Metaphor of the Qur’anic story: Research on the term

Abstract

This research aims to explain the context of metonymic discourse in the Holy Qur’an in terms of rhetorical convention within the rhetorical and rhetorical schools of Arab rhetoricians, which constituted a major turning point within the rhetorical lesson in the Arab rhetorical heritage. This research examined the most important rhetorical connotations according to which the metonymic discourse proceeded within the surahs of the Holy Qur’an. In this research, I also noticed the difference between Arab rhetoricians regarding the reason for the introduction of metonymic discourse into verses and how to interpret the apparent meaning when understanding those verses.

The disagreement in providing the rhetorical concept of metonymy did not illustrate the reality of the formation of the two schools (rhetorical and theological), and this was clearly evident in Al-Jahiz’s theories of metonymy and its discourse. I found some scholars combining the terms insinuation and metonymy, and this is what I support by providing one meaning for both terms. Despite the great status of the scholars of rhetoric in the second century and after; however, they sometimes neglected to separate between the term metonymic discourse and what it entailed of content with the rest of the modern terms such as insinuation and explicit expression without meaning. The metonymic discourse after Al-Qayrawani Al-Maghribi took a different approach than those who preceded him, as he established foundations for metonymy and its discourse through which it is distinguished from the rest of the rhetorical arts.