Intended shared meaning, the stars-and-Sunnah image, grammar and salt, essential and additional qualities, sensory and intellectual aspects, and removing a veil Read the bilingual lesson for The Point of Resemblance: Actual and Imagined Likeness, Real and Relational Aspects and test your understanding with a focused quiz.
Lesson
1. Definition and function of the point of resemblance
ووجهه أي وجه التشبيه ما يشتركان فيه
Its point of resemblance is that in which the two compared terms participate.
The mushabbah is the subject compared, the mushabbah bih is the object used for comparison, and wajh al-shabah is the intended common feature. Naming two things does not by itself establish the rhetorical purpose: the relevant respect must also be identified.
In “Zayd is like a lion,” courage may be the point. If the context concerns a terrifying voice, the intended respect may differ. The operative feature is the one indicated by the expression and its context.
2. Not every shared property is the point
Zayd and a lion both exist and are corporeal, yet existence or corporeality is not the intended aspect in “Zayd is as brave as a lion.” The comparison foregrounds courage as the particular quality to be communicated.
The source qualifies participation by «الذي قصد اشتراك الطرفين فيه»: it must be the respect in which the speaker intends the two terms to be shared. A merely accidental property does not automatically count.
A useful test is to ask which characteristic of the subject the speaker intends to clarify through the comparison. That characteristic, rather than every shared attribute, is the point of resemblance.
3. Actual and imagined participation
وذلك الاشتراك يكون تحقيقاً أو تخييلاً
That participation may be actual or imagined.
In actual (taḥqīqī) participation, the intended quality belongs to both terms in the relevant way; it need not be invented merely for the expression. Two flowers, for instance, may genuinely share a similar colour.
In imagined (takhyīlī) participation, imagination or an apt interpretation supplies a composite feature that is not literally present in both terms in that form. This is not meaningless invention; it makes an intellectual or abstract concern vivid through a sensible scene.
4. Simple cases of actual resemblance
“The face is like the moon in radiance.”
“Her voice is as soft as the rustle of the breeze.”
“Silk resembles smooth skin in softness.”
The respective aspects are radiance, quiet sound, and softness. Each can be perceived through a relevant sense. The simile does not need to invent a new composite image in order for the quality to be present in both terms.
Actual participation does not imply equal intensity. The radiance of a face and the moon may differ enormously, yet a resemblance may be asserted in the selected feature. Simile draws attention to that feature rather than establishing identity of all qualities.
5. How imaginative resemblance operates
Some similes join a visible scene to an ethical or intellectual meaning. The intended visual structure is not directly present on both sides, yet imagination and interpretation allow the mind to construct a corresponding image.
A night sky filled with scattered stars is visible. Sunnah and innovation are not literally coloured bodies. Nonetheless, their metaphorical treatment as brightness and darkness can produce an intelligible correspondence.
Imaginative resemblance is not a defect. The comparison fails only when the proposed common meaning can be found neither in actuality nor through a coherent imaginative interpretation.
6. Textual example: stars and the Sunnah
كأن النجوم بين دجاها سنن لاح بينهن ابتداع
It is as though the stars amid night’s darkness were Sunnah practices among which innovations have appeared.
The stars are visible, while Sunnah practices concern religious conduct. Bright stars against dark night are sensory, but religious practices and innovations do not literally possess the same physical colours. The visual structure is thus supplied through imaginative interpretation.
The purpose is more than applying the word “light” to two matters. The contrast suggests bright, recognizable guidance amid an obscuring background. The impact depends on the whole pattern of contrast.
7. White and black in the poetic image
The image has two coordinated parts: brightness and darkness. Stars appear luminous against a dark background, forming an overall pattern. When Sunnah and innovation are compared with this scene, an ethical contrast becomes a visual one.
Term one: Bright stars against night.
Term two: Sunnah practices and innovations viewed through the imagery of light and darkness.
