Continued with Parts I, II, & III.

Unlike the previous posts in this thread, this one actually considers the topic in light of the Qur’an.

 

Metaphor in the Qur’an _ why

How is it possible to comprehend a world which goes beyond human cognitive abilities and which can not be grasped by means of any kind of cognition available? The answer is: thanks to metaphor.

__ Sławomir Sztajer↓1

In dealing with expressions related to the divine, the subject of study becomes not a matter of one “thing” being “symbolized” as another in the manner of a literary figure. Rather, what is at stake is the way in which “things” are “captured” in language in a form which is necessarily symbolic due to the use of language itself. It is here that Paul Ricoeur’s maxim “metaphor gives rise to thought” has its meaning: in expressing something in language, thinking about that “thing” becomes possible.

__ Andrew Rippin↓2

… it is not enough for man to be told, “If you behave righteously in this world, you will attain to happiness in the life to come”, or alternatively, “If you do wrong in this world, you will suffer for it in the hereafter”. Such statements would be far too general and abstract to appeal to man’s imagination and, thus, to influence his behaviour. What is needed is a more direct appeal to the intellect, resulting in a kind of “visualization” of the consequences of one’s conscious acts and omissions and such an appeal can be effectively produced by means of metaphors, allegories and parables, each of them stressing, on the one hand, the absolute dissimilarity of all that man will experience after resurrection from whatever he did or could experience in this world; and, on the other hand, establishing means of comparison between these two categories of experience.

__Muhammad Asad↓3

 

The above quotes fully echo our esablished understanding of the metaphor with reference to religious discourse. In addition, they point us to reasons as to why we must not be surprised at finding the Qur’an filled with meaphor. In Qur’anic terms, these reasons are presented in the section below.

 

Metaphor in Qur’anic terms 

 

هُوَ الَّذِي أَنزَلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ مِنْهُ آيَاتٌ مُّحْكَمَاتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ ۖ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاءَ تَأْوِيلِهِ ۗ وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُ إِلَّا اللَّـهُ ۗ وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ يَقُولُونَ آمَنَّا بِهِ كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ رَبِّنَا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ

 

 The key word here is mutashabih. According to the online Project Root List, its root shim-ba-ha means:

to be like, to resemble/assimilate/liken/imitate, to compare one thing with another due to an attribute connecting them or is common to them…, appear like another thing, ambiguous/dubious/obscure, comparison/similitude/parable/similie… With reference to the Quran is that of which the meaning is not to be learned from its words and this is of two sorts: one is that of which the meaning is known by referrinhgg to what is termed “muhkam“, and the other is that of which the knowledge of its real meaning is not attainable in any way or it means what is not understood without repeated consideration.*

 *this description raises technical issues of differentiating metaphor with its related devices which are dealt with later. 

 Thus while the guidelines for living and statements of belief are clearly stated, other explications about matters not directly available to the human senses are inevitably described in metaphor.

Apart from necessity, simplification and a persuasive and educative presentation are also a major reasons for use of metaphor in the Qur’an. As Alla Ta’ala reminds us, Qur’an is a book that addresses issues related to us, the humans -

 لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ ۖ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ

WE have certainly sent down to you a Book in which is your mention. Then will you not reason? [Al-Anbiya 10]

 

 - our natures, our creation, our destiny, our guidance. Metaphor, hence becomes a natural mode of communication, since it gives a text a humanly shape more closer to the hearts and thoughts of us mortal beings (see Part III for reference). Moreover, when reinforced with metaphor, the language  “mediates certain human experiences, ideas and ideals which would otherwise be inexpressible.”↓4.

 

ۚ وَيَضْرِبُ اللَّـهُ الْأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

AND Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things. [An-Nur 35]

Allah ta’ala knows everything there is to know in all its complexity, intricacy and detail because He is the Creator of it all. For humans, given their limitations, some of it is presented in forms of examples: metaphorical snapshots of Reality in comprehensible terms…

 وَيَضْرِبُ اللَّـهُ الْأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ

 GOD sets forth parables for people so they may take reminder. [in Surah Ibrahim 25]

 

… examples so beautiful, and forceful that those with the readiness to learn cannot but stop, and be immersed in reflection… 

… terms which return the tide of their and the surge of their feelings to the Source from which they and their world arose…

…except for those who are not willisng to know..

 وَتِلْكَ الْأَمْثَالُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ ۖ وَمَا يَعْقِلُهَا إِلَّا الْعَالِمُونَ

As Stallman puts it in his thesis: “This relational function of metaphor is typically not felt or highly valued by readers who seek to be purely objective.”↓5, i.e. to those who like to restrict themselves to the observable and immediate. 

