A sound analysis should identify (1) subject, (2) comparative model, (3) precise ground, and (4) whether a particle appears or is understood. One may then classify the terms as sensory or intellectual and the ground as actual or imagined.
For “Ignorance is like death,” identifying kāf alone is insufficient. One should explain why ignorance is aligned with death and what deprivation or loss of effective life the analogy conveys.
This framework supports the more detailed classification of simple, composite and other forms of simile.