THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING

By A. RIPPIN
University of Calgary

Puns stand as a bridge between rhyme and metaphor. Soundthat charac-

teristic of rhymecombines with the explosion of semantic implications associ-
ated with metaphor 1 into the form of word play or punning. The quality of
blending of sound together with meaning remains the best definition of what
constitutes a pun. Certainly it is possible to create a classification system for
puns which will lead to a workable description of the phenomenon. Interesting
attempts along this line have been made working with Arabic, 2 Biblical
Hebrew,3 and English4 material, for example. Such efforts tend to rely on the
formal aspects of the words used in the puns in order to produce their classific-
atory systems. That is, they speak of puns using the ' literal' meaning of two
words, puns relying on 'metaphoric' meanings, and so forth; 5 or they speak
of the formal relationship between the words in question in terms of the
combinations and permutations of letters and sounds. 6 The aim of this paper,
however, is not to circumscribe the use of puns in the Qur'an, although certainly
a number of formal ranges of punning employment will emerge in the course
of the treatment. Rather, the goal is to see what puns convey to the reader of
the Qur'an, to see how the sound of music combines with sound argument
within the text of scripture. Leaving the definition of word play or pun open
(indeed, even using those two words interchangeably) allows the broadest view
of the phenomenon to be embraced. Two main questions will be broached in
speaking of this phenomenon in the Qur'an: are puns productive in producing
Qur'anic discourse and what do puns accomplish for the reader?

different metaphor

rhyme
same
limiting expanding
meaning

Puns work by associating words through the use of sound. This association
is frequently expressed explicitly by having the two words present in the text,
but it can sometimes simply be implied by the context, with the associated
1
Paul Ricoeur, ' Word, polysemy, metaphor: creativity in language,' reprinted in Mario
J. Valdes, A Ricoeur reader: reflection and imagination (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1991), 65-85 (originally published in Philosophy Today, 17, 1973, 97-128); this article provides
an excellent introduction to many issues related to the topics discussed here.
2
See, for a summary, 7 (1st ed., Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1913-36), s.v. 'tadjnls', vn, 599-60; see
further below.
3
Wilfred G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew poetry: a guide to its techniques (Sheffield: JSOT
Press, 1984), 238; see also Harold Fisch, Poetry with a purpose: biblical poetics and interpretation
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 6-7 and passim, for examples of the treatment of
puns and the way they act to draw attention to language within the biblical text.
4
For example, see the frequently cited article, James Brown, 'Eight types of puns', PMLA,
71, 1956, 14-26.
5
For example, as in ibid.
6
As is frequently the case in the Arabic treatments of the subject. See below.

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 194 A. RIPPIN

word(s) left to be conjured up in the mind of the reader.7 By suggesting 01

supplying these associations, ambiguity in the meaning of a given word is
emphasized or enhanced, despite the presence of a context in which the reader
may expect meaning to be clear; polysemy and homonymy reside at the heart
of a pun, along with surprise. Drawing on the expectation that the sense of a
word is predictable, puns act to emphasize the role of the contextualization of
meaning by a reader by emphasizing the opposite point that context is created,
not simply ' present'. The purpose of puns has been persuasively sketched by
Derek Attridge: at the height of punning, as in the portmanteau words which
litter Joyce's Finnegans Wake, puns show that' meaning is an effect of language,
not a presence within or behind language, and that the effect is unstable and
uncontrollable'.8 Puns function unabashedly to enforce ambiguity.
Unlike metaphors, puns do not necessarily add to a meaning of an indi-
vidual word, although they certainly can do this on occasion, especially over
the course of time. Rather, puns associate already assumed meanings: some-
times they act to bring together meanings that are generally associated, at
other times they conjoin meanings not normally (that is, by native speakers)
thought to be related, through the process of ' playing' with words. The end
result is the introduction of ambiguity into the sentence. Anagrams stand at
one end of this punning play; they frequently depend upon the reader's will-
ingness to embrace a code and participate in the invention. Examples cited by
Jonathan Culler9 include Ronald Wilson Reagan being an anagram of' insane
Anglo warlord' and the use of the phrase 'scared sacred'.10 At the other end
of the punning spectrum stands the simple duplication of a single word in
polysemy (classically called antanaclasis), something readily apparent to those
versed in the language. Hamlet, act 2, scene 2, provides a classic example:
Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord?11
Homonymous puns produce an extra dimension to word play: ' Say goodbye
to a good buy' reads an advertising slogan.
Two related issues surround much of the discussion of puns, especially
concerning their presence in English usage (as well as in many other contempor-
ary languages). There is a tendency to apologize for the use of puns, for they
are considered a low form of humour. ' Pardon the pun' is the refrain which
is expected to follow after the utterance of a good 'groaner'. This statement
is made by writers or speakers not so as to draw attention to their wittiness,
but rather to excuse themselves from appearing childish or unduly influenced
by advertising. After all, puns are, in modern times, the idiom of both children's
rhymes and popular consumer society. The latter make us groan in brand
recognition:' Paire Noel' was a creative pun used in an advertisement for jeans
7
Steven Ullmann, Semantics: an introduction to the science of meaning (Oxford: Blackwell,
1962), 188, sees the division between explicit and implicit puns as the basic element in their
classification, arguing that polysemous, implicit puns are 'more interesting'.
8
Derek Attridge, ' Unpacking the portmanteau, or Who's afraid of Finnegans Wake', in
Jonathan Culler (ed.), On puns: the foundation of letters (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988), 145.
9
Jonathan Culler, ' The call of the phoneme: Introduction', in J. Culler (ed), On puns, 4-5.
10
In encapsulating its review of the anti-feminist work by Camille Paglia, Sex, art and
American culture, the Toronto Globe and Mail (October 24, 1992) said, 'The iconoclastic cultural
critic leads some scared cows to the slaughter.' Unfortunately, subsequent repetitions of this
statement in the newspaper altered (altared?) the word.
11
Cited in M. Ullmann, Semantics, 189.