 

Metaphor in the Qur’an _ how

As in the above ayahs, Qur’an directly refers to its use of metaphor. The word most commonly used for this purpose is ‘mathal’. While derivattives of the root letters mim tha lam are used for various meanings, its relevant derivatives are mithlun, mathalun, and mithaalun. According to the PRL’s reference to Lane’s Lexicon, mithlun means something that is alike, similar, analougous; a resemblance, semblance, a requital, an equivalent; mathalun means condition, state, a case, a description by way of comparison; and, mithaalun means a model, quality, mode, pattern, example. That these variations are cognitively related should be clear enough considering the nature of metaphor as established in Part I of this thread. To reinforce the point, here is the relevant entry from the an encyclopedia of the Qur’an:

MATHAL / MITHL / TAMATHIL

Mathala is a root verb that means to resemble, imitate, compare anyone with or to someone else or to bear a likeness. Mithl means likeness, like, similar or resemblance. Mathal is a noun meaning parable, likeness, similitude, like, reason or proverb.

 

Relevant search on tanzil.net will reveal that in the Qur’an the word mithlun tends to be employed when likening or equating something as something else as part of the general discourse; wherease the word mathalun is utilized to refer to more formally stated  ’examples’, parables, similitdues, and case descriptions. Using a simultaneous survey of both tanzil.net and M. Asad’s The Message(see note 3 below), I was able to come across various examples of the use of these words in relevant meanings.   

In the sense 0f ‘equal’:

يُوصِيكُمُ اللَّـهُ فِي أَوْلَادِكُمْ ۖ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ

 ALLAH enjoins you concerning your children: The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females; [in An-Nisa 11]

 

In the sense of similarity:

فَلَا تَقْعُدُوا مَعَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يَخُوضُوا فِي حَدِيثٍ غَيْرِهِ ۚ إِنَّكُمْ إِذًا مِّثْلُهُمْ

 … SO do not sit with them until they enter into another conversation. Indeed, you would then be like them. [in An-Nisa 140]

 

In the sense of ‘example’:

وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ الْحَسَنَةِ وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلَاتُ

 THEY bid you to hasten the evil before the good, yet examples have passed away before them. [in Ar-Ra'd 6]

 

In the sense of case description:

مَّثَلُ الْجَنَّةِ الَّتِي وُعِدَ الْمُتَّقُونَ ۖ فِيهَا

HERE is a description of the Garden promised to the righteous: therein… [in Surah Mohammed 15]

In the sense of ‘attribute’:

لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْآخِرَةِ مَثَلُ السَّوْءِ ۖ وَلِلَّـهِ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَىٰ ۚ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ 

In the sense of ‘sign’:

  

إِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَا يَسْتَحْيِي أَن يَضْرِبَ مَثَلًا مَّا بَعُوضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا ۚ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَيَقُولُونَ مَاذَا أَرَادَ اللَّـهُ بِهَـٰذَا مَثَلًا ۘ يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيرًا ۚ وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِ إِلَّا الْفَاسِقِينَ

 WELL, Allah is not ashamed to cite the similitude of a gnat or of something even more insignificant than this. And those who have believed know that it is the truth from their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve, they say, “What did Allah intend by this as an example?” He causes many to err by it and many He leads aright by it! but He does not cause to err by it (any) except the transgressors. [Al-Baqarah 26]

 

I have deliberately ignored the senses of similitude and parable over here as plentiful examples will be found in the relevant portion of the upcoming anthology of Qur’anic metaphors. 

 

Metaphor in the Qur’an _ the forms:

The above enumeration supplies us with two forms that metaphor takes in the Qur’an, but actually it comes employed with plenty of devices. According to the encyclopedic entry already referred to above, the two major kinds of forms are: apparent and hidden. I begin with the two already encountered and apparent forms of metaphor in the Qur’an.

 The first apparent form is the use of the word mithl as described and examplified above and seems to have less of a literary quality. The second apparent form is the explicit declaration of a similitude using the word mathal and might be a similie, a parable, or a case description. This form typically includes the conjunction ka in its syntaxt, literal for ‘like’. To refresh the readers, similie is a simple explicitly stated comparison while a parable is an extended story-like similitude containing a series of metaphorical relationships. Thus the first, third and fourth of the Qur’anic metaphor examples from Part I are parables. All three of them have the obligatory ka in them. Example of a likeness made explicit with mathal and ka but not extended into a parable is:

إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَىٰ عِندَ اللَّـهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ

INDEED, the example of Jesus to Allah is like that of Adam.. [in Al-i-Imran 59] 

Also:

مَثَلُ الْفَرِيقَيْنِ كَالْأَعْمَىٰ وَالْأَصَمِّ وَالْبَصِيرِ وَالسَّمِيعِ

THESE two groups are like the blind and the deaf as compared with those who can see and hear. [in Surah Hud 24]

 

Another apparent form involves the use of ka (as plain ka or as ka-anna كَأَنَّ or ka-ma كَمَا) without an accompanying mathal. These too are either part of general discourse likening or equating one thing with another without necessarily a literary significance; or, they are the prototypical syntatical construction a::b of a plain similie. An example of the latter follows:

ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُم مِّن بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً

THEREAFTER, your hearts turned as hard as rocks or even harder [in Al-Baqarah 74]

 

A metaphor is in hidden form whereby the ‘likeness’ is not explicitly acknowledged by using ka, mathal, or mithl. Rather the target is simply said to be the source, or the source totally replaces the target with the latter usually inferable with reference to context. The source might be a word, an expression, or a narrative structure. In addition to the simple metaphor, it may appear as one of several devices such as metonymy, irony/humor, anthropomorphism, personification, parable, allegory, or symbolism.

