The Intertextuality between Ibn al-Arandas’ “Raeeyeh” and the Quran

Intertextuality is one of the most commonly used terms in the field of language and literature. It deals with the interaction of texts with each other. According to the theories of intertextuality, no text is independent and each text is a combination of different texts that consciously or unconsciously utilize each other’s literary and intellectual sources. Religious intertextuality is one of the critical approaches used to investigate correlations and interactions between religious texts. The Quran is one of the most valuable and influential sources of inspiration used by writes. Ibn al-Arandas al-Hilly is a poet and literary icon from the ninth century AH. He was fascinated by the Quran and the teachings of Ahl al-Bayt. His poetry, especially his famous poem “Raeeyeh” which is in praise of Imam Hussein, reflects Quranic themes. This article studies two kinds of intertextuality between this poem and Quranic verses: lexical and personality (summoning Quranic characters). Our analysis of the poem shows that Quranic verses and themes are present in the majority of its verses and this indicates the poet’s deep appreciation of Quran and religious texts and his respect for and admiration of Ahl al-Bayt and, in particular, Imam Hussein. The abundance of intertextuality between Ibn al-Arandas’ poems and the Quran is a prominent characteristic of his poetry and an indication of the intentional use of Quranic verses in order to convey his message in a more accurate and effective way. The present research is descriptive-analytical and therefore, after presenting theoretical discussions, analyzes the intertextuality between this poem and the Quran. The findings of this study demonstrate that the intertextual relations between the two texts are mostly in the form of partial negation (17 cases) and there is only one case in the form of complete negation. The poet, in this one case, has made little modification so that the meanings of words and sentences are in agreement with the Quran’ text.