﴿وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ﴾
Ask the town. (Yūsuf 12:82)
The intended addressees are not buildings; the sense is ahl al-qaryah, the inhabitants of the town. The possessive head ahl is understood but unstated. Asking a town naturally means consulting people capable of answering.
Both reasoning and familiar usage recover the omitted term. Rhetorically, the expression invokes the town as a whole and suggests broadly available testimony without spelling out “its inhabitants.”
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Ījāz al-Ḥadhf: Forms of Ellipsis and Evidence for Recovering the Omitted
﴿وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ﴾
Ask the town. (Yūsuf 12:82)
The intended addressees are not buildings; the sense is ahl al-qaryah, the inhabitants of the town. The possessive head ahl is understood but unstated. Asking a town naturally means consulting people capable of answering.
Both reasoning and familiar usage recover the omitted term. Rhetorically, the expression invokes the town as a whole and suggests broadly available testimony without spelling out “its inhabitants.”