LessonsClassifying Metaphor by Its Terms and Common Feature: Concordance, Opposition and InclusionQuiz

فَبَشِّرْهُمْ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
So announce to them the “glad tidings” of a painful punishment.

In Qur’an 3:21, *bashshira* ordinarily introduces welcome news, but the accompanying ʿadhāb alīm names painful punishment. The reversal makes the threat and rebuke more forceful. The speaker is not promising something that would actually produce joy.

This is discussed as an opposing and ironical metaphor. The affirmative lexical surface is deliberately inverted by the punitive context. The phrase “painful punishment” functions as a direct indication that literal good news is not intended.

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A threat expressed with the vocabulary of glad tidings

Classifying Metaphor by Its Terms and Common Feature: Concordance, Opposition and Inclusion

فَبَشِّرْهُمْ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ
So announce to them the “glad tidings” of a painful punishment.

In Qur’an 3:21, *bashshira* ordinarily introduces welcome news, but the accompanying ʿadhāb alīm names painful punishment. The reversal makes the threat and rebuke more forceful. The speaker is not promising something that would actually produce joy.

This is discussed as an opposing and ironical metaphor. The affirmative lexical surface is deliberately inverted by the punitive context. The phrase “painful punishment” functions as a direct indication that literal good news is not intended.