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Implicit Simile
Surah: Ali Imran (7)
Implicit Simile — Meaning Embedded in the Texture of the Verse
وَمَا يَعۡلَمُ تَأۡوِيلَهُۥٓ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ
— آل عمران الآية 7
Definition of implicit simile:
A simile without explicit comparison particle or explicit terms — it is inferred from the spirit and context of the speech. More eloquent than explicit comparison because it makes the recipient participate in discovery.
Quranic examples:
A simile without explicit comparison particle or explicit terms — it is inferred from the spirit and context of the speech. More eloquent than explicit comparison because it makes the recipient participate in discovery.
Quranic examples:
- "Those who consume interest will not stand except as one struck mad by Satan's touch." (2:275) — explicit — but the deeper implicit simile is that usury strips reason like madness.
- "None knows its interpretation except Allah." (3:7) — the implicit simile: knowledge of interpretation is like a deep ocean whose bottom only Allah reaches — the very ambiguity is imagery.
- "We offered the trust to the heavens, the earth, and the mountains, and they refused." (33:72) — offering the trust to the inanimate is an implicit simile for the weight of divine obligation — as if the trust is a massive body offered to giants who rejected it.
Source: Al-Jurjani (p.97); Al-Zarkashi (3/416); Al-Suyuti (3/121)
Test Yourself
What is the difference between explicit and implicit simile? What is the implicit simile in "We offered the trust"?
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