LessonsAl-Dhikr wa al-Hadhf: Rhetorical Purposes of Mention and OmissionQuiz

هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
Are those who know equal to those who do not know? (Al-Zumar 39:9)

Yaʿlamūn may normally be followed by something known, yet the verse does not state an object. Its concern is not a particular item of knowledge but the difference between possessing knowledge and lacking it.

This is tanzīl al-mutaʿaddī manzilat al-lāzim: a verb capable of taking an object is used as though intransitive because the discourse has no interest in specifying that object. This differs subtly from omitting one recoverable, definite object.

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Omission 10: treating a transitive verb as intransitive

Al-Dhikr wa al-Hadhf: Rhetorical Purposes of Mention and Omission

هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الَّذِينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَالَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
Are those who know equal to those who do not know? (Al-Zumar 39:9)

Yaʿlamūn may normally be followed by something known, yet the verse does not state an object. Its concern is not a particular item of knowledge but the difference between possessing knowledge and lacking it.

This is tanzīl al-mutaʿaddī manzilat al-lāzim: a verb capable of taking an object is used as though intransitive because the discourse has no interest in specifying that object. This differs subtly from omitting one recoverable, definite object.