Semantic reading of the word Zakkoum in the Holy Quran based on the companionship and substitution relations

Semantics is a structuralist method for studying the exact meaning of the words in the language system, in this knowledge the semantic domains of words are determined by examination of companions and substitutes in the text. This knowledge plays a major role in examining Quranic words and discovering their hidden layers of meaning, researchers in etymology and semantics have turned to this knowledge. The present article intends to study the word Zakkoum In the Holy Quran with a semantic approach based on the axes of companionship and substitution in a descriptive-analytical method in order to extract its semantic components. The word Zakkoum is mentioned three times in the Holy Quran. It has a negative connotation and illustrates a severe torment and an ominous end, therefore it dedicated to the torment and inmates of Hell.In the research it is specified that the words “Tree, Treial, Hospitality, Hell, Food, Speathe, Eat, Boiling water” have a complementary and intensifying companion relationship with the word Zakkoum. The word tree is the most frequent companion of the word Zakkoum that plays an important role in determining the substitute. Words Zakkoum relationship in the axis of substitution includes the words “Corrupt and Cursed” and the concepts, food, experiment, means of hospitality, allocation to inmates of hell, fire, torment, Rejected from mercy, corruption and impurity are the components of Zakkoum based on the semantic approach.It is the semantic core of Zakkoum (The torment of the hellishs) around which the other components revolve.