Definition of exaggeration in simile:
When a simile reaches such precision and depth that the listener feels the compared and the comparison have become one — the highest level of simile in impact.
The verses — story of Aad:
Surah Al-Qamar: "We sent upon them a raging wind on a day of persistent misfortune — tearing people away as if they were uprooted palm trunks." (54:19-20)
Layers of exaggeration in this image:
- The wind tears people away = uproots them from the earth
- The uprooted = a palm trunk (not the full person)
- The palm is uprooted from its roots
- Ajaz = trunks without heads = loss of dignity and identity
Exaggeration in the image:
It does not say "as if they were palms" — but "trunks of uprooted palms": uprooted palm + without heads + carried in the air. Three images converge in one simile.
Al-Zamakhshari: "This verse is among the most eloquent imagery in the Quran — it combines massiveness of body, loss of will, and scattering through space."
Question: What makes "trunks of uprooted palms" more eloquent than, say, "cut palms"?
Answer: Because it combines three images: uprooting from roots (uprooted) + loss of heads (trunks) + the massiveness of the people — which "cut palms" could never convey.