Parables in the Holy Quran are a source of divine guidance. 3
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“…so that it follows it in what it requires and accompanies it even to what it might not otherwise accept. For this reason, parables have become widespread in the Divine Books and Prophetic sayings, and have flourished in the expressions of the eloquent and the insights of the wise.
Representation (*tamthīl*) is the subtlest means of subjugating imagination to reason and bringing it down from its resistance and obstinacy toward it. It is the strongest method for instructing the ignorant and dull-minded, and for restraining the rebellion of the stubborn and defiant. How could it be otherwise, when it lifts the veil from the faces of hidden intellectual realities and presents them in the form of clear sensory images—portraying what is denied in the form of what is acknowledged, and showing what is strange in the form of what is familiar?” (1)
Perhaps these words suffice, and there is no need to prolong the discussion. However, one point must be noted: al‑Suyūṭī نقل in *Al‑Muzhir* from Abū ʿUbayd that he said:
“Parables are the wisdom of the Arabs in pre‑Islamic and Islamic times. By them they would respond to one another’s speech and achieve their purposes in discourse through indirect expression.” (2)
It is clear, however, that parables are not exclusive to the Arabs. Every people possesses proverbs and maxims through which they convey their intentions and communicate their aims to listeners. Sometimes a single proverb is shared among different peoples and becomes universal. At times, the brilliance of a proverb so astonishes a poet that he casts its meaning into poetic form.
Al‑Ṭabarī narrated from al‑Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufra that he gathered his sons and brought some arrows tied together, saying: “Do you think you could break them while they are bundled?” They replied, “No.” He then untied them and said: “Could you break them when separated?” They said, “Yes.” He said: “Such is unity.” (3)
Al‑Muhallab was not the first to utter this example. Abū Hilāl al‑ʿAskarī narrated from Qays ibn ʿĀṣim al‑Tamīmī (d. 20 AH) verses expressing the same proverb in poetry:
> By mending bonds among you is your long survival,
> Whether my life be prolonged or not.
> Until your hearts and skins soften
> Toward both noble and humble among you.
> Arrows, when gathered, if one enraged
> Seeks to break them with force of hand,
> They resist and do not break; but if scattered,
> Weakness and breaking belong to the divided. (1)
Al‑Masʿūdī, in his account of ʿAbd al‑Malik ibn Marwān, mentioned that al‑Walīd used to recite verses written by ʿAbd al‑Malik in his testament, including:
> Cast away rancor from among you,
> In absence and in presence alike.
> For arrows, when gathered, if one enraged
> Seeks to break them with force of hand,
> They resist and do not break; but if scattered,
> Weakness and breaking belong to the divided. (2)
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### Books Authored on Arabic Proverbs
Many books—ancient and modern—have been written on Arabic proverbs. The most comprehensive among them is *Majmaʿ al‑Amthāl* by Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al‑Nīsābūrī al‑Maydānī (d. 518 AH), containing over six thousand proverbs. (1)
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### Fourth: Qur’anic Parables
Numerous Qur’anic verses indicate that the Qur’an contains parables, and that God sets them forth for people so that they may reflect and take heed:
> *“If We had sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and splitting apart from fear of Allah. And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will reflect.”* (2)
Other verses likewise affirm the presence of parables in the Qur’an. The Trustworthy Spirit brought them down; they were parables at the moment of revelation upon the heart of the Messenger before being circulated among people.
On the other hand, a “proverb” (*mathal*) in the conventional sense is speech uttered in a specific incident and then circulated over time in similar situations. By this definition, such proverbs do not exist in the Qur’an, because their defining feature is popular circulation—a feature not present in Qur’anic verses at the moment of revelation.
Therefore, the “parable” in the Qur’an must mean something else: namely, rhetorical representation (*tamthīl qiyāsī*), discussed by scholars of rhetoric under simile, metaphor, and figurative expression. Al‑Qazwīnī called it “compound metaphor.” (1)
Thus, most Qur’anic “parables” belong to the category of representation, not to the technical “proverb” as defined in common usage.
Ālūsī stated that *mathal* originally derives from “standing upright” (*muthūl*), and later came to denote eloquent and widely known speech containing simile, metaphor, wisdom, admonition, or concise expression. (1)
The Qur’anic parable, however, was not borrowed from a prior event nor repeated from an earlier model; it is a new artistic expression uniquely innovated by the Qur’an in structure and indication.
Hence, the Qur’anic *mathal* is not the conventional proverb known in literary terminology. It is a distinct genre designated by the Qur’an itself before literary scholars defined “proverb” as a category of prose. (2)
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### Fifth: Types of Representation (*Tamthīl*)
Representation is assigning one thing the status of another through simile, metaphor, or other figurative means. It has several types:
#### 1. Symbolic Representation
This is expression through the tongues of birds, plants, or stones in symbolic form, alluding to subtle meanings. This style abounds in *Kalīla wa Dimna* and in ʿAṭṭār’s *Conference of the Birds*.
Some have attempted to interpret all Qur’anic narratives as symbolic in this sense, denying their historical reality. However, this contradicts the explicit Qur’anic text:
> *“Indeed, in their stories there is a lesson for those of understanding. It is not fabricated speech…”* (Yūsuf 111)
Thus, the Qur’anic stories recount real, unseen truths.
#### 2. Narrative Representation
This relates the conditions of past nations to draw lessons from similarities, such as:
> *“Allah presents an example for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot…”* (al‑Taḥrīm 10)
#### 3. Natural Representation
This compares the intangible with the tangible, such as:
> *“The example of the worldly life is like rain We send down from the sky…”* (Yūnus 24)
Qur’anic parables revolve mainly around narrative and natural representation.
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### Sixth: Qur’anic Parables in Hadith
The Imams of Ahl al‑Bayt emphasized reflection upon Qur’anic parables. Among their statements:
– Imam ʿAlī (as): “You have been admonished through those before you, and parables have been set forth for you…”
– “The Book of your Lord is among you… containing its lessons and its parables.”
– “The Qur’an was revealed in four parts: one quarter about us, one about our enemies, one about parables and traditions, and one about legal rulings.”
Imam al‑Ṣādiq narrated that Imam ʿAlī asked a judge whether he understood the Qur’an’s parables; when he said no, he replied: “Then you are ruined and have ruined others.”
Imam ʿAlī ibn al‑Ḥusayn, in his supplication upon completing the Qur’an, asked God to grant understanding of its wonders and the admonitions of its parables.
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### Statements of Scholars on Qur’anic Parables
– **Ḥamza al‑Iṣfahānī (d. 351 AH):** Parables reveal hidden realities and present the imagined as tangible.
– **Al‑Māwardī (d. 450 AH):** “Among the greatest sciences of the Qur’an is the science of its parables.”
– **Al‑Zamakhsharī (d. 538 AH)** and **al‑Rāzī (d. 606 AH):** Parables affect the heart more profoundly than abstract description, because they make the unseen visible and the abstract concrete.
– **ʿIzz al‑Dīn ʿAbd al‑Salām (d. 660 AH):** Qur’anic parables serve as reminders and admonitions and often indicate legal or moral rulings.
– **Al‑Zarkashī (d. 794 AH):** The purpose of parables is to clarify the hidden through the evident and to refute opponents effectively.
However, it may be observed that what these scholars describe relates primarily to rhetorical representation rather than to the conventional circulating proverb.
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(References correspond to those cited in the original text.)
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