LessonsVocative Address: Calling, Rhetorical Purposes, and Declaratives Used as DirectivesQuiz

وَالدُّعَاءُ بِصِيغَةِ الْمَاضِي مِنَ الْبَلِيغِ كَقَوْلِهِ: رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ
Prayer may be expressed eloquently in a past-tense form, as in “raḥimahu Allāh.”

Raḥimahu Allāh contains a past-tense verb, object suffix and subject. Yet in a context of supplication its intended sense is “May God have mercy on him,” not necessarily an announcement that mercy has already been granted.

The past form lends the prayer a vivid, achieved-looking shape. Its rhetorical effectiveness depends on the listener recognizing the supplicatory context.

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Past morphology in prayer

Vocative Address: Calling, Rhetorical Purposes, and Declaratives Used as Directives

وَالدُّعَاءُ بِصِيغَةِ الْمَاضِي مِنَ الْبَلِيغِ كَقَوْلِهِ: رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ
Prayer may be expressed eloquently in a past-tense form, as in “raḥimahu Allāh.”

Raḥimahu Allāh contains a past-tense verb, object suffix and subject. Yet in a context of supplication its intended sense is “May God have mercy on him,” not necessarily an announcement that mercy has already been granted.

The past form lends the prayer a vivid, achieved-looking shape. Its rhetorical effectiveness depends on the listener recognizing the supplicatory context.