محبوبه سقاب گندم آبادی

Verse 21 of Surah Ar-Rum states: “And of His signs is that He created for you spouses from among yourselves so that you may find tranquility in them, and He placed between you affection ( mawaddah ) and mercy. Indeed, in that are signs for a people who reflect”. This verse, which conveys the Qur’ānic philosophy of marriage, notably employs the word mawaddah to express affection, a choice that warrants deeper investigation. Analyzing the semantic evolution of key Qur’ānic terms is a valuable and emerging approach in Qur’ānic studies. The vocabulary of the Qur’ān often draws from the lexicon of pre-Islamic Arab culture, including terms common in tribal discourse and poetic expression. Like many such words, mawaddah retained its semantic core but underwent significant development in its meaning within the Qur’ānic worldview. This paper explores the semantic trajectory of mawaddah and offers a critical analysis of its usage in Surah Ar-Rum, verse 21. It concludes that no other synonymous term would convey the depth and intended meaning as effectively as mawaddah in this context

The semantic analysis of Qur’anic vocabulary has emerged as a significant area of study in recent years. In the Holy Qur’an, God specifically uses the phrase mītẖāqā gẖalīẓā (a firm covenant) to describe the marriage agreement, warranting a semantic investigation to understand the reasoning behind this choice. This study adopts a qualitative approach to explore why this phrase was selected for the marriage covenant. It employs historical, descriptive, and cognitive analyses of the phrase. The term mītẖāqā gẖalīẓā appears three times in the Qur’an: first, in reference to God’s covenant with the prophets (Al-Ahzab: 7); second, regarding God’s covenant with the people of Israel (An-Nisaa’: 154); and third, in the context of marriage (An-Nisaa’: 21). Through historical semantics, the study traces the semantic evolution of mītẖāq . Using descriptive semantics, it analyzes the phrase contextually and examines its paradigmatic and syntagmatic dimensions to uncover its semantic features and components. Furthermore, by applying the principle of authenticity of Qur’anic terms within cognitive semantics, the study concludes that no synonym or alternative phrase adequately conveys the profound semantic depth and layers of mītẖāqā in the given contexts.