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 195

in Quebec this past Christmas. Because many puns in English depend upon
the written form to make their point (that is, it would seem that homonymy
plays a large role), the ' literariness' of punning is frequently asserted.
In academic circles of more recent years, deconstruction has evoked a
greater appreciation for the slipperiness of words, and this has been illustrated
through constant word play in deconstructive writing. Those who find comfort
in having words fit like slippers to their intended meanings, however, see only
a lack of seriousness in the Derridean enterprise, reflecting once again the
common view that puns are a base form of humour. From the post modern
point of view, such critiques simply miss the point of what is happening.
Another point regarding puns and their problematic status may again be
seen in the implications of the phrase, 'Pardon the pun'. In English, we like
to feel that puns just happen and nothing can be done about them. Because
of their low status as humour, we tend to assume that writers would not
intentionally use puns, unless it was for (childish) humorous purposes. Thus
there is a nagging suspicion that if we are able to locate a pun in a ' serious'
piece of literature (the Bible, for example), we still cannot be certain that the
author intended us to perceive it.12 The reasons for this attitude are clear, yet
significant. If the result of a pun is to undermine our faith in the ability of
language to communicate through its emphasis on the role of contextualization,
then punning reveals the fundamentally irrational nature of our means of
communication (and destroys all notions of 'author's intention'); language
does not necessarily function to convey rational thought but has a life of its
own, conveying the unexpected at unpredictable times. To laugh at puns and
to excuse them is, therefore, to reject their efficacy and significance and to
assert (or at least hold out the hope) that language may still rule supreme.
However, that word play underlies much of the great literature of ancient
times has been demonstrated irrefutably according to much scholarly opinion.
Frederick Ahl,13 for example, argues that underlying much Latin poetry are
anagrams and that the use of such a device embodies a way of thinking and a
basic principle of writing poetry. ' Such use of language', he suggests, ' calls
into question our assumption that simplicity, earnestness, and stability lie at
the heart of " serious " ancient literature.'14
These problems of evaluation and appreciation may well be considered
acute in the case of Arabic and specifically the Qur'an. The Qur'an is structured
in segments of varying length which are marked by a fairly regulated rhyme
scheme. It may be suggested, therefore, that the overall emphasis on sound in