Point of likeness: Bright elements standing out within a dark background and becoming distinguishable.
To explain the line merely as “both are bright” would lose its arrangement, contrast, and composite character. An imaginative point of likeness should not be reduced to an isolated word when the image is complex.
8. Reversing the correspondence
Imagine reversing the alignment: Sunnah as the illuminated background and innovation as darkness appearing within it. The first reading compares stars with Sunnah; the reversed mapping changes the part of the picture assigned to each concept.
This is not merely exchanging words. The rhetorical effect changes when a different visual element represents the primary subject. A relation coherent under one mapping may need fresh justification under another.
An analysis of an imagined resemblance should therefore identify which elements correspond, how they are related, and what imaginative transformation makes the relation intelligible.
9. The test of an acceptable imaginative aspect
النحو في الكلام كالملح في الطعام
Grammar in speech is like salt in food.
If the point is stated as “a little improves it, too much ruins it,” a difficulty arises: quantity is clearly applicable to salt, but treating correct grammatical rules as useful only in a small dose and damaging in a larger one is misleading.
A more defensible reading is proper application: observing the relevant requirements makes speech or food fit its purpose; neglecting what is needed may spoil the outcome. The proposed point of likeness must apply intelligibly to both sides.
10. Detecting a defective point of comparison
A proposed point of resemblance must be intelligible and appropriate for both compared terms. In the grammar-and-salt example, simply transferring “too much salt” to “too much grammar” fails because the two are not measured in the same way.
Better analysis: Find the common function or outcome, such as improving the fitness of speech and food.
Poor analysis: Transfer every feature of the comparison object to the subject.
The general principle is that a simile selects a relevant respect. It does not commit the speaker to sharing every property. This matters especially when judging imaginative comparisons.
11. A second division: essence or an external property
The point of likeness is also divided according to whether it is within the compared natures or a property outside those natures. In the first case the resemblance concerns an aspect of what the things are; in the second, things of different natures may share a quality.
Internal to the nature: A common kind, genus, or defining difference.
Outside the nature: A common colour, softness, beauty, or strength.
Do not conflate this with actual versus imagined. The earlier distinction concerns how participation is established; this one asks whether the shared feature belongs to the essence or is an additional attribute.
12. Species, genus and differentia
Species (nawʿ) is a universal applicable to individuals in their complete specific nature. Genus (jins) is a broader essential constituent, and differentia (faṣl) is an essential characteristic distinguishing a kind within its genus.
Two people share the species “human.” A human and a horse share animality as a genus, without sharing the whole of their natures. In classical logic, “rational” functions as the distinguishing differentia in the standard definition of the human.
These examples clarify essential predication; they do not imply that every shared species or genus automatically makes an effective literary simile. It must be the intended aspect of a meaningful comparison.
13. Comparing garments by an essential aspect
The text uses garments to show that resemblance may concern something more essential than colour or softness. A shirt and another garment can be considered under the shared idea of clothing or material.
Qamīṣ: A shirt considered as a garment.
Thawb: Cloth or an article of dress.
If the comparison concerns being clothing, it may involve a kind or a general essential constituent. If it concerns only whiteness, whiteness is an attribute distinct from what makes either item the kind of garment it is.
Consequently, the same pair can admit different classifications depending on the intended shared respect, not merely the nouns used.
14. Additional qualities: sensory and intellectual
If the shared aspect is not part of the essential nature, it is an additional quality. The source develops two important groups: sensory qualities perceptible through the external senses, and intellectual qualities understood through the mind.
Sensory quality: Similar redness of flowers, quietness of voices, or softness of fabrics.
Intellectual quality: Similar intelligence, forbearance, or courage of people.
Remember that the nature of the two terms and the nature of their shared aspect are separate questions. Two visible human beings may be compared in courage, an intellectual aspect in this discussion.
