Hyperbole intensifies the degree of a quality. Ḥusn al-taʿlīl substitutes a nonliteral yet fitting cause for a quality. Both can coexist in one passage, but they are not identical.
Hyperbole: “His generosity exceeds the sea” intensifies a trait.
Elegant attribution: “The sea could not match his generosity, so its waves grew restless” invents a cause for the waves.
Classification should look not only at intensified praise but especially for the creation of an imagined cause.
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The Dialectical Method and Elegant Causal Attribution: Proof and Four Modes of Ḥusn al-Taʿlīl
Hyperbole intensifies the degree of a quality. Ḥusn al-taʿlīl substitutes a nonliteral yet fitting cause for a quality. Both can coexist in one passage, but they are not identical.
Hyperbole: “His generosity exceeds the sea” intensifies a trait.
Elegant attribution: “The sea could not match his generosity, so its waves grew restless” invents a cause for the waves.
Classification should look not only at intensified praise but especially for the creation of an imagined cause.