LessonsImaginative and Implicit Metaphor, Reinforcement, and Critiques of al-SakkakiQuiz

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ فَمَا رَبِحَت تِّجَارَتُهُمْ
They are those who bought error for guidance, so their trade gained no profit. (Al-Baqarah 2:16)

Choosing error in place of guidance is described through a commercial transaction; the phrase about the trade yielding no profit continues the same image. In discussing imagination and reinforcement, this asks which transferred term establishes the metaphor and which connected feature intensifies it.

The verse is not describing literal merchandise. Its force comes from presenting a moral exchange as a vivid failed bargain.

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The Qur’anic image of a failed bargain

Imaginative and Implicit Metaphor, Reinforcement, and Critiques of al-Sakkaki

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ فَمَا رَبِحَت تِّجَارَتُهُمْ
They are those who bought error for guidance, so their trade gained no profit. (Al-Baqarah 2:16)

Choosing error in place of guidance is described through a commercial transaction; the phrase about the trade yielding no profit continues the same image. In discussing imagination and reinforcement, this asks which transferred term establishes the metaphor and which connected feature intensifies it.

The verse is not describing literal merchandise. Its force comes from presenting a moral exchange as a vivid failed bargain.