15. Visible aspects: colour and shape
Qualities perceived by sight include colours (alwān) and shapes (ashkāl). Colour may involve redness shared by a rose and a cheek; shape may involve roundness, length, triangularity, or a distinctive outline.
“A rose is like a cheek in redness.”
“His face is round like the moon.”
The first comparison concerns colour and the second arrangement or shape. Both are visual, but they are not the same visual characteristic. Naming the precise aspect is often more informative than vaguely calling everything “beauty.”
16. Magnitude and surface as visible aspects
Maqādīr concerns quantities and extensions, such as the length of a line, the extent of a surface, or the dimensions of a body. Such properties may be used as visible points of resemblance.
Shape concerns the configuration of boundaries and parts. Magnitude concerns length, breadth, or volume. Two objects can share a round outline while differing greatly in size.
“Two minarets have the same height” may compare their magnitude; “two bows have a similar curve” emphasizes form. It is incomplete to label both merely “visual likeness” without determining the actual intended feature.
17. Movement as a visible shared quality
The text includes movement (ḥarakah) among qualities connected with perception. Movement can be understood as a gradual transition in place or state; its observable pattern may ground a likeness.
“A bird is like an arrow in speed of movement.”
“Flying leaves resemble moths in irregular motion.”
The shared aspect is a specific pattern of motion, not simply existence or colour. Speed, direction, continuity, or disorder may be the intended respect. Accurate analysis identifies which one the expression selects.
18. Auditory points of resemblance
الأصوات القوية والضعيفة والتي بين بين
Loud, faint, and intermediate sounds.
Auditory resemblance may concern volume, softness, pitch, or resonance. Different sources of sound can resemble one another in an audible quality.
“His voice is like thunder in loudness.”
“His speech is whisper-like in quietness.”
If the comparison concerns volume, one should not treat courage or anger as the same quality. Loudness is audible, while anger is a different state that may sometimes be inferred from a voice but is not identical to the sound itself.
19. Taste and smell as shared aspects
Points of resemblance in taste may involve sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, and sourness. Smell may involve pleasantness, sharpness, mildness, or offensiveness of scent. Both are sensory even though neither is visual.
“Honey and sugar in sweetness.”
“A rose and musk in pleasant fragrance.”
Literal sweetness of taste and metaphorical “sweetness” of speech should not be treated as identical without analysis. Applying a sensory term to an intellectual or emotional quality may require an imagined correspondence rather than straightforward literal sharing.
20. Qualities perceived by touch
الحرارة والبرودة والرطوبة واليبوسة
Heat, coldness, moisture, and dryness.
The source also discusses tactile qualities such as roughness, smoothness, yieldingness, and firmness. A tactile simile is based on the particular felt property, not on all the features of the compared things.
“Stone and ice in coldness,” provided the stone is in fact cold.
“Silk and smooth skin in evenness of texture.”
The degree of a sensory quality need not be exactly equal. The simile requires an intelligible correspondence in the respect selected for comparison.
21. Roughness, smoothness, softness, hardness
Khushūnah: Roughness, unevenness of a surface.
Malāsah: Smoothness, an even surface.
Līn: Softness or a tendency to yield under pressure.
Ṣalābah: Hardness or resistance to pressure.
These are not interchangeable. A stone may be smooth on the surface yet hard under pressure. Another substance may yield easily while remaining uneven in texture.
“As smooth as silk” selects smoothness; “as hard as stone” selects hardness. Naming only “a tactile quality” without the precise respect leaves the analysis incomplete.
22. A table of sensory qualities
The following distinctions help identify an actual sensory point of likeness.
SensePossible shared feature
SightRedness, roundness, length, visible movement
HearingLoudness or softness of sound
TasteSweetness, bitterness, sourness
SmellPleasant or unpleasant scent
TouchHeat, coldness, smoothness, hardness
The purpose is to identify which sense gives direct access to the sensory feature. When a quality is known only through reasoning or an ethical judgment, it belongs to a different analysis.
