A Structural Semantic Study of the Term Sayyiʾah in the Holy Qurʾān

Sayyiʾah is one of the terms most frequently used in the Qurʾān. It mostly studied in the semantic field of ‘disobedience of God’, while there are many other usages in the Qurʾān which have not been studied semantically yet, and the importance of its meaning has not been clarified. In this study, considering sense relations between sayyiʾah and other concepts used in the Qurʾān, including syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, semantic fields of the term sayyiʾah has been analyzed by using a structural semantic method. Syntagmatic relations reveal that in the Qurʾān, sayyiʾah has been used in two different meanings: ‘evil deed resulting punishment’ and ‘unpleasant accident’. In the first semantic field, sayyiʾah has paradigmatic relation with ‘ḏanb’, ‘munkar’, ‘ẓulm’, ‘fāḥišah’, ‘ḫaṭiʾah’, ‘fasād’ and ‘kaid’ as well as semantic opposition with ‘ḥasanah’, ‘ṣāliḥah’, ‘ḫair’ and ‘birr’. In the second semantic field, sayyiʾah has paradigmatic relation with ‘ʿaḏāb’, ‘ḍurr’, ‘muṣībah’, ‘halāk’, ‘šarr’ and ‘ḫauf’ as well as semantic opposition with ‘ḥasanah’, ‘raḥmah’ and ‘ḫair’. As a result, the most important semantic components of sayyiʾah in the both semantic fields has been revealed as well as providing a comprehensive definition of sayyiʾah in the semantic system of the Qurʾān.