Composite versus multiple points, principal divisions, sensory patterns, motion and stillness, stars, and intellectual composite analogies Read the bilingual lesson for The Point of Resemblance: Single, Multiple and Composite Forms and test your understanding with a focused quiz.
Lesson
1. A new division: single and multiple points
وأيضاً لوجه التشبيه تقسيم آخر وهو أنه إما واحد وإما بمنزلة الواحد
The point of resemblance has another division: it is either one, or treated as one.
This division does not count the people or objects on the two sides. It examines the structure of the intended shared respect. One independent feature may be the point; alternatively, several aspects may unite into one overall image and thus count as a single composite respect.
“Zayd is as courageous as a lion” selects courage alone. An image built from scattered lights, darkness and their spatial arrangement instead derives its resemblance from the whole configuration. These are different modes of unity.
2. One, unitary composite and multiple respects
A simple single point is one intended quality not analysed into independent aspects. Radiance in “a face is like the moon in brightness” is an example.
A point treated as one is a composite scene whose parts combine into one intended arrangement. Removing one element changes the image. Multiple points are separately intended common features, each capable of functioning on its own.
Compare:
“A scholar resembles his teacher in knowledge and forbearance” — two distinct points.
“A pattern of scattered lights resembles stars in a dark sky” — a unified configuration.
The key issue is not the number of descriptive words but whether the intended resemblance is one organised form or separate comparisons.
3. Two senses of composition
Real composition concerns constituents that form a concrete entity; a human body made of organs is a basic illustration. Comparing a complex entity with another does not automatically make the point of comparison composite.
Constructed or conceptual composition is a unified aspect abstracted by the mind from several things. White points scattered against darkness are distinct things but can form one visual pattern for a comparison.
Therefore composition of the terms must be distinguished from composition of the point of resemblance. Complex objects may share a simple quality, while simple objects may be compared through an elaborate configuration of features.
4. Separate attributes versus one composite pattern
When a person is compared with another in learning, generosity and humility, the three qualities are independently intended. Each resemblance can be tested separately. This is multiplicity of points.
By contrast, a white cluster shining at a particular position against a dark surface produces an abstracted configuration that is not merely whiteness, darkness or spatial arrangement on its own. The intended likeness is the complete pattern.
A practical test is to remove one component. Does only one independent quality disappear, or does the overall resemblance change its nature? The former indicates multiple points; the latter a composite point.
5. Single sensory and single intellectual points
A single sensory point is one quality known through an appropriate external sense: redness through sight, quietness through hearing, fragrance through smell, sweetness through taste, and softness through touch.
A single intellectual point is one chosen respect understood intellectually, even if it has observable signs: courage, lack of benefit, guidance toward a goal, or effective proof.
The compared objects themselves need not belong to the same perceptual class as the point. Two visible people may be compared in courage, an intellectual point. How a term is perceived and how its shared respect is known are different questions.
6. Why the intellectual point is broader
والعقلي من وجه الشبه أعم من الحسي
The intellectual point of resemblance is broader than the sensory point.
A sensory point must be a sensible feature of the two terms in the relevant way. Intellectual similarity may relate two sensible things, two intellectual matters, or one of each.
In “knowledge guides like light,” knowledge is an intellectual concept and light can be perceived, while the relation of revealing or guiding is grasped intellectually. The mere presence of a sensible term does not make the point sensory. Broader here concerns the range of possible comparisons, not the denial that sensory qualities exist.
7. The condition on terms for a sensory point
والحسي من وجه الشبه سواء كان بتمامه حسياً أو ببعضه طرفاه حسيان لا غير
A sensory point, whether entirely or partly sensory, requires both compared terms to be sensory.
The relevant sensible property must be capable of belonging to the things being compared. An abstract meaning does not literally possess external colour or tangible texture in the way a body does.
One can nevertheless imagine or interpret a sensory image for an intellectual concept, as discussed in the earlier treatment of imaginative resemblance. That rhetorical operation should not be confused with the strict technical classification of a directly sensory point.
8. Why the converse implication fails
The discussion should not be flattened into the claim that every sensory point is automatically intellectual in every sense, or that the two classes are logically identical.
A sensible quality is encountered through sense; the intellect may also conceive the quality after perception. That does not remove its direct sensory basis. Conversely, courage, an intellectual quality, need not depend on both terms being visually present bodies.
The argument that the intellectual category is more inclusive concerns the possible relations available to thought. It does not eliminate the operational distinction between resemblance detected through an external sense and a relation constructed by intellectual assessment.
