LessonsPurposes of Simile: Possibility, Condition, Degree, Beautification, Disfigurement and ReversalQuiz

ويجوز عند إرادة الجمع بين شيئين في أمر التشبيه أيضاً
A simile can also be used when the purpose is to unite two things in one respect.

Even where two terms are effectively equal in a shared respect, a particular rhetorical intention may justify treating one as subject and the other as comparator. The speaker may want to foreground one item, attach something new to what has already been mentioned, or create an effect by arranging the terms differently.

For example, the whiteness of dawn can be compared with the bright marking on a horse's forehead, and the direction can also be reversed. The likeness remains intelligible; the controlling question is which rhetorical purpose the chosen direction serves.

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When a simile is still valid between equals

Purposes of Simile: Possibility, Condition, Degree, Beautification, Disfigurement and Reversal

ويجوز عند إرادة الجمع بين شيئين في أمر التشبيه أيضاً
A simile can also be used when the purpose is to unite two things in one respect.

Even where two terms are effectively equal in a shared respect, a particular rhetorical intention may justify treating one as subject and the other as comparator. The speaker may want to foreground one item, attach something new to what has already been mentioned, or create an effect by arranging the terms differently.

For example, the whiteness of dawn can be compared with the bright marking on a horse's forehead, and the direction can also be reversed. The likeness remains intelligible; the controlling question is which rhetorical purpose the chosen direction serves.