 

Metaphor in the Qur’an _ the range:

In Qur’an, just like in general language, metaphors span the whole range of areas we have seen them parading in the previous posts. There are metaphors of the conceptual-structural and -ontological type. There are metaphorical extensions of root letter meanings, proverbial and idiomatic proclamations are clothed in metaphor. Attributes are often metaphorically stated. Many key concepts of the Quran are described through systems of related metaphors. I’m striving to represent this diversity in the upcoming anthology of metaphors.

 

وَلَقَدْ صَرَّفْنَا لِلنَّاسِ فِي هَـٰذَا الْقُرْآنِ مِن كُلِّ مَثَلٍ

AND We have certainly diversified for the people in this Qur’an from every [kind] of example,  [Al-Asra 89]

Topically too, metaphor covers a variety of topics in the Qur’an ranging from common idiomatic expressions, to depictions of psychological states, key living guidelines to descriptions of things of both this and that other world. Regarding descriptions of the afterlife, Qur’an directly teaches us that the described items have only a semblance to corresponding objects in this world:

كُلَّمَا رُزِقُوا مِنْهَا مِن ثَمَرَةٍ رِّزْقًا ۙ قَالُوا هَـٰذَا الَّذِي رُزِقْنَا مِن قَبْلُ ۖ وَأُتُوا بِهِ مُتَشَابِهًا 

WHEN they are provided with a fruit of the Gardens, they will say, “This is the same food as what was given to us before” whereas it is only in resemblance; [in Al-Baqarah 25]

In Mohd. Asad’s words “we are here reminded that the Qur’anic descriptions of what awaits man after resurrection are, of necessity, metaphorical, since the human mind cannot conceive of anything that is – both in its elements and its totality – entirely different from anything that can be experienced in this world”↓6.  This point does give rise to questions of interpretation which are briefly dealt with below.

 

Metaphor in the Qur’an _ interpretation:

Since the exact intention of the second kind of verses, i.e., the Mutashabihat, remains ambiguous and uncertain, therefore the correct method of their interpretation would be to harmonize them with the first kind, i.e., the Muhkamat. Then, the rule is that any interpretation of the Mutashabihat which goes against the first kind should be rejected absolutely and only the interpretation should be given credence which is not against the verses of established meaning.

__ Maulana Mufti Muhammad Shafi↓7

The language of the Qur’an must not be parsed, analyzed, and discussed as if it were a treatise of logic. A proper understanding of that language requires that it be seen as belonging to the living context which gave rise to it;

__ Mustansir Mir↓8

A significant aspect of these metaphors is that many of them encapsulate meaning which is gradually being unravelled with the increase in man’s knowledge.

__ Fauzia Tanveer Sheikh↓9

 

Several points on the relationship between metaphor and intrerpretation of the Qur’an may be made:

1. Incidence of metaphor in Qur’an does not lead to Qur’an being uninterpretable.

2. As a rule, all the ayahs of Qur’an, whether metaphor is involved or not, are interpreted with reference to: i) the historical context in which they arrived (when, where and why); ii) the broader context of Prophet Mohammed’s (salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam) life and sayings; iii) the general contexts of the then Arabic language usage, customs and history; and iv) the immediate context of the surrounfing Qur’anic ayahs and others topically related.

3. The special case of mutashabihat (including metaphor) is additionally dealt with the way so clearly described in Mariful Qur’an (quoted above).

4. The case of metaphysical descriptions is dealt with at face value: Allah ta’ala repeatedly describes the system of judgment and concequence; if the details of what is in store for us are necessarily or technically metaphorical does not make them less real just as the impossibility of our ever sensorily experiencing atoms and particles therein makes them any less real.

5. As for the topic of the nature of God the Almighty, Qur’an is clear on that point too:

لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ 

THERE is nothing like a likeness of Him; [in Ash-Shura 11]

Thus given “the impossibility of defining God even by means of a metaphor or a parable”↓[M. Asad, note 50 under 24:35]  the wise ones don’t even attempt to roam in that quarter.

6. Many ayahs of Qur’an metaphorically describing phenomenon of the universe (some, even those of the other world) are becoming more and more understandable with scientific accumulation of knowledge.

