Semantics of “Beneficence’’ in Quran

Abstract

Semanticsdeals withthestudy ofmeaning.“Meaning’’ is awarenessofcultural context and the relationship between a word with other words in a text. This article analyses the meaning of“beneficence’’ only in the Holy Quran usingsemantics based on thelinguistic contextby studying of syntagmatic and paradigmaticrelations. The synonyms of beneficence are piety, good and justice. Also its substitutes are “good deed’’, “goodness’’, “the good action’’, “bounty’’, “disbursemen (Infaq)’’, “voluntary charity (Sadaqah- Sadaka)’’ and “Alms (Zakat)’’.The opposite terms are “oppression’’ and “offence’’. Wecan discoverthetrue meaning ofbeneficence by analyzingthese relationships. The beneficence is any good deed thatgoodandits virtue is apparent and clear which allpeople are interested in it with piety ofself and human beings does it in its appropriate position according toreligiouscriteriaandasan act of worship or a devotional practice in format of physical or hearty good and with bounty or grace and mercy or generosity forthe happiness of others, self-enrichment and nearness to God.

Keywords

• quran
• semantics
• beneficence
• good
• “the good action’’
• oppression