Semantic Analysis of "Wilāyah" in the Holy Quran Based on the Relationships of syntagmatic and paradigmatic

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of the Department of Culture and Education, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Culture and Communication, Imam Sadiq (AS) University. Tehran. Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Islamic Education Department, Imam Hussein University, Tehran, Iran.

10.30497/qhs.2025.247755.4093

Abstract

In the search for the meaning of "Wilāyah" in the verses of the Quran, we encounter several concepts that are linked to each other. This article aims to explain the word "Wilāyah" in the Quran using a structural semantics approach and a descriptive-analytical method and extract its semantic components with the help of its companions, substitutes and antonyms in the Quran. "Wilāyah" in the structure of the verses of the Quran is accompanied in a complementary relationship with the concepts of "Ittikhādh", "Nuṣrah", "Hidāyah", "Tawakkul " and "Sulṭān"; in an intensified relationship, it is accompanied in a complementary relationship with the concepts of "Nuṣrah", "Shafāʿah", "Mulk ", "Hidāyah" and some other concepts and in an opposing relationship with the word "ʿAdūw". Derivatives of "Walī" on the axis of substitution are also synonymous with the words "Khalīl", "Rabb", "Wakīl ", "Naṣīr" and "Multaḥad". Based on this study and extraction of the semantic components of "wilayah", we are faced with four functions of "companionship and companionship", "management and supervision", "protection and support", and "assistance and help" for "Wilāyah" in the literature of the Quran. The accuracy of these functions and meanings rearranges the longitudinal Wilāyah relationship between the guardian and the people, as well as the social relationship between believers based on wilayah, with a new meaning.

Keywords

Main Subjects

The Holy Quran.
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