7. Qur’an’s reliance on metaphor does not question its veracity/authenticity. Treating metaphor as a reference to ‘fantasy’ was an attitude of old-times thrown clearly overboard by later and continuing researches in linguistics, cognitive sciences, neurology and related philosophies. See Part II of this thread for reference.

 

Postscript 

With the help of related literature and a surah by surah survey of the Qur’an, I’m attempting to compile an anthology of Qur’anic metaphors. I wish to present the range and diversity of metaphors in the Qur’an by organizing examples through various classifications. The anthology will, of necessity, also be presented as a thread of sectioned posts, InshaAllah.   

 

Notes

1. 2006. How is religious discourse possible? The constitutive role of metaphor in religious discourse. in Lingua ac Communittas, vol. 6, p. 51. Found online at http://www.lingua.amu.edu.pl/Lingua_16/SZTAJER.pdf

2. 2006. God. in The Blackwell companion to the Qur’an,  ed. by Andrew Rippin, Blackwell Publishing, p.224. Found online at http://sufibooks.info/Islam/Blackwell_Companion-to-the-Quran_Andrew-Rippin.pdf

3. 1980. Appendix I. in The Message of the Qur’an: translated and explained by Muhammad Asad. Found at http://arthursclassicnovels.com/koran/koran-asad10.html 

4. Andrew Rippin (2000),  The Qur’anic Symbolism of personal responsibility, in Literary Structures of Religious Meaning, ed. by Issa J. Boullata, Routledge, p. 117

5. Bob Stallman (1999), Divine hospitality in the Pentateuch: A metaphorical perspective on God as host. PhD Dissertation, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, p. 43. Found at http://eagle.northwestu.edu/faculty/bob-stallman/files/2011/03/2.pdf

6. in The Message as in note 3, Commentatory note #65 under 13:35

7. in Ma’ariful Qur’an, translated into English by Prof M. Hasan Askari and Prof M. Shamim, found at http://www.islamibayanaat.com/MQ/English-MaarifulQuran-MuftiShafiUsmaniRA-Vol-2-IntroAndPage-0-60.pdf)

8. (2000). Language, in The Blackwell companion to the Qur’an,  ed. by Andrew Rippin, Blackwell Publishing, p. 106. Found online at http://sufibooks.info/Islam/Blackwell_Companion-to-the-Quran_Andrew-Rippin.pdf

9. (1992). Nature imagery in Al-Qur’an. PhD Dissertation, Faculty of Advanced Integrated Stusies and Research, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad; p. 118

Filed under: language and communication, Literature|Religion, Quran, The Method Tagged: apparent and hidden metaphor, ayat-i-mutashabihat, how metaphor affects Qur;an’s interpretation, metaphor in Qur’an, metaphor in religious discourse, root letters mim tha lam, root letters shim ba ha, sense-meanings of mathal in Qur’an

Linked to Part I and Part II

The irreplacability of a metaphor

The potential meaningfulness of metaphor does not yield to simple paraphrase, its meaning cannot be reduced to a nonmetaphorical, propositional format without loss. This is the reason for the enormous creativity that metaphor displays not only in poetic discourse: In ordinary everyday life it can restructure ingrained patterns of thinking. And in scientific contexts it can have a heuristic* function.

*heuristic= “serving to indicate or point out; stimulating interest as a means of furthering investigation.” (dictionary.com)

The above ‘creativity hypothesis’ of the cognitive theory of metaphor (as summarized by Jakel↓1) mentions one of the reasons why metaphor is an irrerplacable part of any effective verbal message: it is has no simple substitute for meaning. Its meaning can only be elaborated, explored, interpreted, speculated upon to an extent; but it cannot be specified exactly and absolutely.

We need the metaphor in just the cases when there can be no question as yet of the precision of scientific statement.*

*see the last post for source

As the above quote from the previous post reminds us, we depend upon metaphor to express abstract or obscure phenomenon in terms of familiar, concrete and imaginable terms. As Andrew Ortony (↓2)  puts it, “somethings are by their nature not describable.” (p. 14), and it falls upon the metaphor to express the inexpressible.

My references so far may relegate the ‘irreplacibility’ of a metaphor to the way things are: we simply use the metaphor when we have no way around it, when we lack more straightforward ways of describing something. But that view is certainly wrong. Through a literary example, see how metaphor creates new worlds of meaning to whom no other effective entry might be possible other than through the metaphor itself:

 

Fursat mein sun shaguftgi-e-ghuncha ki sada

ye wo sukhan nahi jo kisi ne keha bhi ho

- 

When free, listen to the sound of the roses’ glee.

This is not speech that has been uttered.

