’anic terminology and the second one, which accounts for his Tafsīr book. These two works are replete with the semantics of the Qur’anic terms. Undoubtedly, one of the characteristics of exegetical tradition in early Islamic centuries is the prevalence of narration, which is clearly seen in the above-mentioned two works. Nevertheless, it seems that Yaḥyā b. Salām has in various instances dealt with the semantics of the Qur’anic terminology. Thus, the present article is intended to describe and semantically analyze the Qur’anic terminology in the above-mentioned two works through application of some semantic concepts and expressions in order to unveil the methodology of one of the earliest Qur’anic scholars in this field. This research demonstrates that in his enunciation of the meaning of the Qur’anic trms, Yaḥyā b. Salām has taken into consideration the “situation’s context”, “etymology”, “juxtaposition-substitution relations”, “homographs”, “semantics inclusiveness”, and “semantics contrast”. In the semantics of the Qur’anic terminology related to the intangible, he refers to the metaphorical meaning of these terms, which reminds one of the “conceptual metaphors” in linguistics.