12
Frederick Ahl, ' Ars Est Caelare Artem (Art in puns and anagrams engraved)', in J. Culler
(ed.), On puns, 25.
13
F. Ahl, ibid., 17-43, and more fully in his Metaformations: soundplay and wordplay in Ovid
and other classical poets (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985).
14
F. Ahl, Metaformations, 22. Word play appears to be a fundamental element in much world
literature, not only Greek and Latin; see, for example, Martin Schwartz, 'Scatology and
eschatology in Zoroaster: on the paronomasia of Yasna 48:10 and on Indo-European h 2 eg " t o
make taboo" and on the reciprocity verbs *kwsen(w) and *megh\ in J. Asmussen, H. Bailey
et al. (ed.), Papers in honour of Mary Boyce (Acta Iranica 25, Hommages et Opera Minora,
vol.xi, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985), 473-96 and 'Coded sound patterns, acrostics, and anagrams in
Zoroaster's oral poetry', in R. Schmitt, P. O. Skjaervo (ed.), Studia Grammatica Iranica: Festschrift
fur Helmut Humbach (Miinchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, Beiheft 13, neue Folge, Munich:
R. Kitzinger, 1986), 327-92 (my thanks to Professor Schwartz for alerting me to his work) and
Charles D. Orzech, 'Puns on the humane king: analogy and application in an East Asian
apocryphon', JAOS, 109, 1989, 17-24. M. Ullmann, Semantics, 192, presents a conservative view
which provides a contrast to all of this. For him, puns are 'largely a matter of fashion'. As for
those who look for ' word-play as a major poetic device' in writers such as Shakespeare, they are
forgetting ' that punning is in many cases a low form of wit'. However, ' if used with discretion,
[punning] can provide a valuable vehicle for humour and irony, emphasis and contrast, allusion
and innuendo, and a variety of other stylistic effects.'

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 196 A. RIPPIN

the Qur'an simply makes it likely that puns will occur 'naturally'. That is,
puns will occur in the course of the text without any intention behind them
and therefore, presumably, no significance or meaning should be sought in
their presence. While not all rhymes are puns, they certainly can be,15 and the
question of whether what we perceive as a pun is actually ' intended' (or even
perceived by many readers) also remains. Furthermore, the nature of the
Arabic tri-literal root and the method of building words around these stems
makes puns seem almost inevitable once again. The system of the ' ten forms
of the verb' appears to increase the likelihood of reduplicating consonantal
groupings. Combining this with the proclivity of the Semitic languages to use
a cognate accusative construction (and frequently a cognate subject) results in
a high probability of ' natural' punning occurrences.
These misgivings are projections of the valuation of puns in English (and
elsewhere) into Arabic, coming as a result of the tendency to see puns as
superfluous and silly.16 Puns may well be' natural' but that does not necessarily
demean the significance of the reader's perceiving them. Classical Arabic writers
who looked at the literary features of the Qur'an did not have to overcome
the same conceptual limitations as those of us who approach the topic with
the preconceptions of the subject as linked with English usage. Their works
provide many examples of word play in the Qur'an and they may be usefully
tapped to provide illustrations of the phenomenon. The authors' desire in
presenting the material, however, was to classify it in formal terms. Within
discussions of the literary figure finds or tajriis, they generally looked at the
root of the word and noted the various modifications and relationships between
the punning words. Thus, we can study classification systems which speak of
puns created by the transposing of letters, by dividing words up into parts, by
adding an extra consonant, by two words having consonants pronounced in a
manner adjacent to one another (e.g., ha" and hamza) and so forth.17 The
interest of the authors did not reside in observing what puns accomplish.
Nevertheless, their devotion to the text of the Qur'an and their ability to bring
forth disparate examples are still of much use to the scholarship of today.18 It
must be kept in mind, however, that the project of this paper is not to describe
or analyse Arab conceptions of tajriis nor to come to an understanding of an
' author's intention' lying ' behind' the presence of puns in the Qur'an. My
concern here is limited to the (modern) reader's encounter with the text and

15
Debra Fried, ' Rhyme puns', in J. Culler (ed.), On puns, 99.
16
J. Culler, 'The call of the phoneme: introduction', in J. Culler (ed.), On puns, 13, cites
Frederick Ahl as suggesting that some of this is a result of the difference between inflected and
uninflected languages. Speakers of English (and similar languages) tend to assume a direct
correspondence between 'word' and 'referent', but those whose language constructs words
through inflection are ' more aware of the constantly shifting shape of a word as it changes person
or case.' One might suspect this to be even more the case with languages which build from roots
such as Arabic and Hebrew. This would depend, however, on the speaker/writer's consciousness
of the structure of the language as James Barr, The semantics of biblical language (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1961) has pointed out and argued against. For the debate on this aspect, also see John
F. A. Sawyer, ' Root-meanings in Hebrew', Journal of Semitic Studies, 12, 1967, 37-50.
17
See the outline provided in the article 'tadjnls' in El (1st ed.), VII, 599-600 and the very
lucid discussion in Terri De Young, 'Language in a looking-glass: Samih al-Qasim and the
modernization of jinas', JAOS, 112, 1992, 183-97, esp. 183-6.
18
I have made no attempt at a full survey of Arabic sources in what follows, nor have I
included every possible example. Rather, I have looked at three works primarily and selected
examples which demonstrate my point: al-'Askan (d. c. A.H. 400), Kitab al-sana'atayn (Cairo:
HalabI, 1971), from the classical period; al-Suyutl (d. 911 A.H.), al-Itqanfi 'ulum al-Qur'dn, nave'
58, section: al-jinds (Cairo: Dar al-turath, 19745) from the late medieval period; and 'Abd al-
Fattah Lashln, al-BaaT ft (law' asaUb al-Qur'an (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1979) from the contempor-
ary period. For the most part, these works repeat each other in terms of examples. I have
supplemented this information with occasional reference to some other classical treatises, a few
works of modern scholarship, and my own reading of the Qur'an.

