Four Types of Rational Figurative Predication: Quranic and Nondeclarative Examples

1. The organizing principle of the four divisions

Rational figurative predication (المجاز العقلي) attributes an action or action-meaning to an associated element rather than its proper bearer. It needs an intelligible relation and an indication excluding a wholly literal attribution.

The present division asks a different question: are the two sides of the predication—the predicate (المسند) and the subject (المسند إليه)—each being used in their ordinary lexical sense or in a figurative sense?

The four divisions describe combinations of lexical usage on these two sides. They are not four distinct causal relations or four different forms of contextual indication.

2. What the two sides mean

لأن طرفيه وهما المسند إليه والمسند إما حقيقتان لغويتان أو مجازان لغويان
For its two sides—the subject and the predicate—may both be linguistically literal or both linguistically figurative; mixed combinations are also possible.

The subject (المسند إليه) is what receives the judgment, such as “الربيع” (spring). The predicate (المسند) is the action or meaning attributed to it, such as “أنبت” (caused to grow).

Lexical literalness concerns the word's meaning. Rational literalness concerns whether the predicate is attributed to its proper bearer. The two tests must not be confused.

3. The four combinations at a glance

TypePredicateSubjectExample
1LiteralLiteralأَنْبَتَ الرَّبِيعُ الْبَقْلَ
2FigurativeFigurativeأَحْيَا الْأَرْضَ شَبَابُ الزَّمَانِ
3LiteralFigurativeأَنْبَتَ الْبَقْلَ شَبَابُ الزَّمَانِ
4FigurativeLiteralأَحْيَا الْأَرْضَ الرَّبِيعُ

All four still exhibit figurative predication. Type 1 is not a literal *predication* merely because both the subject and predicate have their ordinary lexical meanings.

Types 2–4 combine rational figurative predication with differing amounts of lexical figurative usage. Always analyze word meanings before the relation of attribution.

4. Type 1: both sides literally used

أَنْبَتَ الرَّبِيعُ الْبَقْلَ
Spring caused the herbage to grow.

“Anbata” conveys causing growth, and “al-rabīʿ” denotes spring. Both words retain their ordinary lexical meanings. Yet growing is attributed to the season, a temporal or causal associate, not to the ultimate creator of the growth.

The key insight is that rational figurative predication does not require figurative words. A change in attribution is possible even if both lexical elements remain literal.

5. Type 2: figurative predicate and subject

أَحْيَا الْأَرْضَ شَبَابُ الزَّمَانِ
The youth of time brought the land to life.

The subject shabāb al-zamān (شباب الزمان) uses “youth” figuratively of time; time does not literally become a young human. The predicate aḥyā (أحيا) refers figuratively to the emergence of vegetation and vitality, not literally reviving a dead person.

Both sides therefore involve lexical figurative usage, while the fresh growth is also attributed to an associated season or quality of time. Rational figurative predication remains present.

6. What revival means in “أحيا الأرض”

In “أحيا الأرض,” revival does not mean that the earth receives a human soul. It describes its becoming green, productive, and lively.

The word “revived” is extended from actual life-giving to the emergence of a comparable state. Thus the predicate itself is lexically figurative, unlike “anbata” in the first example.

The lexical extension in “aḥyā” is one analytical step; assigning that revived condition to the “youth of time” is a separate predicational step. The same sentence can contain both.

7. Type 3: literal predicate, figurative subject

أَنْبَتَ الْبَقْلَ شَبَابُ الزَّمَانِ
The youth of time caused the herbage to grow.

The predicate “anbata” remains in its ordinary sense of growth or causing growth, so it is lexically literal. “Shabāb al-zamān,” describing a period of time as youthful, is lexically figurative.

The growth is also attributed to that associated season rather than its proper agent. Compared with Type 1, the change lies specifically in the lexical character of the subject.

8. Type 4: figurative predicate, literal subject

أَحْيَا الْأَرْضَ الرَّبِيعُ
Spring revived the land.

“Revived” transfers the meaning of bringing to life to greening and renewed growth, so the predicate is lexically figurative. “Spring” has its ordinary meaning and the subject is lexically literal.

The predication remains figurative because the revival is assigned to a season. Type 2 differs only in also casting the subject as “the youth of time,” a figurative expression.

