LessonsThe Subject of Predication: Pronouns of Affair, Iltifāt and Departure from Expected ExpressionQuiz

The text illustrates the emphatic presentation of a significant assertion with the opening of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ.

«قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ۝ اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ»
Say: the matter is that Allah is One; Allah is the Self-Sufficient. (Qurʾān 112:1–2)

Rhetoricians discuss «هو» here as a possible pronoun of affair. It introduces a weighty assertion and helps the following declaration settle firmly in the hearer’s attention. The doctrinal content is divine oneness and self-sufficiency; the pronoun’s arrangement serves that content rhetorically.

This is an interpretation of a particular construction, not a rule that every instance of «هو» has the same status.

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A pronoun of affair strengthens presentation

The Subject of Predication: Pronouns of Affair, Iltifāt and Departure from Expected Expression

The text illustrates the emphatic presentation of a significant assertion with the opening of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ.

«قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ۝ اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ»
Say: the matter is that Allah is One; Allah is the Self-Sufficient. (Qurʾān 112:1–2)

Rhetoricians discuss «هو» here as a possible pronoun of affair. It introduces a weighty assertion and helps the following declaration settle firmly in the hearer’s attention. The doctrinal content is divine oneness and self-sufficiency; the pronoun’s arrangement serves that content rhetorically.

This is an interpretation of a particular construction, not a rule that every instance of «هو» has the same status.