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 197

perceptions which arise through that written and aural experience, remembering
the fundamental methodological limitation that 'convention determines
perception'.19

A simple pun provides the best example and an overall insight into the
phenomenon in the Qur'an. Q. 30:55 suggests a play between two usages of
the word al-sa'a, ' hour': one in reference to the judgement day, the other as
a measure of time. 20
'Upon the day when the Hour is come, the sinners shall swear they have not
tarried above an hour; so they were perverted.''21

Such a play may be considered 'clever' but that really misses the point.
Through the use of the same word twice but with a different meaning in each
instance, the Qur'anic statement suggests that those destined to hell on the
judgement day are deceived by their experience of time. This message is
emphasized by the deceptiveness of language which lies at the basis of the pun
and which connects to the self-deception of the evildoers. The sinners deceive
themselves that there is still time to change their ways and then they complain
about the time that has passed when The Time arrives. The point is that a
deceptive length of time will lead up to the judgement day. This deceptiveness,
especially as embodied in those who stray from God's path (and there it is
self-deception), is, it seems to me, a basic motif in the experience of Qur'anic
puns: the deceptiveness of language illustrates the deceptiveness of the existence
of those who do not follow God's will. Language transforms matters in ways
which are not obvious on the human level.
Q. 75:29-30 accomplishes a similar feat in speaking of the calamities at
the end of the world.
'And leg is intertwined with leg, upon that day unto thy Lord shall be
the driving.'1

The image of one leg (al-saq) twisting over the other in convulsion is linked,
in the style of an etymological pun, to the driving {al-masdq) of the people to
their Lord. 22 That legs move one along to one's fate in the hereafter even

19
James Kugel, 'On the Bible and literary criticism,' Prooftexts, 1, 1981, 222.
20
Cited El (1st ed.), s.v. 'tadjnls', 7/599; al-Suyutl, 3/271; Lashln, 160. al-SuyuJI notes that
some people object to calling this jinas because the pun works on the basis of conjoining the
word sa'a literally (haqiqa) and metaphorically (majdz) rather than with two different meanings.
Such objections depend upon a specific understanding of the way in which words have meanings,
a discussion of which would add nothing to the present topic. Arthur Jeffery, The foreign
vocabulary of the Koran (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1938), 157-8, points out that the use of
'hour' in the eschatological sense is expressed in Syriac with this word. The point I wish to make
here is not that the use of ' hour' in these two senses is borrowed from Near Eastern imagery
(that is quite clear and needs no elaboration): the Qur'anic punning usage and what it conveys is
what is at stake here.
21
Translations of the Qur'an are taken from A.J. Arberry, The Koran interpreted (London:
George Allen and Unwin, 1955), modified as necessary; verse numbering, however, follows the
Cairo text.
22
Cited / ( l s t ed.), s.v. 'tadjnls', vn, 599; al-'Askari, 331; al-Suyutl, m, 272; Lashln, 161.

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 198 A. RIPPIN

when twisted becomes the focus of the pun. The inevitability of the return to
God is thereby emphasized.
In Q. 24:37, righteous people who remember God always, perform the
prayer and pay alms, must also live
'fearing a day when hearts and eyes shall be turned about.''

This ' day' presumably refers to the judgement day. The ' turning about' or
transforming, taqallaba, plays with the hearts, qulub, of the people. Even for
the righteous, it may well be that things will not be as they seem (or feel) on
that final day. This, of course, could be taken in either a negative (that is, that
they may well not get the reward they expect) or a positive way (that their
reward, as spoken of in the next verse, will be unlike any experience they have
had previously).23
Another punning example arises in Q. 40:18 with the play between kazimin,
' choking in anguish', and zalimin, ' evildoers', which suggests the linkage
of choking with fear and anguish on the day of judgement and being an
evildoer:
'And warn them against the Day of the Imminent when, choking with anguish,
the hearts are in the throats and the evildoers have not one loyal friend, no
intercessor to be heeded.'