9. How the four examples are constructed

Two independent questions generate the four cases:
1. Is the predicate “anbata” (literal growth) or “aḥyā” (figurative revival)?
2. Is the subject “al-rabīʿ” (literal spring) or “shabāb al-zamān” (figurative youth of time)?

SubjectAnbata: literal predicateAḥyā: figurative predicate
Al-rabīʿ: literalType 1Type 4
Shabāb al-zamān: figurativeType 3Type 2

These two binary lexical classifications account for the four types without changing the basic definition of rational figurative predication.

10. Why the division has exactly four cases

ووجه الانحصار في الأربعة على ما ذهب إليه المصنف ظاهر
The reason for restricting the division to four cases is clear on the adopted definition.

Each of the two sides has two lexical possibilities: literal or figurative. Two binary choices yield four combinations.

The predicate under discussion is an action or action-meaning. If one changes the scope of the definition to include further kinds of structures, different classificatory questions can arise. The apparent fourfold restriction depends on preserving the original scope.

11. The frequency of rational figurative predication in the Quran

وهو أي المجاز العقلي في القرآن كثير
Rational figurative predication occurs frequently in the Quran.

This addresses the objection that acknowledging figurative predication in revelation would make the revelation untrue. Rational figurative predication is not a synonym for false speech; it is an intelligible and context-governed Arabic rhetorical usage.

A predicate can be assigned to a cause, time, place, or intermediary without denying the ultimate agency of the event. The interpretation relies on relevant knowledge and context.

12. Attributing increased faith to the verses

وَإِذَا تُلِيَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتُهُ زَادَتْهُمْ إِيمَانًا
When His verses are recited to them, those verses increase them in faith. (Al-Anfāl 8:2)

The verb “zādat-hum” is assigned to “His verses.” Increased faith takes place under God's agency, while hearing the verses provides the occasion and instrumental cause through which that increase occurs.

Attributing the increase to the verses highlights their effect on believers. The causal association makes the indirect predication intelligible.

13. Pharaoh and the slaughter of sons

يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ
He slaughtered their sons. (Al-Qaṣaṣ 28:4)

The act is attributed to Pharaoh. This need not mean he personally killed every child; his agents carried out the cruelty under his authority and command.

The action is assigned to its commanding cause or responsible ruler. This establishes responsibility and intensifies the moral force of the statement. Distinguishing the agent who orders from the individual who directly performs the act matters here.

14. Satan and the removal of clothing

يَنْزِعُ عَنْهُمَا لِبَاسَهُمَا
He removed their clothing from them. (Al-Aʿrāf 7:27)

Satan's prompting was causally involved in the event experienced by Adam and his wife. The removal is therefore assigned to Satan through the role of enticement and instigation.

The causal intermediary explains the predication. This should not become a careless rule that every attribution to a cause is automatically figurative: the intended relation and contextual indication remain necessary.

15. A day that makes children grey-haired

فَكَيْفَ تَتَّقُونَ إِنْ كَفَرْتُمْ يَوْمًا يَجْعَلُ الْوِلْدَانَ شِيبًا
How, if you disbelieve, will you guard yourselves against a day that will turn children grey-haired? (Al-Muzzammil 73:17)

The predicate “makes” is attributed to “a day.” The day is the time or setting of overwhelming terror, not an independent acting person. The attribution intensifies the sense of dread.

The image of children turning grey conveys extraordinary severity. The specific rational-figurative feature is ascribing the action to the day, rather than merely labeling all the words metaphorical.

16. The earth bringing out its burdens

وَأَخْرَجَتِ الْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَا
And the earth brings out its burdens. (Az-Zalzalah 99:2)

“Bringing out” is attributed to the earth, from which the burdens emerge by God's command. The earth is the location and locus associated with the occurrence.

This differs from the Pharaoh example: Pharaoh is associated through commanding responsibility, while the earth is associated as the place from which something emerges. Identifying the specific relation prevents vague classification.

17. Comparing the Quranic relations

PassageAttributed toRelation
زَادَتْهُمْ إِيمَانًاVersesInstrumental cause
يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَاءَهُمْPharaohCommander/cause
يَنْزِعُ عَنْهُمَا لِبَاسَهُمَاSatanInstigating cause
يَوْمًا يَجْعَلُ الْوِلْدَانَ شِيبًاDayTime
أَخْرَجَتِ الْأَرْضُ أَثْقَالَهَاEarthPlace

These passages share an attribution to an associated element. They do not all share the same *kind* of association. Naming that specific relation is what makes the analysis explanatory rather than merely classificatory.

