LessonsSupplementary Practice 20: Comparative Rhetorical Study of Sūrat al-Humazah and al-FīlQuiz

كَعَصْفٍ مَأْكُولٍ
Like eaten, fragmented straw. (الفيل: 5)

Ka- is the marker of simile. ʿAṣf suggests straw or the broken remains of vegetation, while maʾkūl is a passive participle describing it as eaten. The comparison compresses the destructive outcome into a concrete image.

Simile belongs especially to ʿilm al-bayān; the ʿilm al-maʿānī question concerns how this image functions within narrative progression and economical expression. Not every simile is technically ījāz, and not every concise expression is a simile.

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Simile as compressed depiction

Supplementary Practice 20: Comparative Rhetorical Study of Sūrat al-Humazah and al-Fīl

كَعَصْفٍ مَأْكُولٍ
Like eaten, fragmented straw. (الفيل: 5)

Ka- is the marker of simile. ʿAṣf suggests straw or the broken remains of vegetation, while maʾkūl is a passive participle describing it as eaten. The comparison compresses the destructive outcome into a concrete image.

Simile belongs especially to ʿilm al-bayān; the ʿilm al-maʿānī question concerns how this image functions within narrative progression and economical expression. Not every simile is technically ījāz, and not every concise expression is a simile.