Muzāwajah, ʿAks, Rujūʿ, Tawriyah and Istikhdām

1. Five figures with different rhetorical operations

These five semantic devices beautify expression in different ways. One combines paired senses through a condition and consequence; another reverses an order; another retracts a prior statement; another directs the audience from a salient to a less obvious lexical meaning; and the last changes the intended sense through a pronoun.

FigurePrincipal operation
MuzāwajahPaired sense in condition and result
ʿAksReversal of order
RujūʿRetraction of a prior assertion
TawriyahAn apparent near sense gives way to a remote one
IstikhdāmA pronoun directs a second sense

Each needs an identifiable semantic operation, not just a label applied to an attractive phrase.

2. Definition of muzāwajah

المزاوجة: وهي أن يزاوج بين معنيين في الشرط والجزاء
Muzāwajah pairs two meanings across a condition and its consequence.

Within the conditional construction two distinct concerns are present, and each has a fitting correlate in the consequence. The result is a parallel double relationship rather than a single cause-and-effect assertion.

An ordinary condition followed by one answer does not suffice. The distinguishing structure is two meanings and the two connected outcomes assigned to them.

3. Two levels of the condition-and-response pairing

The source example has two distinct agents: al-nāhī, the one who forbids love, and al-wāshī, the informer or tale-bearer. Two distinct consequences appear in correspondence: the lover's attachment becomes stronger, and the beloved heeds the informer.

«إذا ما نهى الناهي عن حبها»
When the one who forbids her love tries to restrain it.

This illustrates the first branch of the condition. The context of tale-bearing supplies the other. The matching results create the complete double pairing. No single repeated word by itself establishes muzāwajah.

4. Mapping each cause to its own effect

Conditional aspectCorresponding effect
Forbidding loveLove grows more intense
An informer's interventionThe beloved listens to the informer

The first pair concerns the lover's emotional response; the second concerns the beloved's reaction. If these cross-relations are missed, merely calling the sentence “a condition and a consequence” explains too little.

The distinctive virtue lies in the meaningful double correspondence, not in conditional syntax alone.

5. An ordinary conditional is not automatically muzāwajah

Example 1: “If it rains, the soil becomes wet” has one condition and one result; this alone is not muzāwajah.
Example 2: “If learning increases, understanding matures; if practice increases, skill grows” has two relations, but whether it functions as a polished instance of muzāwajah also depends on how the paired elements are integrated in the discourse.

It is inaccurate to call every parallel sentence muzāwajah. The source's specific design is the interplay of two sets of meanings within conditional and consequent structures.

6. ʿAks and tabdīl: reversal of expression

العكس: وهو أن يقدم جزءاً في الكلام على جزء آخر ثم يؤخر ذلك المقدم عن الجزء المؤخر أولاً
ʿAks brings one part of an expression before another, then in a corresponding construction places the formerly first part after the other.

It is also called tabdīl. Mere repetition is not its criterion. The effect is the reversal of relative placement that yields a second intelligible construction.

The elements need not be antonyms: a reversal can be produced by interchanging the positions or relationships of otherwise related words.

7. Reversal within a single expression

«عاداتُ الساداتِ ساداتُ العاداتِ»
The habits of the eminent are the eminent among habits.

In the first construction ʿādāt is the first member of an iḍāfah and sādāt its complement. In the second, the words switch grammatical positions: sādāt becomes the first term and ʿādāt the complement.

The rhetorical point is the meaningful reversal of the relation, not simple lexical repetition. The first unit identifies a category of habits; the second praises their rank.

8. Reversal across two related clauses

«يُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَيُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ»
He brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living.

In the first clause al-ḥayy is what is brought out and al-mayyit is its source. The second clause reverses these roles: al-mayyit is the object of bringing out and al-ḥayy the source.

ʿAks lies in the exchanged relationship between the two terms. The example also creates meaningful opposition, but its reversal is a distinct rhetorical feature.

9. Reversal within two syntactic attachments

«لَا هُنَّ حِلٌّ لَهُمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحِلُّونَ لَهُنَّ»
Those women are not lawful for those men, nor are those men lawful for those women.

In the first clause hunna is the subject of the judgment and lahum marks the related party. In the second, hum becomes the subject and lahunna marks the other party. The direction of the predication and its attachment has been reversed.

Thus ʿaks is not limited to exchanging adjacent nouns; it can reverse syntactic and semantic relations across whole clauses.