9. Seven principal forms and their refinements
Combining single, composite and multiple points with their sensory or intellectual character yields seven principal patterns: single sensory, composite sensory, multiple sensory; single intellectual, composite intellectual, multiple intellectual; and multiple points mixing sensory and intellectual features.
Structure of pointPrincipal kindsSingleSensory or intellectualCompositeSensory or intellectualMultipleSensory, intellectual or mixed
Further subcases arise when the types of the two compared terms are considered alongside an intellectual point. More important than memorising a count is to identify the structure of the point and the perceptual nature of the terms separately.
10. Single sensory points and the five senses
A single sensory respect can be associated with any of the five external senses. Sensory does not mean visual only.
Sight: red grapes and a red flower — redness.
Hearing: two quiet voices — softness of sound.
Smell: a rose and perfume — pleasant fragrance.
Taste: honey and sweet fruit — sweetness.
Touch: silk and smooth cloth — softness.
Each selects one quality. A comparison simultaneously in colour, fragrance and flavour instead has three distinct sensory respects, even though all are perceived by external senses.
11. Single intellectual points: benefit, courage and guidance
The source gives being devoid of benefit and courage among single intellectual points. In “Zayd is brave like a lion,” courage is the intended intellectual respect even though Zayd and the lion are both visible.
Likewise, knowledge can be likened to light in its capacity to guide or disclose something. Light is sensible, but the relation of guidance is understood intellectually.
Three questions should be kept distinct:
1. What are the two compared terms?
2. Which shared respect is intended?
3. Is that respect known through an external sense or through intellectual judgment?
The order prevents the two classifications from being conflated.
12. Sensory composite: one configuration from parts
«والمركب الحسي من وجه الشبه طرفاه إما مفردان أو مركبان أو أحدهما مفرد والآخر مركب»
For a sensory composite point, both terms may be single, both composite, or one single and the other composite.
A composite point does not require the terms themselves to be compound objects. One unitary object may exhibit an overall quality comparable to a complex arrangement. Here “composite” can refer to the form abstracted from features, not merely a material object made of parts.
Such a pattern may depend on colour, position, spatial relation, extension and movement together. Listing isolated features is not a substitute for explaining the resulting complete configuration.
13. The Pleiades: a cluster as an image
«كعنقود ملاحية» presents the Pleiades through the image of a cluster. It is not merely an assertion that white points exist: the salient feature is the grouping of several bright units in a recognisable arrangement.
Analysis:
Subject: the apparent grouping of the Pleiades.
Comparison image: a clustered bunch of small units.
Point: the overall pattern formed by brightness, proximity and arrangement.
Describing the light of just one star would not capture the full point. The analogy depends on a relational pattern among the elements, making the resemblance composite rather than a list of independent brightness comparisons.
14. A composite point is not simply a composite term
Both Zayd and a lion have bodies composed of organs, yet their courage is not thereby a composite sensory point. The terms are complex physical entities while the intended respect is a single intellectual quality.
Similarly, “Zayd is human like ʿAmr” need not be a sensory compound simply because both persons have limbs. If the intended respect is humanity, the relevant analysis is different from a pattern of scattered elements.
The Pleiades-and-cluster comparison does depend on several visible units forming one arrangement. The proper subject of classification is therefore the point of resemblance, not the material make-up of the compared objects.
15. Night and stars: dust and blades
«ليل تهاوى كواكبه»
A night whose stars are tumbling down.
Battlefield dust creates a dark backdrop, while flashing swords resemble bright stars within it. The intended resemblance is not exhausted by “dust is dark” or “swords shine.” The whole scene is required.
Subject-image: spreading dust over the combatants, with bright, moving sword blades.
Comparison-image: a dark night with stars apparently falling or shifting.
Point: a complete configuration of bright moving shapes against a dark atmosphere, making this a sensory composite point.
16. How comparison relates to the complete scene
In a composite simile, a comparison marker such as kamā can align one entire scene with another, rather than setting up only separate one-word comparisons.
For the dust-and-swords image:
Dust contributes the dark backdrop corresponding to night.
Gleaming swords correspond to bright stars.
Yet the point is not simply two independent equations. It is the relation, motion and total visible arrangement shared by the two scenes.
Explaining a single element in isolation therefore cannot fully account for the force of this rhetorical comparison. The overall image must be reconstructed.
17. Complex images on both sides
Another image draws on the direction, height, inclination and intersection of swords, comparable with a dispersed stellar configuration. It would be inadequate to reduce the whole likeness to “swords and stars are shiny.”
