The Image Schema of the Prophets' Miracles in the Holy Qur'an: A Cognitive Approach

The prophets' miracles in the Qur'an have been studied from different angles, but the Qur'an linguistic method to transfer concepts has not received much attention so far. In this article, as an interdisciplinary study, cognitive linguistics is used and this research focusing on verses is considered as the corpus-based method. Image schema is one of the most fundamental concepts in cognitive linguistics that plays an essential role in human pre-conceptual perception. These schemas are derived from human interaction with the real world and they are a fundamental tool for understanding many abstract concepts. Since Qur'anic concepts have different layers of meaning, therefore, the use of this tool is essential for its deeper understanding. This research tries to use the schema-based approach in cognitive linguistics to extract all types of schemas used in the miracles of the steadfast seers in the Qur'an, as well as the related propositions and explain the each one's function. Investigations show that in narrating and explaining miracles' scenes, power schemas include coercion (beginning and end of the miracle), removal of obstacles (crossing the sea/cleft the rock), mutual force (truth/false) and the like have the most applications. The multiplicity of power schema in the miracles verses can indicate the importance of the language transmission method in the structure of the miracle-oriented verses of the Holy Qur'an. In addition to the force schema in the metaphorical infrastructure of the verses, there are other schemas such as movement (truth establishment), volume (predominance) and existence (size).