23. Genuine intellectual qualities
أو عقلية كالْكيفيات النفسانية
Or intellectual qualities, such as dispositions of the soul.
An intellectual quality need not be unreal or imaginary. Knowledge, intelligence, anger, forbearance, courage, and generosity may truly belong to people, although their natures are not measured by a single external sense as colour or sound is.
Two people compared in forbearance may share composure under provocation; in courage, they may share firmness in danger. Their point of likeness is intellectual, even though actions revealing these qualities may be visible.
24. Intelligence, knowledge, anger and restraint
Dhakāʾ concerns acuity and strength of understanding. ʿIlm concerns knowledge or apprehension of a subject. Intelligence may assist the acquisition of knowledge, but the two qualities are not identical.
Ghaḍab is an emotional movement that may incline toward retaliation. Ḥilm is a disposition of restraint and composure when provoked. Forbearance is more than simply “never becoming angry.”
Comparing two people in intelligence does not assert identical knowledge. Likewise, absence of a raised voice may be an outward sign of forbearance, but the point of resemblance is the inward disposition, not merely quiet speech.
25. Generosity, ability and courage
Karam is a disposition from which generosity and beneficence readily proceed. Qudrah concerns ability to act, whereas shajāʿah concerns courage or steadiness amid danger.
“Someone is like the sea in generosity.”
“A soldier is like a lion in courage.”
In the first, generosity is an intellectual or dispositional aspect; the physical expanse of water is not itself generosity. In the second, both terms may be sensory beings, while courage is the chosen shared respect. The classification of the aspect remains distinct from the classification of the two terms.
26. Intrinsic and relational aspects
The text also distinguishes a real quality from an additional or relational respect (iḍāfī). A real quality belongs to a thing in the relevant sense, while a relational aspect depends on a connection to something else.
For example, “Zayd is a teacher” involves a relationship to learners. Likewise, removing a veil is intelligible by reference to an obstacle, its removal, and what is consequently revealed.
An intellectual disposition is therefore not identical to a relational state of affairs. Either may supply a rhetorical comparison, but the manner in which the aspect is established differs.
27. Proof and sunlight: removal of a veil
كإزالة الحجاب في تشبيه الحجة بالشمس
As with removing a veil when comparing an argument to the sun.
Sunlight can reveal what was obscured by darkness; a strong proof or argument may likewise remove a mental obscurity or doubt. The shared relation is bringing clarity by dispelling concealment.
“Removing a veil” is not an essential part of the sun’s nature, nor does a proof literally lift a cloth. The resemblance concerns a relational effect: something is hidden, an obstacle is removed, and clarity becomes possible. That relation, rather than a literal material action, gives the simile force.
28. Combining the two classifications
Two questions should be kept distinct: (1) Is the proposed likeness actual or imaginative? (2) Is the aspect essential, sensory, intellectual, or relational? One classification does not replace the other.
ComparisonRelevant aspect
Cheek and roseRedness: real sensory quality
Two scholarsKnowledge or understanding: intellectual quality
Stars and SunnahBright/dark pattern: imaginative correspondence
Proof and sunRemoving concealment: relational effect
Once the wording and its purpose are understood, the point of likeness ceases to be a mere category label and becomes an explanation of how the expression communicates its intended effect.
29. Worked applications and the next division
Case 1: “The face is like the moon in roundness”: the terms are visible, and roundness is an actual sensory aspect.
Case 2: “The two scholars are like two seas in breadth of knowledge”: the selected feature is knowledge, not literal water or physical size.
Case 3: “Proof is like sunlight in removing a veil”: clearing doubt is expressed through a relational correspondence.
Case 4: “Stars amid darkness are like Sunnah amid innovations”: the point is a composite pattern of brightness and darkness, supplied through imagination.
First identify the intended aspect; only then classify it. The following discussion considers whether the point of likeness is single, multiple, or a unified pattern assembled from several features.