The above is a Nasir Kazmi couplet, both in the original and in translation by me, from a previous blogpost. ‘Roses’ glee’ is a metaphor in itself (to be considered later here as an example), but right now i’m concerned with the ‘sound of’ part. The reader is forced to stop and try imagine what the sound of roses’ glee must be like. Upon analysis (which the readers of that pertinent post linked above may recall), the sound of roses’ glee most likely refers to the many messages of metaphysical nature the poet discerns in the sights and sounds of nature. Yet the interpretation is still open beyond the meaning already considered. And in terms of imagination, the metaphor forges new ground by inviting us to imagine an event that has never been experienced before. Philosopher Mark Johnson↓3 explains well what happens in such cases:

… one experiences the insight that two entire systems of implications… belong together in some fundamental way. The cognitive activity at this level… consists of the alteration of certain experiential structures (e.g. categorizations, concepts), such that one discovers a formal unity between previously unassociated things. 

We automatically associate sound with animate beings; that is the way we experience the world. When presented with Nasir’s couplet, however, we have to re-conceptualize sound as ‘a channel of communication’ or more precisely, as ‘a general aura of meaningfulness that emanates from all beings that have a purpose in their existence’ to get to the meaning of the verse. We similarly recast the flower as ‘an object created with a purpose’ from its foremost conception as ‘a part of the natural world’ or as ‘an object of beauty’.

This is not a rare phenomenon in the rarified arena of literature; more everyday examples abound. For instance, ‘my boss is a shark’ creates a new concept of ‘sharkness in humans’ that is different from both the literal shark and from the usual concept of brutality (for an elaboration of this example and the theory behind it follow the reference in Note 4. below).

 

The intensity of a metaphor

There is a sense of shock about a metaphor… which results from the clash of juxtaposed literal sense.

__ Paul Henle↓5

One puzzling aspect of the expressive capaciousness of metaphor takes the form of an image’s potential for focusing both thought and emotion in a particularly intense, economical way.  

__ Robert Rogers↓6

…by circumventing discretization [metaphors] enable the communication of ideas with a richness of detail much less likely to come about in the normal course of events.

and

… the emotive as well as the sensory and cognitive aspects [of the subject of metaphor] are more available [in mind], for they have been left intact in the transferred chunk [of meaning].

__ Andrew Ortony↓7

As Ortony explains so well in his essay, metaphor “lies much closer to perceived experience” in a significant way that makes it a particularly vivid phenomenon. We experience the world in a continuous and holistic fashion. Our stream of consciousness is a flow of sensations of all kind coming in simultaneously, whether at that time we are interacting with the outside world or going through our own ideas, emotions, or memories. We don’t experience things in a discrete, fragmented, one-by-one fashion as when we see concepts graphically displayed in a presentaion, or dissected frog parts laid out on a science lab table. Metaphor does the same by not spelling out the new grounds of meaning: it just poses an image before us and our attempt to apprehend it (holisticall, continuously) does the job. 

The following short poem by Emily Dickinson (found at bartleby) illustrates the point well:

It dropped so low in my regard

I heard it hit the ground,

And go to pieces on the stones

At bottom of my mind;

 

Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less

Than I reviled myself

For entertaining plated wares

Upon my silver shelf.

 

Without spelling out what ‘it’ was and why and how it came to be discarded from its high place in the author’s mind, the intensity of the mental event, the vivacity with which the poet experienced it, the emotions associated with the whole episode, and the strong sentiments with which the poet seems to regard in general the contents of her mental life, are all immensely clear from just one reading of the poem.

There is another reason for the vividness of a metaphor, and that is its compactness (Ortony, see notes for source): By juxtaposing two apparently unrelated objects in the readers’ minds (human emotion and a flower in one of Nasir’s examples) and forcing them to envisage a new kind of relationship between them, metaphors posit endless shades of meaning for the reader’s appreciation. For instance roses’ glee could be a reference to their beauty (smiling happy faces have been often likened to flowers), to the emotion that a beautiful sight such flowers create in us (a thing of beauty is a joy forever), to the purity associated with sights of nature, to the freshness of flowers, to their swaying on their stalks like children swinging gaily, to the pleasant sensation generated through their smell, etc. All these shades of meaning and more have been packed into a single two-word phrase, what Ortony calls the ‘compactness thesis’ of his theory.

 

The memorability of a metaphor

Compactness, vividness, and irreplacibility make for a memorable image: well-suited for educational purposes. In class-room, it were always the skillful lecturers who made the often remote-from-routine-life concepts of __ math, physics, medicine, psychology __ alive in our imagination so that we could picture them easily (and even enjoy the lecture!) that were more successful. Not possible without good metaphors:

The educational power of metaphors is thus twofold. The vivid imagery arising from metaphorical comprehension encourages memorability and generates of necessity a better, more insightful, personal understanding. But also, it is a very effective device for moving from well-known to the less well-known, from vehicle to topic.  

