الاسْتِعارَة
al-istiʿāra
Metaphor
A simile one of whose two terms has been dropped: the word is borrowed for what it does not literally name, and the likeness is what licenses the loan.
- الاسْتِعارَةُal-istiʿāraMetaphor
- The use of a word for other than what it was coined for, the licence being resemblance, with a context that prevents the literal sense from being intended. It is a simile with one of its two terms removed.
Its two kinds
- Taṣrīḥiyya (explicit) — the mushabbah is dropped and the mushabbah bihi is stated outright.
- Makniyya (implicit) — the mushabbah bihi is dropped and only something belonging to it is mentioned.
Darkness and light are borrowed here: what is meant is disbelief and faith. The mushabbah — disbelief — is nowhere stated; only the term it is likened to appears. That is an explicit metaphor, and the surrounding speech is the context that forbids the literal reading.
Al-Jurjānī’s point in Asrār al-Balāgha is that the force of a metaphor is not in the borrowed word but in the claim it makes: it does not say faith resembles light, it says — for the length of the sentence — that it is light.
Sources
- أسرار البلاغةAsrār al-Balāgha
The foundational treatment of simile and metaphor.
- تلخيص المفتاحTalkhīṣ al-Miftāḥ
The text on which the three sciences of Balagha are conventionally studied.
In the glossary
Related entries
Declaring that one thing shares a quality with another, by means of a particle such as ka- or ka-anna.
Read entryThe science by which the forms of Arabic speech are known to fit the requirement of the situation.
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