The relationship between the two words emphasizes the regret that those who
reject God will experience in the hereafter: but they are the ones who deceived
themselves.
Q. 40:75-6 continues in the same vein, with the rejoicing (using the verb
yafrahu) that (misguided) people do regarding false beliefs giving them a (false)
sense of exultation (using the verb yamrahu) which only takes them to the
gates of hell. 24
'That is because you rejoiced in the earth without right, and were exultant.
Enter the gates of Gehenna, to dwell therein forever.'

Through the transformation of language, the transformation of the person is

illustrated and emphasized.
In Q. 18:103-4, the unbelievers are wasting their efforts even while 'they
think', yahsabuna, that 'they are acquiring good', yuhsinuna.25

23
Cited in al-'Askan, 331; also al-Rummani (d. 386 A.H.), al-Nukat ft i'jaz al-Qur'an, in M.
Khalaf Allah and M. Zaghlul Sallam (ed.), Thalath rasa'ilfi i'jaz al-Qur'an (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif,
1956), 100.
21
Cited in al-'Askan, 340; al-Suyutl, m, 272; Lashin, 162.
25
Cited in al-Suyutl, m, 272; Lashin, 161.

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 199

'Say: "Shall We tell you who will be the greatest losers in their works? Those
whose striving goes astray in the present life, while they think they are
acquiring good in their deeds".'

The occasional Qur'anic playfulness of punning is evident here: all that the
unbelievers do and think is folly. The deceptiveness of their position is further
illustrated by the choice of words.
Some puns act to emphasize certain aspects of the meaning of words: Q.
104:1, humazat lumazat'", ' a backbiting slanderer',26 who will be destroyed
by the Crusher in the hereafter, and Q. 6:26, yanhawna lanhu wa yan'awna
'anhu, ' They forbid it and keep afar from it'21 in reference to the unbelievers,
both act to emphasize the evil ways of these people, whose actions are deceptive,
and self-deceiving to the core.
A certain repetitious style of punning is frequent and may be thought of
as a part of the stock of Qur'anic idiom: Q. 4:142, in which the hypocrites try
to over-reach God but in fact God over-reaches them (khadf);28 in Q. 3:54,
the unbelievers plot but God is the best of the plotters (makir).29 Phrases along
the lines of' an eye for an eye' may well be included here; Q. 2:194 is structured
this way fully.30 A similar instance perhaps is in Q. 9:127 where physical
'turning away', insarafa, of the unbelievers is matched by God 'turning',
sarafa, their hearts. 31 In each case, the action of humans is not as it seems
for God matches and overcomes all human actionand this motif is emphas-
ized through the use of the word play. Notice, too, that in some of these
examples the use of the verbal participle, in standard Arabic practice, is
employed for the pun.
Overall, an overtone of the ultimate origin of language residing in God
might be perceived in all of these puns, for the argument always reinforces the
notion that the true meaning of language resides in God.

Such ambiguity of language on the human level does not always suggest a
negative sense, however. Polysemy may be viewed not only as self-deception
but also as self-empowermentthe power of language resides in unfolding the
potentiality of each word. An example arises in Q. 30:43 where the verb aqama,
'to lift u p ' , plays with the adjective al-qayyim, 'true, upright' used as a
description of Islam: 32
'So lift up thy face to the true religion.'

The pun associates the two notions in a positive fashion. Lifting up the face
of the believera basic physical activitydoes not result in a deception but

26
Cited in /(lst ed.), s.v. 'tadjnls', VII, 600; al-Suyutl, m, 272.
27
Cited in al-'Askari, 340; al-SuyutT, m , 272; also see R i c h a r d Bell, A Commentary on the
Qur'an (Manchester: Journal of Semitic Studies, 1991), ad loc.
28
Cited in a l - R u m m a n l , 99.
29
Cited in ibid., 99.
30
Cited in ibid., 99.
31
Cited in ibid., 100.
32
Cited in El (1st ed.), s.v. ' t a d j n l s ' , VII, 600; al-'AskarT, 3 3 1 ; al-Suyutl, m , 273.

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 200 A. RIPPIN

a confirmation that, in God, such ambiguity is resolved. A basic human activity

is transformed by God, through word play, into devotion.
Q. 17:24 provides a more complex instance.
'Lower to them [one's parents] the wing of humbleness out of mercy and say,
"My Lord, have mercy upon them, as they raised me up when I was little".'

