Analyzing the concept of Satan in the seventh sermon of Nahj-ol- balaghah according to conceptual blending theory

Imaging Satan and illustrating this concept in the form of tangible and objective phenomena is seen in religious narratives frequently and this phenomenon is emanated in the seventh sermon of Nahj-ol- balaghah eminently. And by analyzing and studying it from the point of view of the traditional rhetoric and even some new theories like conceptual metaphor, many aspects and prospects of this illustration and its implications and concepts remain in ambiguity. So Faucconier and Turner's four pattern theory of subjective spaces evaluate illustrating and creating Satan's conceptual blending and its imaginative measure; so, in this article by using the above theory we have tried to recognize the quality and the method of framing the concept of Satan and its elements and components in Nahj-ol- balaghah from cognitive linguistic point of view. At the end of this study, we found that the listed concepts in this sermon are evaluable by the help of several conceptual blending patterns that have been introduced due to issues that are related to Satan and saints of Satan. In these patterns the characteristics, qualities and functions of the objects, animals and different categories of human have been selected, blended and extended artistically. And by conveying them in a blended space, innovative and picturesque concepts have been created.