فصلنامه پژوهش های ادبی - قرآنی
سال هشتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 29، بهار 1399)

Action is an important and effective element in conceptualization embodied in a sentence by virtue of the verb as a dynamic constituent. Leonard Talmy, the renowned linguist in the field of cognitive semantics, believes that dynamic verbs are the results of four motive, figure, ground, and directional components. In the Holy Qur’an, the dynamic verb "anzala" is a directional verb which has a high frequency because of its usage in topics related to the sending down of the Qur’an and mercy unto people. This study aimed to analyze the function of the verb "anzala" in the Holy Qur’an, relying on cognitive linguistics and Talmy's theory of motion. The results show that this verb has a descending direction. The agent of all instances of the dynamic verb "anzala" is the same and it is God who causes the descending motion. The descending motion has a subjective function so that the figures in the form of objectified existences travel in the descending direction toward the ground, namely, the earth and the creatures. Additionally, due to its semantic extent and the connection of its marginal and focal meanings, the verb "anzala" depicts a cognitive schema.

In ayahs 56 and 70 of Surah Ar-Rahmān, by contrast to the previous context, pronouns have undergone sudden changes from dual to plural. These changes of pronouns have challenged exegetes and have raised various and inconsistent answers to this question. The present research, after evaluating commentators' views and examining the literary shortcomings and weaknesses of their views, seeks to answer this challenging question of the motive of this anomaly of the text and how the connection of this part of the text with the previous words can be explained by contemplating on Qur’anic discourse. This article, by reconsidering two literary figures of speech, Istikhdām with "pronoun" and Tājrid with the word "fi", and presenting excellent examples of these two literary devices from the Qur’an, provides a novel answer to the above-mentioned questions, which shows the proximity and entanglement of these rhetorical figures, in addition to beautifying the text, has made it polysemous and has given it layered coherence.

Stylistics has an undeniable place in discovering the linguistic properties of literary works. The Qur’an, as the everlasting miracle of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and a comprehensive book, is full of linguistic and stylistic features. This descriptive-analytical study has analyzed the linguistic features of Surah Muhammad (SAW) in four phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical levels and has additionally identified its literary aspects. The most important finding of the present research is that there is a coherence between the content of the ayahs of Surah Muhammad (SAW) and the sounds used in its words. Wherever God addresses the infidels and the embarking on jihad with them, the tone is striking, and this can be seen in the type of sounds and their attributes. But where God speaks to the believers, soft and gentle language is used. The closing of most of the intervals with the letter "m" in this surah is one of the stylistic features that has played an important role in the continuation of the rhythm of the surah. Furthermore, the presence of a long open section in 86% of the intervals of the ayahs, the pronunciation of which is longer than other sections, is another feature of the style of this surah that has contributed to the creation of a rhythm, which is based on intensity, severity, violence, encouragement of war, and portraying an image of war between the believers and the infidels. This agreement has even been manifest at syntactic and lexical levels and for being in line with the overall context of the surah and the impact of words, some syntactic structures have found an unpopular usage and a special accent has become predominant as embodied in the verb "asaitom".

Sura Al-Ma'idah is one of the Medinan surahs that is chiefly devoted to explaining and explicating Islamic law. Naturally, one expects that this surah, as compared with other surahs, especially Meccan ones, has distinguishing characteristics. The present research, utilizing stylistic tools and a descriptive-analytical method, tries to study prominent stylistic features of this surah and to explicate the function of each stylistic layer in explaining the intended meaning so that it may show the role of style-creating elements and the important linguistic-rhetorical style of this surah. The findings indicate that one of the most important stylistic features of this surah is addressing the believers using interjections by means of the phrase "O those who believe", which is highly frequent in this surah. This fact signifies the divine mercy and the dignifying of the believers. The style of the order of sentences in this surah is in line and proportionate with its content as well as with the use of short and demand-related sentences to state Islamic laws. Moreover, in many ayahs the arrangement of sentences enjoys rhythm and the high frequency of verbal sentences has made the style of this surah dynamic and vivid. Other stylistic features of this surah are the existence of different forms of repetition, and the proper use of its spiritual musicality in explicating the meanings of ayahs.

