Rhetorical analysis first identifies the verbal form, then asks why context allows or calls for an unexpected temporal perspective. A future scene may be made to resemble an accomplished event, and an earlier scene may be animated through the imperfect.
«رُبَمَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْ كَانُوا مُسْلِمِينَ»
The unbelievers may come to wish they had been Muslims. (Qurʾān 15:2)
«وَتُثِيرُ سَحَابًا»
And they stir up clouds. (Qurʾān 30:48)
The first projects an anticipated regret; the second portrays the winds raising clouds as a vivid action. Their rhetorical significance lies in the relationship between the verb form and its surrounding discourse.