__ Ortony, (p. 17)

Humanliness of the literary metaphor 

Literature’s world is a concrete human world of immediate experience. The poet uses images and objects and sensations much more than he uses abstract ideas … The world of literature is human in shape, … where the primary realities are not atoms or electrons but bodies, and the primary forces are not energy or gravitation but love and death and passion and joy.

__ Northrop Frye↓8

Human beings become human through the acquisition of language, and the acquisition alienates humans from all those things language names. The name is a substitute for the thing, it displaces the thing in the very act of naming it, so that language finally stands even between one human being and another. Much of our poetry has been written to undo this situation, to remove the veil of language that covers everything with a false familiarity… 

__ Robert Scholes↓9

… literary metaphor depicts the themes that occasion it, communicating meaning imagistically by rendering it presentational.

__ Phillip Stambovsky↓10

The success of the  metaphor thus lies in recreating for us the lively vivid life in our reading experience which is so close to us. Thus it most effectively performs its fundamental function in literature: giving it the human shape we need to connect with it; and, as Stambovsky reminds us, performs it in the very manner so essentially familiar to us. This latter feature of the metaphor may be called intimation through a metaphor and is psychologically enticing and influential for the reader…

 

Intimation through metaphor

There is a unique way in which the maker and appreciator of metaphor are drawn closer to one another. Three aspects are involved: (1) the speaker issues a kind of concealed invitation; (2) the hearer expends a special effort to accept the invitation; and (3) this transaction constitutes the acknowledgment of a community.

__ Ted Cohen↓11

Perhaps the reason why so many metaphors have a peculiarly poignant beauty is because each of them kindles in us momentarily a dim memory of the time when we lost the outer world–when we first realized the outer world is outside, and we are unbridgeably apart from it, and alone. Furthermore, the mutual sharing of such metaphorical experience would seem, thus, to be about as intimate a psychological contact as adult human beings can have with one another.

__ Harold Searle↓12

Some authors even believe that the force of a metaphor’s image can lead to an exchange of material from the unconscious to conscious mind in the reader (in Rogers, p. 11). We must now consider what exactly constitutes this force; what is it in a metaphor that leads to such influence. Let us see.

 

The metaphor can be disclosive in the sense of being an eye-opener, helping us to understand hidden relations between the [target and source].

and  

Poetic devices and imaginative literature do not necessarily provide us with new information. What they do best is to give us insight into the (tacit) knowledge we already possess.

__ Snaevarr↓13

Both Snaevarr and Stambovsky associate certain terms with metaphorical comprehension that help us realize how metaphor induces an intimate connection with the author, the subject-matter, and, potentially, the world at large. Snaevarr argues how, when we understand a metaphor, we go through the same process of ‘seeing something as something’ involved in many instances of purely sense-based perception. For instance, when an object (such as a cat) is before us, typically, we merely notice what it is. Here our knowledge/concept of the object helps us quickly recognize it: perception nearly depends here on pre-existing knowledge. But when an ambiguous oil painting is presented before us and, while appreciating it, it suddenly ‘dawns’ on us that it depicts a beautiful cat: that is what Wittgenstein↓14 called ‘seeing as’.

from wikipedia 

An easy-to-relate example would be of the famous Necker cube which can be seen either as a cube projecting away from us on its northeast side or as a cube projecting on its southwest side. This kind of seeing-as is internal and spontaneous: external descriptions do not necessarily lead us to see the two different possible cubes in our mind, it has to come from within. There is also a kind of filtering and ‘foregrounding’ involved. When our mental image switches from one possible cube to the other, the first one seems to disappear and certain features of the new cube seem to ‘lighten up’ in the image. The same happens when the meaning intended by the metaphor dawns on us. The metaphor foregrounds a part and when we appreciate it a new meaning dawns on us, or an old obscure or forgotten meaning lightens up with new significance, or a subtly familiar one is brought into explicit focus.

When applied to less visual material, such a seeing-as is better termed ‘insight’: understanding the inner nature of things. The process of insight is both intuitive (that is, it does not involve conscious reasoning) and spontaneous. It also has the quality of an ‘enlightment’ and is often (specially in problem solving) sudden. It gives a feeling of familiarity with the subject in question by suddenly casting it for us in a new light (in the above stated ‘seeing as’ fashion) that we were not able to appreciate before (see famous cognitive psychologist Herbert Simon‘s paper for good descriptions of both intuition and insight). The kind of effective lectures I mentioned before created this in us: a feeling that now we really knew the topic, we knew how things really worked, how it really feels. Good metaphors achieve the same effect. Perhaps that is why:

Metaphors which provide insight into an unknown, transcendent, or mysterious subject thus can have an extremely powerful effect on those who accept them.

__ Stallman↓15 

As Snaevarr clarifies, what metaphor really does is to lighten up a piece of tacit knowledge we already possessed. The most comprehensive definition of tacit knowledge that I could find online is that it is:

Unwritten, unspoken, and hidden vast storehouse of knowledge held by practically every normal human being, based on his or her emotions, experiences, insights, intuitions, observations and internalized information. 

