Analytical Semantics of the Verse "Say, What Would My Lord Care for You If Not for Your Supplication? For You [Disbelievers] Have Denied, So Your Denial Is Going to Be Adherent" from Sunni and Shi'ite Viewpoints

Abstract

The commentators’ disagreement about the meaning of the 77th verse of Surah al-Furqan has led to two major approaches in terms of its interpretation. In the first one which is more common, the verse denotes the worth of prayer for God considering the value of every human as much as his prayers. However, the second approach which has a warning view regards God’s ultimatum as the main cause to address the deniers of Wahy (revelation) and disbelievers in God. The contributing factor for the above disagreement relies in these two points: 1. the exact meaning of “prayer” and whether it is used in its lexical or idiomatic meaning, 2. the syntactic combination of “Do’akom” in the verse and whether “Kom” has the subjective or objective role. Exploring the extent of accuracy in each of the above semantic approaches is a serious issue which has been neglected yet. The descriptive analysis of the exegeses relying on five factors, namely 1. the addressee of the verse, 2. fact checking for either subjective and objective roles attributed to “Kom”, 3. dating for the exegetical narrations, 4. the context and content of the verses in the aforementioned Surah, and 5. the analysis of the relative narrations shows that idiomatic meaning of the term “prayer” is not intended in the verse and the second approach is more appropriate. Received: 27/5/2018 | Accepted: 21/12/2018

Keywords

• comparative semantics
• sunni and shi'ite exegesis
• verse 77 of surah al-furqan
• prayer