A Survey on Metaphor in the Qur’an from the viewpoints of Shenqiti and Ayatollah Javadi Amoli

Trope means to use the word in a meaning other than its real one, a figure of thought which carries a large part of eloquence and miraculousness in the Qur’an.This Qur’anic use has been denied and restricted due to the lack of explanation of its meaning, while the trope itself is a truth in the world of meaning due to the existence of symmetry and appropriateness in meaning. Shanghiti, one of the Salafi interpreters, refuses the use of trope in the Qur’an since he believes it denies the attributes (of God), it is false, and not eligible by the Shari’a. From his perspective, to accept the use of trope in the Qur’an equals denying its words and truths. Instead of trope, he proposes the theory of Arabic Style, which results in the actual use of all the words of the Qur’an in their real meanings. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli, a Shia interpreter, by proposing the theory of the Spirit of Meaning, that considers for a word a general meaning applicable to its examples, defines the trope as using the word in a meaning other than its real one, a point that brings about limitations for its application in the Qur’an. These two viewpoints seek to consider real meanings for the words, however, due to ambiguity in definition, lack of sufficient criteria to implement their theory and the opposition of secularity and conscience against the trope, they have not succeeded, also, in some cases they have had verbal conflicts, denying only the word of trope. The present study, using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on library data, seeks to explain and compare the views of Shanghiti and Ayatollah Javadi Amoli in the expressing of the use of trope in the Qur’an and what they have proposed to replace it.