Tales Told by God: Stylistic Peculiarities of Qur’anic Narratives

• Main Author: Dr Abdus Salam
• Format: Article
• Language: Arabic
• Published: SZIC University of Peshawar 2009-12-01
• Series: الإيضاح
• Online Access: http://al-idah.szic.pk/index.php/al-idah/article/view/442

The word ‘story’ is more comprehensive in application and more convenient in definition than its purely literary counterpart—‘fiction’. Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary has defined the former as ‘an oral or written account of a real or imagined event or events’ while the latter is illustrated as ‘literature consisting of invented narratives, esp. the novel and short story; a false story or statement.’ We may define ‘story’ or ‘tale’—the two words used as synonymous substitutes throughout—as an account of a happening that began, progressed and ended in the past. The three phases are important for signifying the fact that it should have appropriate length, encompassing a sequence of events in order to create the desired effect. As such, it must have a particular scheme of progress, or plot as we refer to it in literary discourses. Unlike fiction, however, a story is free from the compulsion of being fictitious or un-factual. Fiction inevitably negates pure or absolute fact. It may either be an abstract product of imagination with no factual foundation, or, in cases like historical literature, an imagined description of recorded events. In non-literary discussions also, ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ are taken as antagonists that can hardly coexist simultaneously. Occasionally— though erroneously—confused as identical with ‘fiction’, ‘story’ or ‘tale’ might be a purely faithful account of true happenings. The real life of flesh and blood has enough complexity, wonders and marvels to provide material for highly interesting narrations and fascinating accounts or descriptions.