The common respect is the visual structure emerging from several bodies together, including their positions, orientations and relative movement.
When each side contains several objects that form a single recognisable visible scene, both terms and the point may be composite. This follows from the intended pattern, not merely from the presence of several nouns or descriptive phrases.
18. A flower and banners: single and composite terms
«كما مر في تشبيه الشقيق بأعلام ياقوت نشرن على رماح من زبرجد»
As in comparing the red anemone to ruby banners spread on emerald-like spears.
The anemone is a single flower, while the image of red banners on green shafts is an arrangement of several features or objects. Where colour and spatial relation are jointly intended, the point is a sensory composite.
This shows that a simple subject can be compared to a composite comparison image. The decisive issue is whether the audience is meant to perceive one organised image or several unrelated qualities.
19. Movement as part of a composite point
Sometimes a sensory composite point arises not only from colour, shape and arrangement but also from motion. Bending, straightening, swaying and moving in different directions can alter the visual structure of the whole.
A scene of something expanding and contracting cannot be adequately described merely as “long and round” if the temporal sequence is what makes the image expressive. Movement itself may be essential to the point.
Two useful questions are whether the motions occur together or in a meaningful order, and whether shape or colour contributes to the overall scene. If so, the completed configuration should be explained, not a detached list of qualities.
20. Two modes of combining motion and qualities
One mode combines movement with other visible properties. The effect of a rapidly swaying brilliant object may depend on its shape and light as much as on its motion.
Another mode depends on a collection of movements alone. Something moving right and left, upward and downward, can produce a distinct overall pattern when the movements interweave.
A list of movements is not enough. One must ask whether their directions, order and interaction produce a unified appearance. In a composite point it is this configuration that is intended, not each individual movement taken separately.
21. Mirror, sunlight and the trembling hand
«والشمس كالمرآة في كف الأشَلّ»
The sun is like a mirror in the hand of someone whose hand trembles.
The image suggests the shimmering appearance of a bright round object, with movement causing changing reflections. The swaying mirror, light and shifting visual impression form one composite perceptual scene.
It is insufficient to say merely that both the sun and a mirror shine. The expressive point lies in their appearance when light and motion are considered together. Individual features may be mediated by poetic imagination rather than identical literal movements in the physical objects.
22. Two readings of the trembling-hand image
The moving-image comparison can be analysed in two ways:
1. Movement combines with another attribute to make the total scene.
2. The variation of movement itself supplies the intended configuration.
The difference is whether non-motional features are integral. If brightness could be removed without changing the intended point, motion would be primary. If removing light destroys the image, brightness belongs to the point as well.
The analysis should resolve what actually matters in the comparison rather than simply attaching technical names to a poetic expression.
23. Movement in the image of a manuscript
«وكان البرق مصحف قار»
And the lightning was like a reciter’s manuscript.
The source develops the image through the book’s opening and closing. Its pages move in different directions as the codex opens and shuts, forming a composite moving configuration.
The image is not explained simply by the general definition of a manuscript. Rather, the specific sequence and opposition of the page movements helps express the appearance and disappearance of a flash of lightning. It is the coordinated motions, not just the noun “book,” that make the simile intelligible.
24. Multiplicity of movements and directional contrast
Merely mentioning several movements does not make a point composite. The movements must generate an identifiable unified pattern, especially through contrast of direction.
Example 1: An arrow moving straight forward — potentially one motion.
Example 2: Four limbs rotating together in different directions — potentially a composite pattern.
Example 3: Two covers opening and closing in opposite directions — a coordinated moving appearance.
The analyst should move beyond adjectives such as “fast,” “slow,” and “numerous,” and identify the structural relation among the motions.
25. Stillness can also compose a pattern
In the dog-posture example, the relation among a dog’s limbs as it settles in a specific position forms a complete arrangement. The point is not merely that one limb is stationary, but how the parts of the body are positioned together.
Rest is not an empty absence of description. Each part has its position, and those positions combine to produce the recognisable shape of sitting, reclining or a similar posture.
This shows another route to sensory composite resemblance: an arrangement in stillness can function much as interdependent movements do. One must ask what whole appearance the speaker intends.
26. The definition and scope of intellectual composite
«والمركب العقلي من وجه الشبه كحرمان الانتفاع»
An intellectual composite point may consist in being deprived of benefit.
Its constituents combine into an intellectual or moral configuration rather than one externally visible shape. Where someone has been given a means of knowledge or benefit yet fails to use it, the pattern includes possession of the means, opportunity and non-use.
