Unambiguity of Polysemy: On the Definition of the Qur’anic Discipline al-wujūh wa-n-naẓā’ir

Abstract

Since the earliest period of the development of Muslim exegetics, theologians have paid considerable attention to the problems of the Qur’anic lexicology, a special place among which is occupied by the topic of al-wujūh wa-n-naza’ir. Despite the fact that classical works of this genre consider exclusively different contextual meanings of lexemes of the same root, the definition of naza’ir among the Muslims, and after them, European researchers received at least 6 different interpretations. However, such diversity is caused by discrepancies in the understanding of two different definitions formulated by the classics and some of the later authors. According to the first, belonging to Ibn al-Jawzi, naza’ir are verbal forms of polysemous lexemes, and according to the second, by Ibn Taymiyyah, they are multi–object univocative words. At the same time, it was revealed that Ibn al-Jawzi recognized that the books of this genre contained a special group of words with the same meaning, which in different contexts denote different objects, gave examples of them, although he considered them quasi-polysemantic. Based on this, the conclusion is made about the fallacy of late interpretations and the unity of both classics in defining the genre of al-wujūh wa-n-naza’ir itself as a special discipline exclusively considering various contextual meanings of lexemes of the same root in the Qur’an. Most of the values indicated in the books of this genre have an exegetical interpretation, when the meaning reflects a purely theological interpretation of a given word in a particular ayah.