UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Clarity, Communication, and Understandability: Theorizing Language in al-Bāqillānī’s I‘jāz al- Qurʾān and Uṣūl al-Fiqh Texts Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k82r14q Author Friedman, Rachel Anne Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Clarity, Communication, and Understandability: Theorizing Language in al-Bāqillānī’s Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān and Uṣūl al-Fiqh Texts By Rachel Anne Friedman A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Margaret Larkin, Chair Professor Asad Ahmed Professor Chana Kronfeld Professor Niklaus Largier Summer 2015 Abstract Clarity, Communication, and Understandability: Theorizing Language in al-Bāqillānī’s I‘jāz al-Qurʾān and Uṣūl al-Fiqh Texts by Rachel Anne Friedman Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies Professor Margaret Larkin, Chair University of California, Berkeley Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH/1013 CE) is known as a preeminent theorist of both the Ashʿarī school of Islamic theology and the Mālikī school of law, and his writings span a wide range of disciplines. This dissertation brings together his thought in two apparently disparate discourses, uṣūl al-fiqh (jurisprudence) and iʿjāz al-Qurʾān (inimitability of the Qurʾān), to highlight how these discourses are actually in dialogue with each other. It explores the centrality of al-Bāqillānī’s theory of language in his thought and devotes particular attention to his understanding of the role of figurative language. In his jurisprudential work al-Taqrīb wa-l-irshād fī uṣūl al-fiqh (Proximation and Guidance on the Roots of Law), al-Bāqillānī redefines keywords in Islamic discourse in ways that support his vision of Qurʾānic and human language use. He emphasizes the argument that all language, even figurative language, is systematically understandable according to rules, thereby establishing a consistent basis for legal and theological interpretation. Al-Bāqillānī’s text on the literary inimitability of the Qurʾān provides another, consistent aspect of his theory of language. His Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān (Book of the Inimitability of the Qurʾān) sheds light on al-Bāqillānī’s theory of the relationship between aesthetics and meaning. He distinguishes between rhetorical features that are deeply connected with expressing ideas, which contribute to the Qurʾān’s rhetorical inimitability, and ornamental figures, which do not. In both texts, al-Bāqillānī explains the meanings of contested terms (including muḥkam, mutashābih, and bayān) in consistent ways that support his own arguments. The understandability and clarity of utterances, and particularly the Qurʾān, emerge as a central concern of al-Bāqillānī’s thought. He establishes the expressive clarity of the Qurʾān as both a sign of its inimitability and a verification of its understandability, thereby setting the practice of exegesis on a stable theoretical footing. In this way, al-Bāqillānī proposes a resolution to the tension between views of the Qurʾān as rhetorical miracle and the Qurʾān as a reliably interpretable basis for Islamic doctrine and law. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iii Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Language in the Medieval Arabo-Islamic World ......................................................................... 5 Al-Bāqillānī’s Biography .................................................................................................................. 7 Al-Bāqillānī’s Works ......................................................................................................................... 9 Al-Bāqillānī’s Audiences and Socio-Political Context ............................................................... 10 Al-Bāqillānī on Miracles ................................................................................................................ 13 Questions of Translation and Interpretation ............................................................................. 17 Ḥaqīqa and Majāz: The Concepts and Their Origins ................................................................... 21 Points of Comparison..................................................................................................................... 30 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter Two: Clarity and Communicativity in al-Taqrīb wa-l-irshād fī uṣūl al-fiqh ............ 34 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 34 The Text ........................................................................................................................................... 35 Focus on Language ......................................................................................................................... 38 Al-Bāqillānī’s Emphasis on Signification and Communication ............................................... 41 The Arabic Qurʾān and the Issue of Subjectivity ....................................................................... 43 Bayān ................................................................................................................................................ 46 Explicit and Implicit Expression .................................................................................................. 53 Clarity and Consistency: Muḥkam Speech ................................................................................... 57 Mutashābihāt: Allowing Multivalence of an Utterance ............................................................. 63 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 73 Chapter Three: Shifting Boundaries of Meaning: Majāz, Technical Usage, and Qiyās of Names in the Taqrīb ........................................................................................................... 75 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 75 Ḥaqīqa and Majāz: Meaning beyond Set-Down Boundaries ...................................................... 76 Idiomatic Language: Majāz through Established Limiting of Word Use ................................ 89 i Majāz vs. Technical Vocabulary ................................................................................................... 92 A Case of Limiting Language’s Signification: Rejecting Qiyās of a Name ............................... 94 Qurʾān: Exception or Prototype? Majāz as a Test Case ............................................................. 99 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 100 Chapter Four: Badīʿ in Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān: Figurative Language with a Purpose .......... 102 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 102 Badīʿ: Background and Context .................................................................................................. 104 The Role of Badīʿ in Qurʾānic Inimitability .............................................................................. 110 Extant Scholarship on al-Bāqillānī’s Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān ................................................................ 113 Al-Bāqillānī’s Chapter on Badīʿ ................................................................................................... 117 Badīʿ and Figurative Language in al-Bāqillānī’s Analysis of Poetry ...................................... 130 Characterizing al-Bāqillānī’s Thought on Badīʿ ....................................................................... 134 Chapter Five: The Thesis of Guiding Clarity in Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān ................................ 138 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 138 Neglected Parts of the Book ....................................................................................................... 139 Bayān, Balāgha, and Communicative Aspects of Discourse ..................................................... 140 Understanding versus Ability: Barāʿa as Superiority in Qurʾānic Style ............................... 151 Consistency in Level and Meaning: The Mutual Similarity of Qurʾānic Verses ................. 153 Al-Āyāt al-Aḥkāmiyyāt ................................................................................................................... 156 The Mysterious Letters: A Sign of the Qurʾān’s Announcement of Clarity ......................... 158 Emotional and Visceral Reactions to the Qurʾān: Confirmation beyond Explanation .....