10. Where reversal may occur

PatternDistinctive feature
Within a phraseThe iḍāfah relation of ʿādāt and sādāt is reversed
Across clausesLiving and dead exchange semantic roles
Pronouns and attachmentsThe direction of the hunna / hum judgment shifts

First identify the position and role of each element, then show what changes in the corresponding unit. Repeating synonyms without switching an order or relation is not a sufficient instance of ʿaks.

11. Rujūʿ: deliberate correction of an earlier statement

الرجوع: وهو العود إلى الكلام السابق بالنقض
Rujūʿ returns to a preceding statement in order to negate or overturn it.

A statement or description is first put forward, after which the speaker retracts or corrects it. Rhetorical rujūʿ uses that reversal of assertion purposefully—for example to intensify longing, sorrow, astonishment, or praise.

A bare correction of an accidental mistake is not automatically an ornament of speech. The retraction must contribute to the intended expressive effect.

12. The source poem: a statement and its undoing

«قِفْ بِالدِّيَارِ الَّتِي لَمْ يَعْفُهَا الْقِدَمُ»
Stand by the dwellings that the passing years have not erased.

The opening asserts that traces of the beloved's former dwelling survive. The poet then overturns that impression, saying that winds and continuous rains have altered them. The purpose is not a random contradiction but a sharpened picture of abandonment and longing.

«بَلَى وَغَيَّرَهَا الْأَرْوَاحُ وَالدِّيَمُ»
Indeed, the winds and sustained rains have changed them.

The second assertion withdraws the force of lam yaʿfuhā; that is the operation of rujūʿ.

13. Why retracting an earlier claim can intensify meaning

The first description gives the listener a mental image of surviving dwellings. The corrective balā then breaks that image and deepens the sense of desolation. The second utterance gains force by displacing the first.

Unlike ʿaks, which reverses an arrangement, rujūʿ reverses the assertive commitment of a prior statement. The two are not interchangeable categories.

Adding a second illustration without retracting the first is not rujūʿ.

14. A rhetorical retraction versus a mere mistake

Ordinary correction: “I said the meeting would be on Monday, but in fact it is on Tuesday.” This repairs misinformation.
Rhetorical rujūʿ: “I thought the garden lifeless—no, its flowers contain the full brilliance of spring.” Here withdrawing the earlier judgment heightens the later description.

Both are intelligible, but only the second deliberately makes retraction an expressive device. An analysis should identify the initial assertion, its negation, and the rhetorical effect.

15. Tawriyah: apparent near meaning, intended remote meaning

التورية: وهي أن يطلق لفظ له معنيان قريب وبعيد ويراد به البعيد اعتماداً على قرينة خفية
Tawriyah uses a word with a near and a remote sense, intending the remote one on the basis of a subtle contextual indication.

The near sense readily occurs to the listener; the remote sense is less obvious. The intended interpretation is the remote sense, while the near sense initially attracts attention.

Polysemy alone is therefore insufficient. The utterance must genuinely support the less immediate meaning.

16. Three questions to analyze tawriyah

An analysis of tawriyah should distinguish three questions:
1. Which single expression has two plausible senses?
2. What is the near sense, and why does it naturally occur first?
3. What is the remote intended sense, and which subtle contextual clue supports it?

Providing two dictionary meanings without identifying which is intended leaves the analysis incomplete. The relationship between speaker intention and initial listener expectation is essential.

17. Bare versus reinforced tawriyah

Bare tawriyah (mujarradah) does not include a marked companion expression especially supporting the near sense. Reinforced tawriyah (murashshaḥah) does include a term or phrase that draws the audience further toward the near sense, although the remote sense remains intended.

TypeNear-sense companion
BareNo special reinforcing companion
ReinforcedA companion makes the near sense salient

Both intend the remote meaning. What distinguishes the reinforced type is the added suggestion of the near meaning.

18. The source’s reading of “bi-aydin”

«وَالسَّمَاءَ بَنَيْنَاهَا بِأَيْدٍ»
And We built the heaven with strength.

The operative meaning of bi-aydin is strength or power. Banaynāhā (“We built it”) can make the everyday association of building with the hand salient, although the intended meaning of bi-aydin is strength or power.

The analysis must not make a physical limb the intended referent. Its point is the meaning of power against the background of the expression for building.

19. Tawriyah contrasted with kināyah and apparent congruity

Tawriyah centers on the two senses of one word and the intention of the remote sense. Kināyah leads from an expression toward a concomitant implication, potentially without ruling out the literal sense. Īhām al-tanāsub creates a seeming affinity between another word and an unintended lexical sense.

