A STYLISTIC STUDY OF ANTITHETICAL PARALLELISM IN THE QUR’ĀN

Abstract

The language and style of the Qur’ān are a unique, wondrous, and inimitable linguistic compendium. It is replete with remarkable and grandiose styles and expressions. Parallelism, and its various sub-types, constitute a generously employed communicative and rhetorical linguistic expression in the Qur’ān. This paper investigated grammatical antithetical parallelisms in the Qur’ān to demonstrate how they function to establish meaning connection. Twenty-one samples were taken from the Qur’ān and analysed using the SPCA syntactic model of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Findings revealed that parallelisms in the Qur’ān are knitted in two main clauses (compound sentences), complex and compound-complex sentences yoked together in equivalent structures to express diverse themes such as belief versus disbelief, reward versus punishment, uprightness versus evil, monotheism versus polytheism, attributes, qualities and descriptions of Allah, etc. The findings also revealed that the parallel structures are constructed in the simple present tense, producing meaningful connection that expresses the themes of universal truth, scientific facts and legislative components in Islam that entrench communal harmony and peaceful co-existence. In conclusion, the paper highlights the rhetorical appeal that is conveyed by these parallel structures. 

Keywords: stylistics, Qur’ān, parallelism, rhetorical appeal, etc.