Al-Istiʿārah in the Qur'an: A Rhetorical Analysis of Its Forms, Functions, and Semantic Significance

Abstract

This article examines al-istiʿārah in the Qur’an as a central rhetorical-semantic mechanism through which Qur’anic discourse shapes theological meaning, moral perception, and interpretive response. The study addresses a conceptual and methodological problem in existing scholarship: Qur’anic metaphor is often treated either as an aesthetic feature of balāghah or as a general cognitive mapping without sufficient attention to its Arabic-rhetorical specificity and hermeneutical function. Using a qualitative textual research design, the article analyzes selected Qur’anic passages through close reading, classical Arabic rhetorical classification, semantic analysis, and an adapted metaphor identification procedure. The findings show that Qur’anic istiʿārah appears in multiple forms, including lexical, phrasal, implicit, explicit, extended, and discourse-structuring patterns. These forms operate through recurring semantic networks such as trade, light, darkness, disease, the heart, obstruction, constriction, rootedness, and eschatological illumination. The analysis further demonstrates that istiʿārah does not merely clarify abstract meanings but also persuades, warns, intensifies moral awareness, and renders unseen realities affectively and intellectually accessible. Its semantic significance lies in linking guidance, disbelief, accountability, divine-human relation, and eschatological destiny within coherent figurative structures. The article contributes to Qur’anic studies, Ushuluddin, and Islamic rhetoric by integrating classical balāghah, Qur’anic semantics, and contemporary metaphor theory into a systematic framework for examining the relation between rhetorical form, communicative function, and theological interpretation.