FigureMain criterion
TawriyahRemote sense intended
KināyahConcomitant implication
Apparent congruityAffinity through an unintended sense

A word’s having multiple senses is not by itself enough to prove any of these analyses.

20. Istikhdām: one expression, two semantic directions

الاستخدام: وهو أن يراد بلفظ له معنيان أحدهما ثم يراد بضميره معناه الآخر
Istikhdām uses an expression with two meanings, intending one sense in the explicit word and the other through a pronoun referring back to it.

The decisive element is the shift in the sense represented by the overt word and by its referring pronoun. There is grammatical continuity but not identical semantic reference.

The second sense must be warranted by the context. An ordinary pronoun returning to the same meaning does not constitute istikhdām.

21. Two pronouns, two senses

A second form of istikhdām attaches two pronouns to a polysemous expression, assigning one sense to the first pronoun and the other sense to the second. The lexical form provides two possible meanings, and each pronoun activates a different one.

First formSecond form
Explicit term in one sense; pronoun in anotherTwo pronouns activate distinct senses

Simply noticing two pronouns is insufficient. An analysis must show precisely where each of the meanings becomes operative.

22. The poetic example with samāʾ

«إِذَا نَزَلَ السَّمَاءُ بِأَرْضِ قَوْمٍ رَعَيْنَاهُ وَإِنْ كَانُوا غِضَابَا»
If rain falls upon a people’s land, we will graze it even if they are angry.

Al-samāʾ here denotes rain: the verb nazala suits rainfall. In raʿaynāhu (“we will graze it”), however, the pronoun activates the sense of the vegetation or pasturage brought about by that rain, which can actually be grazed. Rain itself cannot be grazed.

Thus the overt word and its pronoun point to distinct, related senses: a standard instance of the first form of istikhdām.

23. The poetic example with al-ghaḍā

«فَسَقَى الْغَضَا وَالسَّاكِنِيهِ وَإِنْ هُمُ شَبُّوهُ بَيْنَ جَوَانِحِي وَضُلُوعِي»
May al-ghaḍā and its inhabitants be watered, though they have kindled it within my breast and ribs.

Al-ghaḍā names a particular tree and also a place associated with it. The pronoun of al-sākinīhi (“its inhabitants”) activates the place, because people inhabit places. The pronoun of shabbūhu (“they kindled it”) suggests the wood whose fire can be lit.

Two pronouns linked to one lexical expression therefore select distinct senses. This is the distinguishing structure of the second type.

24. Grammatical co-reference versus semantic shift

A pronoun may be grammatically coreferential with the earlier expression while its intended semantic content differs. This distinction is the foundation of istikhdām.

ExampleFirst senseSecond sense
al-samāʾ / raʿaynāhuRainThe resulting pasture
al-ghaḍā / al-sākinīhi / shabbūhuInhabited placeWood/fire

Each reading must follow an established lexical or figurative link. Assigning unrelated invented senses to every pronoun would not be a sound analysis.

25. Tawriyah compared with istikhdām

Both tawriyah and istikhdām involve more than one meaning, but their mechanisms are distinct. Tawriyah first evokes a near sense while intending a remote one. Istikhdām assigns different senses to an explicit word and its pronoun or to two related pronouns.

FeatureTawriyahIstikhdām
Diagnostic clueNear/remote sensesPronoun reference
Intended effectRemote sense selectedDifferent senses in different positions

A shared lexical form alone cannot establish istikhdām. The semantic shift through a pronoun is necessary.

26. A final comparison of the five devices

QuestionFigure
Are two semantic pairs linked across condition and result?Muzāwajah
Are the elements reversed?ʿAks
Is an earlier assertion retracted?Rujūʿ
Is a remote sense intended over an obvious near one?Tawriyah
Does a pronoun activate another meaning?Istikhdām

These questions guide classification only after the full intended meaning has been established. A passage may display multiple devices, but each claim requires its own justification.

27. Worked classifications and transition

1. ʿĀdāt al-sādāt sādāt al-ʿādāt — the iḍāfah relation is reversed: ʿaks.
2. Qif bi-al-diyār ... balā wa-ghayyarahā al-arwāḥ wa-al-diyam — the earlier claim is withdrawn: rujūʿ.
3. Al-samāʾ ... raʿaynāhu — rain is named, but the pronoun refers to pasture: istikhdām.
4. A conspicuous near sense masks an intended remote sense — tawriyah, provided a genuine contextual indication supports it.

The next topic, al-laff wa-al-nashr, starts by listing several things and then distributing corresponding information to them, either expressly or in an aggregated way. Its organizing principle is different from muzāwajah or ʿaks.