جماليات التعبير القرآني في قوله تعالى: ﴿ وَقِيلَ يَاأَرْضُ ابْلَعِي مَاءَكِ...﴾ دراسة معجمية وبلاغية

The Aesthetics of Qur’anic Expression in the Verse of Allah Almighty: “And It Was Said, ‘O Earth, Swallow Up Your Water…’”: A Lexical and Rhetorical Study

الملخص

This research examines the lexical and rhetorical structure of the Qur’anic verse: “And it was said, ‘O earth, swallow your water, and O sky, cease.’ And the water was made to recede, and the matter was decided, and it settled upon al-Jūdī, and it was said, ‘Away with the wrongdoing people.’” It is a verse brief in wording but immense in meaning, containing exquisite imagery of the end of the Flood and revealing, in its words and structures, extraordinary precision in the choice of every word and its placement in its proper context.

The study treats the principal lexical items in the verse lexically and shows the precise semantic implications they carry, discussing the meanings of “it was said,” “O,” “earth,” “swallow,” “your water,” “sky,” “cease,” “was made to recede,” “the water,” “the matter was decided,” “settled,” “al-Jūdī,” “away,” and “the wrongdoing people.” It also examines the effect of definiteness and indefiniteness, annexation, ellipsis, explicit mention and omission, and passive construction in directing and securing the meaning.

The study then moves to the rhetorical dimension, uncovering the secrets of composition in the verse, especially the significance of conjunction with wāw, the appropriateness of mentioning earth before heaven, the choice of “swallow” over near-synonyms, the choice of “cease,” the attribution of water to earth in “your water,” the expressions “the water was made to recede” and “the matter was decided” in the passive, the choice of “settled” over alternatives, and the mention of “for the wrongdoing people” at the conclusion of the story.

It also highlights the various rhetorical arts contained in the verse, including brevity in both its types, partial paronomasia between “swallow” and “cease,” antithesis between earth and heaven, parallelism between the two commands, double entendre and ambiguity in “away,” and al-irdāf, allusion, beautiful causation, al-tashīm, and precaution, along with good arrangement, consolidation, harmony, coherence, beautiful clarity, and indirect expression.

The research concludes that the lexical and rhetorical structure of this verse are closely intertwined, such that the precision of wording cannot be separated from precision of meaning, nor the beauty of style from the firmness of composition. Every word was chosen for a particular meaning, and every structure was fashioned to achieve a semantic and rhetorical purpose at once. The verse thus discloses a major aspect of Qur’anic inimitability: the combination of few words with abundant meanings, precise expression with powerful imagery, and beautiful composition with complete signification, so that the verse, despite its few words, encompasses multiple meanings and rhetorical arts. The conclusion also notes the harmony, coherence, and beautiful clarity that characterize its wording.