Jinas As muḥassināt lafẓiyyah in the Qur’an: Sound Structure, Meaning, And Linguistic Inimitability

Abstract

This article examines jinās as a form of muḥassināt lafẓiyyah in the Qur’an by focusing on the relationship between sound structure, semantic differentiation, and linguistic inimitability. The study responds to a recurring limitation in Qur’anic rhetorical studies, namely the tendency to treat jinās merely as verbal ornamentation rather than as a meaningful linguistic mechanism embedded in Qur’anic discourse. Using a qualitative textual-rhetorical method, the research analyses selected Qur’anic passages through an integrated framework combining classical Arabic balāghah, al-Jurjānī’s theory of naẓm, semantic analysis, and modern Qur’anic stylistics. The analysis shows that Qur’anic jinās operates through varied structural patterns, including near-identical lexical forms, partial phonetic resemblance, and morphologically proximate expressions. These patterns do not function as isolated aesthetic devices; rather, they intensify meaning, sharpen contrast, support ethical instruction, and reinforce thematic coherence. The findings further demonstrate that jinās participates in the Qur’an’s linguistic force by placing sound resemblance within precise syntactic and semantic contexts. This article contributes theoretically by repositioning muḥassināt lafẓiyyah from a secondary ornamental category to a central rhetorical-semantic structure in Qur’anic interpretation. It argues that the study of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān can be enriched through close attention to micro-level sound patterns, where auditory beauty, semantic precision, and contextual coherence converge.