The linking of parents and God is enforced here twice through punning. The
attitude of thankfulness towards one's parents is to be matched by thankfulness
to God in the word plays rahmairham and rabbirabbaydrii. The right
moral attitude in life is affirmed to be grounded in God alone and this is
emphasized through punning.
According to Q. 2:276,
3
'God blots out usury, but freewill offerings He augments with interest.'
*

A similar usage occurs in Q. 30:39. Here the pun makes the point that a given
word can convey morally good (i.e., yurbi) or bad (i.e., ribd) senses, depending
on its context. Moral good, it may therefore be said, can result from polysemy,
turning a negative value into a positive one by seeing other, underlying senses.
The negative sense of usury can become interest in the hands and language
of God.
The rewards of paradise are sometimes emphasized through puns. Q. 57:21
describes the width ('ard) of al-janna as being that of the heaven and earth
(ard).34 Q. 55:54 states jand al-jannatayn dan'", ' the fruits of the two gardens
are near'.35 Another example may be found in Q. 56:89 with the conjunction
of' rest' (rawh; cf. Q. 12:87) and ' satisfaction' or' ease' or' fragrance' (rayhdn;
cf. Q. 55:12) provided as the rewards of paradise.36 The differences between
words dissolve in the bliss of paradise. Polysemy rules supreme, difference is
no more.
Word play, in some instances, can depend upon the use of an expression
which is unexpected. The ' unexpectedness' of such a pun is created by the
more frequent employment of other, different expressions in the same or similar
contextual environments. Put the other way around and speaking historically,
when an expression becomes a stock part of language, the sense of a pun which
may have been contained in the expression is lost due to its frequent use.37 In
terms of the Qur'an, some doubt must remain in the overall analysis of puns,
due to the limited quantity of evidence which the text provides and the lack
of contemporaneous, comparable literature in Arabic. A punning usage which
illustrates this point may be seen in Q. 6:79,

" C i t e d in LashTn, 163.

34
Cited in al-'Askari, 340.
35
Cited in al-SuyutT, Hi, 273; LashTn 163.
36
Cited in al-'Askari, 3 3 1 , w h o glosses rayhan a s ' s u s t e n a n c e ' , rizq; al-SuyutT, m, 273.
37
This is the same problem as determining whether a word is used metaphorically or not: in
the changing nature of a language, metaphors become lexicalized and then exist as polysemous
meanings (' metaphors we live by').

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 201

'/ have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth.'

In other places in the Qur'an, the basic sense of the expression used by
Abraham, wajjahtu wajhi, is conveyed in the phrases taqallaba wajh (Q. 2:144),
aqdma wajh (Q. 10:105, 30:30), and walla wajh (Q. 2:144, 2:149, 2:150 and cf.
2:115), all generally translated as ' to turn one's face'. 38 Thus, we may suggest
a pun in the expression wajjaha wajh on the grounds of the apparent exceptional
nature of the expression. Arab writers cite this phrase as a pun but do so on
formal grounds. The repetition of the root letters would seem sufficient for
them, regardless of what might be said to be accomplished by the juxtaposition
of the two words. Specifying just what is accomplished by this apparently
exceptional statement remains problematic, however. Some interpretations sug-
gest a firmness in turning, a resolve in doing so, rather than the vagaries
perhaps implied in the following of the heart suggested by taqallaba, for
example.
Lot's statement in Q. 26:168 is suggested to provide a play between ' detest'
and ' speak':
' He said, " Truly, I am a detester of what you do". ' 3 9

J Jl JU
Two sensesspeak and detestmay be said to be conveyed within the single
word qatin itself; that is, the pun is an implicit one within the context of the
words of Lot himself. Certainly, the initial qala emphasizes, for the reader and
auditor of the actual text, the verbal associations (through pseudo-etymology)
of the word al-qdtln. Lot will continue to be among those who speak out
against the immorality of his people because he detests it. Notice that the pun
is explicit for the reader of the text, while Lot's statement, taken by itself,
contains the pun implicitly. The only other use of the root qdla in Q. 93:3
which asserts that God is not displeased {ma. qala) with Muhammad, may also
be punful when viewed in light of the traditional stories told in order to
interpret this famous verse. God may not be speaking to Muhammad (the
absence of revelation for several years early in Muhammad's career is said to
have created doubts and worries in him and this revelation was sent down to
reassure him), but He is not displeased with him and is speaking again now.
At the very least, it may be possible to explain the exegetical stories which
arose around this verse as developing a perceived pun.
Further significance may well be suggested in these motifs of Qur'anic
punning. Other studies of puns have proposed that this literary feature calls
into question the binary nature of human existence. In terms of morality, for
example, puns may work to demonstrate the ambiguity of good and evil as
categories.40 On the human level, the reader may well feel that the Qur'an is
asserting that language is deceiving, that no firmness can be found therein,
and thus many human assumptions about existence and its binary nature are
indeed revealed by puns to be illusory. But, at the same time, it is perceived
that the Qur'anic message is more than that. Indeed, ultimately it is the
certainty of God and the error of humanity which puns serve to emphasize

38
Cited in al-'Askari, 331; al-Suyuti, m, 273.
39
Cited in El (1st ed.), s.v. ' t a d j n i s ' , vn, 600; al-Suyuti, m, 273.
40
F . Ahl, ' A r s Est Caelare A r t u m ' , in J. Culler (ed.), On puns, 2 1 .

