The Present-tense Verb and the Aspects of Its Signification in the Qur’anic Text - A Rhetorical Reading of the Verses of Divine Torment through Context -

Abstract

The Holy Qur’an teems with significations and lexicons whose depths can never be exhausted, however long one searches them. It addresses the two worlds through its commands and prohibitions, recounting the reward of God’s righteous servants and their attainment of the Gardens of Delight, and the retribution of the polytheists with a painful torment; indeed, every verse in it is a signification and a meaning that none grasps save the humble and the possessors of understanding. Even the letters and the verbs are, in and of themselves, significations.

Many present-tense verbs occur in the verses of torment in the Holy Qur’an, bearing profound rhetorical significations. Whereas the past-tense verb expresses accomplished fact and permanence, the present-tense verb serves to convey continuity and renewal, and to summon the image into the reader’s mind as though it were taking place at this very moment.

This study demonstrates that the present-tense verb in the verses of torment carries a number of distinct significations that lead to a variety of meanings.