Indeed the feeling of intimacy and closeness will not be produced if we did not realize that the metaphor focused us on a thought or feeling we were familiar with but had never been consciously aware of. For instance consider the following verses by Nasir Kazmi, in translation by me along with the original Urdu in Roman script:

 

On the town’s vacant station

A passenger must have alighted

[shehr ke khali station per

koi musafir utra hoga]

_

 Hear it immersed in the depths of heart

No song is indeed a song of glee…

[dil ki gehrayion mein doob ke dekh

koi naghma khushi ka naghma nahin]

_

Shivering, the long nights put to us a haunting question

Their laden sound-like silence hisses answers…

[ye thitri hue lambi raaten kuch poochti hein

ye khamushi-e avaaz numa kuch kehti he]

_

In your lane all day

I pick the pebbles of grief

[teri gali mein sara din

dukh ke kankar chunta hoon]

_

From the nameless reaches of the islands of memory

The waves of your voice still reach

 [yad ke benishan jazeeron se

teri avaaz arehi he abhi]

 

These verses conjure up in us strange unspeakable feelings (and certainly many more shades of the atmosphere related to) respectively, lonely change or movement through life; the sombre sadness associated with awareness of existential realities that give rise to creative expression; introspection on the nature of our existence that typically transpires in the dark and silent moments of night before we fall asleep; the rambling recall of the many pleasures of a friendship after it has terminated; and the persisting subconscious connection with a long lost love… experiences we have all encountered in life, directlyor indirectly. That is why we relate to them and their author, and feel affected by them.

Metaphors are closer to emotional reality for the same reasons that they are closer to perceptual experience. To say of an unexpexted event that it was a miracle is to say far more than that it was inexplicable: it is to express joy, admiration , wonder, awe and a host of other things without mentioning any of them.

__ Andrew Ortony↓16

Remember that tacit knowledge encompasses a great number of sources such as bits and pieces picked up incidentally, subconsciuosly or by implication; by engaging in non-verbal skills; through general observations and readings; and knowledge of internal states personally experienced or understood through empathy. That is why, metaphor is a powerful and often the sole means of expressing our internal states. And ”the particular ability of imaginative literature to disclose the unique, not least the uniquely personal” (Snaevarr, p. 361) most probably depends on metaphor.

 

The psychological power of metaphor

If a new metaphor enters the conceptual system that we base our actions on, it will alter the conceptual system and the perceptions and actions that the system gives rise to.

__ Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p. 111

In their book Metaphors We Live By (1980), Lakoff and Johnson make the case of how metaphors do not just represent our perception of common realities, they have the power to create realities themselves. For instance, the prevalence and conventionality of the metaphor “argument is war” not only represents but also reinforces in turn a culture of argumentation where it is viewed as competitive rather than as a cooperative social exercise; whereby it is supposed to be won or lost rather than as taken to be a means of forwarding consensual decisions.

Consider the example of a fresh metaphor: ‘problems are solutions’, where solution is used in the chemical sense of the word. Actually, the authors took the metaphor from a real example of their Iranian student who thought that the expression ‘the solution of my problems’ was metaphorical. The student visualized “a large volume of liquid, bubbling and smoking, containing all of your problems, either dissolved or in the form of precipitates, with catalysts constantly dissolving some problems (for the time being) and precipitating out others”. The metaphor is not actually in use anywhere, but, as Lakoff and Johnson demonstrate how this metaphor creates a new, more profitable view of ‘problems’ than is currently prevalent. In this new view, derived from the new meaning constructed by the metaphorical comparison of real-life problems with a chemical solution, problems are accepted as a more or less recurring part of life. We use certain catalysts which temporarily solve some problems but the same process, or the disturbance in the combinations of catalysts created by a single-instance usage may lead to the precipitation of some other problem. “Rather than direct your energies toward solving your problems once and for all, you would direct your energies toward finding out what catalysts will dissolve your most pressing problems for the longest time without precipitating out worse ones. The reappearance of a problem is viewed as a natural occurence rather than as a failure on your part to find “the right way to solve it”.”

In contrast the more current view of problems as puzzles reinforces the expectation that there is one solution to each problem, that once applied, it will make the problem go forever. Recurrence of the problem implies a failure on the part of our ability to solve it. While the problem lasts, a state of confusion and frantic attempts to solve it and resolve it continue. Etc, etc.

Similarly, James Geary mentions research to the effect that when finance journalists use ‘agent metaphors’ to describe stock market behavior (such as ‘prices climbed higher’, or ‘the market fought back’) “an enduring internal goal or disposition” is inferred with the implication that the trend “is likely to continue tomorrow” (p. 31). In fact, it is in this sense of metaphor’s effects that scholars such as Lakoff and Johnson have highlighted the political, or let’s say, ideological power of metaphor…

 

The ideological power of metaphor

  

The people who get to impose their metaphors on the culture get to define what we consider to be true.