Together these form a unified account of failed benefit. “No benefit occurred” can be too weak a paraphrase, because the rhetoric emphasises that a potentially useful resource was available but was not meaningfully put to work.
27. Quranic analogy: books carried without benefit
﴿مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا﴾
The likeness of those entrusted with the Torah who then did not carry out its responsibility is that of a donkey bearing large books. (Qur’an 62:5)
The comparison does not equate human bodies or voices with those of an animal. It describes an intellectual and ethical situation: having texts entrusted to one, bearing or possessing them, and failing to benefit from their knowledge and guidance.
The donkey physically carries the books without receiving the understanding they contain. The verse applies that contrast to people given responsibility for revelation who did not fulfil its requirements.
28. Constituents of the Quranic composite point
The Quranic example contains several connected aspects:
1. Possession of or responsibility for a potentially beneficial source.
2. Carrying it as a charge or burden.
3. Failure to obtain the intended benefit.
Extracting just the last item — “neither benefits” — points in the correct direction but weakens the full rhetorical force. Deprivation despite possession of the means is more specific and more striking.
The point is intellectual and composite. Books and carriers are physical, but the obligations of knowledge, the opportunity for understanding and failure to benefit form a moral and intellectual relation rather than a single sensible property.
29. Why extracting only part of the point can mislead
A common error in analysing an elaborate simile is extracting only a fragment of its intended point. The remaining comparison may then lose or change its force.
From the books-and-donkey example, choosing only “carrying a load” discards the failure to benefit intellectually. Choosing only “ignorance” ignores the more pointed situation of having the very materials of learning at hand.
Yet one should not declare every long expression composite by default. The task is to identify which constituent relations are necessary for the intended comparison, and include those rather than every accidental detail.
30. The poetic image of thirsty people and a flash
«كما أبرقت قوماً عطاشاً»
Like lightning flashing before a thirsty people.
The poem evokes urgent need and expectation. A flash may arouse hope of water, yet the desired relief does not arrive. The point is not simply the visual feature of brightness: it is an unfolding situation in which hope appears and is frustrated.
The need, arising expectation, reversal of hope and failure of attainment form a unified intellectual scene. The rhetorical effect comes from the intensity of deprivation after the suggestion that relief might be near.
31. Care in abstracting a composite point
Removing the thirsty people from the lightning image leaves brightness but loses the urgent need and disappointed expectation. Ignoring the books or their carrier in the Torah analogy likewise blunts the meaning of non-benefit.
The proper method of abstraction is to reconstruct both complete scenes first, then identify the set of relations shared by them. State that set as one connected respect.
This makes it possible to distinguish several independent likenesses from one composite likeness. Independent points can be assessed separately; in a composite point, removing indispensable elements destroys the intended configuration.
32. Synthesis: single, composite and multiple
KindShared respectExampleSingle sensoryOne perceptible qualityRedness of flower and grapeSingle intellectualOne intellectual featureCourage of Zayd and lionSensory compositeOne visual configurationDust and swords, night and starsIntellectual compositeConnected moral circumstancesBearing books without benefitingMultipleIndependent shared attributesSimilarity in learning and forbearance
For each kind the essential question is why the point is one feature, one integrated configuration or several independent features. Once this is understood, classification no longer relies on memorising labels alone.
33. Three-step analysis of complex similes
Step 1: Reconstruct both scenes. Identify the subject and comparison image, their elements, positions and relations. Where the text omits an element, determine its role from context rather than inventing a new scene.
Step 2: Find indispensable features. Ask which attributes, movements or intellectual relations cannot be removed without changing the comparison’s central effect. Those belong to the point.
Step 3: Classify accurately. Decide whether the point is single, composite or multiple, and whether it is sensory or intellectual. Then classify the terms separately as single or compound if relevant.
Thus physical books and carriers may ground an intellectual composite, while dust and stars ground a sensory configuration.
34. Final applications and the next boundary
A: “The book cover is as red as a flower” — single sensory: one visible property.
B: “The scholar resembles his teacher in learning and forbearance” — multiple intellectual: two independent traits.
C: “Scattered shining objects in a dark sky are like falling stars in night” — sensory composite: colour, position and motion form one whole.
D: “Possessing a means of knowledge yet failing to benefit from it” — intellectual composite: opportunity and non-use form one connected relation.
The subsequent discussion develops multiple points of resemblance in further detail, particularly independent sensory qualities and their possible combinations.