De-familiarization involves ways of presenting ideas that vary from the normal language in order to make distinction, foreground and create beauty in a literary text. Because the Holy Qur’an, as a divine miracle, is full of literary, linguistic and semantic subtleties, studying its different visible and invisible aspects deems necessary. Therefore, the present article tries to provide examples of deviation and parallelism in the ayahs of Surah Qāf using a descriptive-analytical method and by analyzing the ayahs from the perspective of familiarization and foregrounding as a result of which it also aims to explain the tremendous impact of such an attitude on the word of God through coming close to the ayahs' intended meanings and gaining more pleasure in associating with these luminous ayahs, while portraying a part of the beauties and the literary miracle of the Holy Qur’an. The findings suggest that in this surah, the use of deviation techniques such as omission, precedence and delay, iltifāt, metaphor, allusion, etc. to familiarize and foreground the tenors of this surah have meant to exert a greater and more profound influence on the audience. Employing the principles of parallelism that uses repetition and harmony at three phonetic, lexical, and syntactic levels of the ayahs also is in line and proportionate with the general context of this surah, namely alerting and threatening the deniers of the resurrection and proving the question of resurrection and denying its exclusion by the disobedient

In recent years, cognitive linguistics and particularly its cultural dimension as a research-provoking theory related to different aspects of language, has attracted the attention of more scholars. Among the concepts presented in this theory, conceptual metaphors can be considered useful means for analyzing all kinds of texts, especially sacred texts. Sharifian (2017) used conceptual metaphors as an analytical tool to provide cultural explanations for linguistic phenomena. The present research used Shairifan's cultural linguistics model as its theoretical framework to analyze Qur’anic ayahs containing "the world as a market" metaphor. The language and method of the Holy Qur’an is based on mores and meta-mores. Naturally, Qur’anic implications share this feature so that the intended concepts can be explained to the Qur’an's audience. Considering the culture-building role of metaphor as well as its use in Arabic as a rhetorical device, the almighty God has not only proscribed using it but has confirmed its usage as it can change the mental and behavioral patterns of humans. The main questions of this study concerns the frequency and the causes of using the metaphor of life as a market, identifying the surahs where it has been used more frequently and how the cognitive cultural linguistics can explain this application. Content analysis and qualitative analysis (to respectively estimate and evaluate the frequency of the use of this metaphor and to present cultural-cognitive indications of the reasons for using it in the text of theHoly Qur’an) were used as research methods. The research corpus consisted of all Qur’anic ayahs. The ayahs containing lexical items having to do with market and trade and their frequency were identified. The results show that this conceptual metaphor is used in 2.2 percent of all ayahs. Furthermore, this metaphor appears much more frequently in Medinan surahs than in Meccan ones because given the role and importance of market and trade in the life of early Islam Arabs and in general due to their significance in supplying humans' physiological needs, historical-social developments in a country can be regarded as an independent variable.

In the present article, which used a descriptive-analytical method accompanied by integration and comparison, the common verses of Ruzbihan's Mantiq al-Asrar and Sharh al-Shathiyat were studied from the perspective of their context and background of application. The main question of this study is in which contexts and backgrounds Ruzbihan has used Qur’anic Ayahs and if he has been loyal to the application of the ayahs in their Qur’anic positions or not. Our analysis showed that Ruzbihan has used Qur’anic ayahs in both his works to cultivate his intended concepts and themes. From a pragmatic point of view, ayahs having a mystical context and background have been used. Another part of the ayahs is accompanied by a context and a background of Shath and Shath-mingled interpretations, and from a pragmatic point of view, Ruzbihan has created valuable literary and mystical themes. We also see ayahs that have an integrative mystical-Qur’anic context and background. Some ayahs have also been adapted to the rhetorical context of the work, especially the description of the Sharh al-Shathiyat, and have produced attractive imagery. Semantically, some ayahs are used in accordance with the Qur’anic context, which is completely in line with the Qur’anic meaning and the position of the ayahs in the Qur’an and in some parts Ruzbihan has expanded the meanings of ayahs according to textual contexts, which has led to fascinating themes and literary creations.