__ Lakoff and Johnson↓17  

What therefore is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonymies, anthropomorphisms: in short a sum of human relations which became poetically and rhetorically intensified, metamorphosed, adorned, and after long usage seem to a nation fixed, canonic and binding;

 __ Friedrich Nietzsche↓18 (in James Geary, p. 116)

Indeed we are familiar with presidential candidates, regimes, or factions in society popularizing and reinforcing ‘pet metaphors’ in their followers’ minds to ingrain their preferred sets of attitudes — their ideology. Similar examples can be given from the domain of religion. The budhist’s wheel of life and the muslim’s Straight Path are presented metaphorically, binding important aspects of their faith, creating their spiritual reality for them, defining the meaning and purpose of life to them, and motivating important attitudes and behaviors in each.

[This is not the place to argue, however, on the absolute relativity (or not) of truth (a topic with which this blog though is very much concerned and is yet to present a full-fledged treatment of the problem; though the topic has been touched upon in various posts).]

After having explored the concept of metaphor, establishing its power and significance from the point of view of both the sender and receiver of a communication, we are now set to see how the topic relates to the Quranic corpus. It’s easy to find all kinds of metaphors in Qur’an; important systems of extended conceptual metaphors that present, educate, and penetrate to the heart and mind of it’s readers; beautiful, visualizable, and novel, original metaphors that capture the sentient nature of its target audience and leave lasting and powerful impressions; metaphors so original and absolute as they must be for depicting realities beyond the periphery of ordinary human perception.

I feel excited at this point of my journey in the realm of the Metaphor. For these past few months, having thought about familiar metaphors from the Quran against all my developing understanding of metaphors in general now makes me feel as if I am approaching the great universe of the Qur’an with fresh eyes.

Till then, fi aman-i Allah

Notes

1. Olaf Jakel (2002). Hypotheses revisited: The cognitive theory of metaphor applied to religious texts, metaphoric.de, vol. 2, pp. 20-42. Found at http://www.metaphorik.de/02/jaekel.pdf

2. Ortony, A. (1975). Why metaphors are necessary and not just nice. Reprinted in Cultural Metaphors: Readings, research translations, and commentary, Ed. M. J. Gannon, 2001, Sage Publications. Found at http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Ih0BUezsl6kC&printsec=frontcover

3. Johnson (1980), taken from Bob Stallman (1999), Divine hospitality in the Pentateuch: A metaphorical perspective on God as host. PhD Dissertation, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, pp. 40-41. Found at http://eagle.northwestu.edu/faculty/bob-stallman/files/2011/03/2.pdf

4. Sam Gluckseburg (2008). How metaphors create categories — quickly. In Metaphor and Thought, 2nd ed., Ed. Raymond W. Gibbs. Cambridge University Press. Found at ftp://ftp.turingbirds.com/ai/The%20Cambridge%20Handbook%20of%20Metaphor%20and%20Thought.pdf

5. Paul Henle, (1958), Metaphor. Reprinted in Philosphical Perspectives on Metaphor, Ed. Mark Johnson, 1980, University of Minnesota Press, p. 102

6. Rogers, R. (1978). Metaphor: A psychoanalytical perspective. University of California Press, p. 7. Found at http://books.google.com/books?id=zxH3W27COqgC&printsec=frontcover

7. (1975), from Cultural metaphors, pp. 16-17

8. N. Frye (1964) found in Phillip Stambovsky’s (1988), The depictive image: Metaphor and literary experience, University of Massachusetts Press, p. 50.

9. Scholes (1985) in Stambovsky, 1988, p. 89.

10. Stambovsky, 1988, p. 3

11. T. Cohen (1978) from Stallman (1999), p. 44

12. Harold Searle, Collected Papers on Schizophrenia. Quoted in Rogers, 1978, p. xi

13. Stefan Snaevarr (2010). Metaphors, narratives, emotions: Their interplay and impact, Rodopi, Amsterdam, p. 83 and p. 360 respectively.

14. Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is credited with this conceptamong many others he theorized upon in his now classic Philosophical investigations. For a simple explanation of his concept read point 1 of this lecture presentation: http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/teaching_staff/ahmed/WittgensteinPhilosophicalInvestigationsLecture15.pdf

15. Stallman (1999), p. 41

16. in Cultural metaphors, p. 17

17. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980). Metaphors we live by. Originally published by University of Chicago Press. Found online at: http://www.pineforge.com/upm-data/6031_Chapter_10_O’Brien_I_Proof_5.pdf

18. in James Geary, (2011), I is an Other: The secret life of metaphor and how it shapes the way we see the world, Harper Collins, p. 116.

 

 

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