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 202 A. RIPPIN

through their playing with the relativity and the instability of language. That
at least, would seem to be true in the examples looked at thus far in this paper
Puns are frequently associated with names. Modern literary theory, wit!
much support from the evidence of Biblical literature, sees this mode of punninj
as very productive, perhaps even as the origin of the pun, if not of narrative
as a whole.41 Here we find the clearest case of where it is not so much the
ambiguity of language to which punning brings attention, but its fullness:
everything has meaning, even where it is not expected. Ambiguity, therefore,
may not necessarily be an ambiguous thing. Ambiguity may well convey very
specific merit and content.
Looking at the range of biblical personages and the well-known punning
associations of their names, one example, peculiar to the Qur'an, is found in
Q. 27:44 which plays on Solomon (Sulayman) and aslama in the story of the
Queen of Sheba.42 The Queen confesses,
'O my Lord, I have wronged myself. I submit alongside Sulayman to God,
the Lord of all Being.'

^.,11*11 <_/> *3> j L - J ' /> C - l i U j ^j~aj

The one who has already submitted, Solomon, is associated with the submission
of the Queen in the climax of the story. The emphasis is on its being Solomon
and not any other prophetwho stimulates the Queen to submit.
But, for the most part, the Qur'an seems not to provide many examples of
punning on names, despite what would seem to be such fertile grounds for
their invention. One observation to make is that many of the punning possibil-
ities inherent in the biblical stories as they are told in the Qur'an have been
lost in the convoluted linguistic moves which many of the names made between
Hebrew and Arabic. Take, for instance, the name Ishaq for Isaac. The spelling of
this word is quite distant from the original Hebrew pun about laughing, yitshaq
in Hebrew, which in the etymologically related Arabic would be yadhak.
To take another example with slightly different expectations, Jacob, YaKqiib,
might be expected to be intertwined productively with the name's apparent
root 'aqaba in the sense of punishment (al-'iqdb), a word used some 20 times
in the Qur'an. That does not happen. The only time the name and its apparent
root are found in close proximity is in Q. 2:140-3 where the word ' two heels',
'aqibani, is used when talking about those who have ' turned on their heels'
from the message of God regarding the qibla. Hidden in this usage may well
be a reflex of the basis of the biblical narrative about Jacob from Genesis
25:26, for in that context, that very pun does act as the basis for the elaboration
of the story: ' Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau, so they
named him Jacob.'*3 The Qur'anic context, however, does not suggest any
connexion whatsoever; the mention of the ' two heels' is quite distant from the
name Jacob in textual and thematic terms within the Qur'an. Overall, it may
be suggested that these biblical narratives as retold in the Qur'an presume the
existence of the biblical puns for their development, even though the puns are

41
J. Culler, ' T h e call of t h e p h o n e m e : I n t r o d u c t i o n ' , in J. Culler (ed.) On puns, 10, speaking
of Derrida: ' F r o m this vantage, literature can be seen not as an a u t h o r ' s a p p r o p r i a t i o n of the
world but as a dissemination or dispersal of the p r o p e r n a m e , the transformation of it into the
elements of the w o r l d i n short, a foundation of letters.'
42
Cited in al-'Askari, 3 3 1 .
43
Alfred Guillaume, ' P a r o n o m a s i a in the Old T e s t a m e n t ' , Journal of Semitic Studies, 9,
1964, 285.

