QUR’AN ANTHOLOGIES: Illuminating Metaphors – By form V

In this post InshAllah, we see how symbols relate to metaphor.

A symbol is something that represents an idea, a process, or a physical entity. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for “STOP”. On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for numbers. Personal names are symbols representing individuals. A red rose symbolizes love and compassion. [wikipedia]

Symbols are more general and widely renown and referred-to than metaphors. They might be concrete images or objects, or they might be scribblings created purposely to denote something (numerals and alphabets are obvious examples). Symbols when used as means of expression, however, are derived as metaphors, whereas others may be derived as metonymies.

Symbols that work as metaphors

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّـهَ أَنزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَسَلَكَهُ يَنَابِيعَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُ بِهِ زَرْعًا مُّخْتَلِفًا أَلْوَانُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَجْعَلُهُ حُطَامًا ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَذِكْرَىٰ لِأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ

Do you not see that Allah sends down rain from the sky and makes it flow as springs [and rivers] in the earth; then He produces thereby crops of varying colors; then they dry and you see them turned yellow; then He makes them [scattered] debris. Indeed in that is a reminder for those of understanding. [Az-Zumar 21]

 

In this ayah the natural process of the growth of foliage (and its later dispersion) is cited as a metaphorical representation of the ebb and flow of worldy comfort, and to the cycle of animate / human life on earth. The ultimate intent is to draw attention to the creation of the world/universe itself and its ultimate demise. Note that the targets are many and wider-ranging. Botanical growth on earth thus becomes a symbol of life in general.

 

Because the symbol works as a metaphor, richer implications may be derived by referring to all the details of the extended metaphor:

 

1. Despite all the hue and cry of what came before (e.g. the rolling of thunder, the fall of the rains, the gurgling of the springs and the laborious and beautiful shifting stages of growth, it all boils down to …. nothing.

 

2. It’s almost as if the sounds and the colors of the drama serve to disguise the nothingness of the end-result.

 

3. All the beauty of this world is transient; its toils lead to quickly-dispensed rewards.

 

4. While the begetting of earthly comforts or even life may be laborious, the termination is mostly quicker.

 

–

 

إِذْ قَالَ يُوسُفُ لِأَبِيهِ يَا أَبَتِ إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ أَحَدَ عَشَرَ كَوْكَبًا وَالشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ رَأَيْتُهُمْ لِي سَاجِدِينَ

[Of these stories mention] when Joseph said to his father, “O my father, indeed I have seen [in a dream] eleven stars and the sun and the moon; I saw them prostrating to me.” [Yusuf 4]

The symbols in Hazrat Yusuf’s (alaihi-ssalaam) dream have a clear metaphorical relationship to the targets: his father, mother, and his siblings, in terms of the sizes, luminosity and visibility (as seen from earth, i.e.).

 

Symbols that work as metonymies

 

 

إِنِّي وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِي فَطَرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا ۖ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ 

I HAVE turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth, as a man of pure faith; I am not of the idolaters.’ (Al-An’am, 79)

 

 

 In the above ayah, Hazrat Ibrahim realizes and loudly proclaims the Oneness of Allah after having considered and logically rejected cultural idols. Here the word ‘wajh‘ __ ‘face’ __ a common symbol throughout Quran↓ and other literature obviously has a metonymic relation to it’s subject. Face is a stand-in, a representative, of the human presence, not its metaphorical ‘likening’.

 

In the future we will re-encounter examples of Qur’anic symbols, InshaAllah.

 

Notes

For an interesting discourse on the use of ‘wajh’ in the Qur’an, see: Ayoub, M. M., (2000), Literary exegesis of the Qur’an: The case of Al-Sharif Al-Radi, in Litereary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, Ed. by Issa Boullata; Richmond, Surrey, UK: Curzon Press. Retrieved online at: http://books.google.ca/books?id=SdgaD-7C6TkC&pg=PA298&dq=wajh+metaphor&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W05jUdi6N-O0yAG5yoGQDQ&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=wajh%20metaphor&f=false