LessonsPurposes of Tashbih: Possibility, State, Degree, Reinforcement, Beautification, Disparagement and InversionQuiz

فَإِنْ تَفُقِ الْأَنَامَ وَأَنْتَ مِنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ الْمِسْكَ بَعْضُ دَمِ الْغَزَالِ
If you surpass all people while being one of them, that need not be impossible: musk, too, is traditionally described as deriving from the gazelle's blood.

The praise claims that someone belongs to humankind yet exceeds ordinary people in excellence. The poet uses the familiar traditional account of musk to show that sharing an origin does not exclude an exceptional distinction.

Subject: an exceptionally distinguished human.
Model: musk as a remarkable product associated with a common origin.
Purpose: to illustrate possibility.

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Source illustration: musk and gazelle blood

Purposes of Tashbih: Possibility, State, Degree, Reinforcement, Beautification, Disparagement and Inversion

فَإِنْ تَفُقِ الْأَنَامَ وَأَنْتَ مِنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ الْمِسْكَ بَعْضُ دَمِ الْغَزَالِ
If you surpass all people while being one of them, that need not be impossible: musk, too, is traditionally described as deriving from the gazelle's blood.

The praise claims that someone belongs to humankind yet exceeds ordinary people in excellence. The poet uses the familiar traditional account of musk to show that sharing an origin does not exclude an exceptional distinction.

Subject: an exceptionally distinguished human.
Model: musk as a remarkable product associated with a common origin.
Purpose: to illustrate possibility.