LessonsCauses of Obscurity and Explanation of Rare Qur’anic VocabularyQuiz

Repetition in Arabic rhetoric is not necessarily needless duplication. It can reinforce a warning, renew remembrance, or connect a recurring question with successive blessings and signs.

“Which of your Lord’s favors will you two deny?” (al-Raḥmān 55:13) recurs throughout the sūrah, each occurrence gaining a relation to its surrounding description.

A shift in the mode of address may likewise redirect speech from an individual to a group, or from third person to direct address. Interpretation must identify both the addressee and the local effect of the repetition.

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Repetition and modes of address

Causes of Obscurity and Explanation of Rare Qur’anic Vocabulary

Repetition in Arabic rhetoric is not necessarily needless duplication. It can reinforce a warning, renew remembrance, or connect a recurring question with successive blessings and signs.

“Which of your Lord’s favors will you two deny?” (al-Raḥmān 55:13) recurs throughout the sūrah, each occurrence gaining a relation to its surrounding description.

A shift in the mode of address may likewise redirect speech from an individual to a group, or from third person to direct address. Interpretation must identify both the addressee and the local effect of the repetition.