18. Is figurative predication limited to statements?

One proposed restriction confines rational figurative predication to declarative reports (الإسناد الخبري), since statements affirm or deny a relation and can be judged true or false.

The book examines this restriction and explains that a predicate can be assigned to a nonproper bearer in nondeclarative forms (الإنشاء) as well—commands, prohibitions, and expressions of wish.

Commands and wishes are not themselves true or false in the way propositions are; nevertheless, their internal predicational relation can still be analyzed rhetorically.

19. An imperative example involving Hāmān

يَا هَامَانُ ابْنِ لِي صَرْحًا
O Hāmān, build for me a lofty structure. (Ghāfir 40:36)

The verb is an imperative. Pharaoh is not necessarily asking Hāmān to perform every stage of construction personally. Hāmān can be the one who organizes or orders the work, while builders perform the physical tasks.

The action in the command is assigned to an organizer or directing cause. Thus rational figurative predication need not be restricted to declarative sentences.

20. Other nondeclarative illustrative forms

Commands, wishes, and other requests may also assign an action to an associated rather than proper bearer. The source discusses such forms with spring, daytime, and effort.

فَلْيُنْبِتِ الرَّبِيعُ مَا شَاءَ
Let spring cause whatever growth it will.

وَلْيَصُمْ نَهَارُهُ
Let his day fast.

وَلْيَجِدَّ جِدُّكَ
Let your effort strive earnestly.

The expressions retain nondeclarative force, yet spring is a time, daytime a setting, and effort an abstraction. Their action relations can still be figurative.

21. A wish about the flowing river

لَيْتَ النَّهْرَ جَارٍ
If only the river were flowing.

“Layta” expresses a wish, so this is not an ordinary declarative proposition. Nonetheless, the sentence clearly contains an attribution of flowing to the river.

Water is what flows, while a river is the place of that flow. Attributing flow to the river can therefore be rational figurative predication even within a wish. The analysis does not require redefining the word “river” as water.

22. Your prayer commands you: an interrogative

أَصَلَاتُكَ تَأْمُرُكَ
Does your prayer command you? (Hūd 11:87)

The people of Shuʿayb use an interrogative form. Prayer is said to “command” because religious worship and its demands guide and motivate behavior.

Although the utterance is a question, the internal predicate “commands” is assigned to prayer as an influencing cause or occasion, not to a human speaker issuing orders. This offers another nondeclarative illustration of indirect predication.

23. Worked method: separate lexical use from predication

A reliable analysis follows four steps:
1. Identify the predicate and its subject.
2. Determine the lexical status of each.
3. Ask whether the predicate is assigned to its proper bearer.
4. Name the association and the contextual indication.

أَحْيَا الْأَرْضَ الرَّبِيعُ
“Revived” is figurative, “spring” literal, and attribution to spring indirect: Type 4.

أَنْبَتَ الرَّبِيعُ الْبَقْلَ
Both words are literal, but the attribution to spring is indirect: Type 1.

24. Correcting common confusions

Mistake 1: Literal words imply literal predication. Incorrect: “spring caused the grass to grow” uses ordinary word meanings but an indirect attribution.

Mistake 2: Figurative predication in the Quran would make it untrue. Incorrect: context-governed causal or locative attribution is a recognized form of eloquent expression.

Mistake 3: Only declaratives can contain rational figurative predication. Incorrect: the lesson also considered commands, wishes, and questions.

Mistake 4: All figurative attributions use the same association. Incorrect: cause, time, and place play different roles in the examples.

25. Consolidation and the next section

There are four types of rational figurative predication when classified by the lexical status of the predicate and subject: both literal, both figurative, only subject figurative, or only predicate figurative. All remain rational figurative usages at the level of attribution.

The Quranic examples assign effects to the verses, Pharaoh, Satan, a day, and the earth through different relations. Each example requires the appropriate causal, temporal, or locative explanation.

Finally, figurative relations are not excluded from nondeclarative speech (الإنشاء). The next lesson will examine the indications of rational figurative predication (وجوه القرينة للمجاز العقلي) and why they redirect a literal interpretation.