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 203

not explicitly stated. In a sense then, remnants of the puns remain embedded
in the narrative structure, yet they have no surface literary functionality. This
may be said to be all a part of the referential character 44 of the Qur'anic text.
One subtle example of name punning which does occur is found in Q. 2:61
with its use of misr1"1 (spelled with an alif). Elsewhere in the Qur'an, Moses is
associated with Egypt, Misr, grammatically a diptote in common with other
foreign names and names of towns and countries. 45 The use of the word as a
triptote in sura 2, therefore, taken to mean ' a city', conjures up the proper
name ' Egypt' also. 46
The history of language provides some of the potentialities in language for
punning. As words change their meaning over time, puns both disappear (due
to the loss of any sense of semantic separation resulting from their continued
close association through punning) and emerge (because of a loss of the
memory of an association between words that was asserted at a certain point
in history). We might wish to think in terms of a pun in understanding the
relationship between the name Muhammad and ' most praised', ahmad, in Q.
61:6, uttered as a prophecy of Jesus. This remains difficult and obscure,
however. Readers of the Qur'an in the third hijri century saw no pun: they
knew that Muhammad's name was Ahmad. No semantic separation existed.
Montgomery Watt has argued that Ahmad was not taken as a proper name
of Muhammad prior to that time and that in the earliest centuries the word
was simply taken in its common adjectival meaning. Only after polemical
encounters with Christians, according to Watt, does the relationship between
the two words become apparent to Muslims and ahmad becomes the equivalent
of Muhammad. But could there have been a point in history when the adjective
ahmad meant' the most praised one' and suggested Muhammad by association
(i.e., through a pun)?
Q. 53:57, azifati'l-dzifatu,' Azifa (i.e., The Imminent) is imminent1, is taken
by some commentators 47 as a pun around a proper name for the day of
judgement. If so, it is a typical etymologizing pun. The sense of the word azifa
is 'to be near at hand'; it is also used in Q. 40:18 48 where it is preceded by
yawm, day: ' Warn them against the day of the Imminent', reinforcing the
possibility of taking the word as a proper name, although that does seem to
remain open to question.
More productive (and widely recognized) in terms of narrative development
in the Qur'an is the play between hadd, ' to be guided', and yahud, Jews. Q.
2:62 introduces the expression alladhlna hddu*9 using a denominative verb
from the word Yahud (and an assumed root h-w-d); this expression is used ten
times in the Qur'an, occasionally in conjunction with alladhlna dmanu, ' those
who believe'. That way of referring to the Jews is then punned in Q. 2:135.
Jews and Christians say,
44
See J o h n W a n s b r o u g h , Quranic studies: sources and methods of scriptural interpretation
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 1.
45
T h e word occurs as a diptote in Q . 10:87 a n d 43:51 in reference t o Moses a n d Q . 12:21
and 12:99 in reference t o Joseph.
" C i t e d in Mustansir M i r , ' T h e Q u r ' a n as literature', Religion and literature, 20, 1988, 58;
also see A. Jeffery, Foreign vocabulary, 26. Because this verse is n o t a n ' explicit' p u n (see above
at n. 7), it does n o t figure in A r a b treatments of jinds. It did, however, create a great deal of
problem for t h e exegetes a n d g r a m m a r i a n s ; for example, see SIbawayhi, al-Kitdb (Cairo: Bulaq,
1316-17) II, 23, line 8f.; A b u ' U b a y d a , Majdz al-Qur'dn (Cairo: al-KhanijI, 1954) i, 42; al-Farra",
Ma'anT al-Qur'dn (Cairo: D a r al-kutub, 1955), i, 4 2 - 3 ; a l - N a h h a s , I'rdb al-Qur'dn (Beirut: c Alam
al-kutub, 1985, 2 n d printing) i, 232; M a k k l al-QaysT, Mushkil I'rdb al-Qur'dn (Beirut: M u ' a s s a s a t
al-risala, 1984, 2 n d printing), i, 96.
47
Cited in al-'Askari, 332.
48
See above after n. 23.
49
Cited in R. Bell, Commentary, a d loc.

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 204 A. RipprN

'Be Jews or Christians and you shall be guided.'

Other passages such as Q. 6:84 and 21:73 also play with the word hada in
reference to lists of Hebrew prophets, all of whom were guided and gave
guidance.
In a somewhat similar manner, and clearly quite productively, Q. 61:14
plays with ansdr, 'helpers' and nasdrd, Christians. 50
l
O believers, be you God's helpers, as Jesus, Mary's son, said to the Apostles.
" Who will be my helpers unto God? " The Apostles said, " We will be the
helpers of God".'

J$ JU US' jf\'jc JJ ^ i i

This narrative snippet is generated by a play on an understood reference to

nasdrd. That some later exegetes understood the root of this term for
'Christians' actually to be from the word 'to help' 51 displays nicely the way
in which the status of a pun can vary through the passage of time, leading to
the acceptance of a pseudo-etymology once perceived playfully.

Puns can also stimulate narrative development without involving names, 52

for example in Q. 5:31 which speaks of the story of Cain and Abel.
'Then God sent forth a raven, scratching into the earth, to show him [Cain]
how he might conceal the vile body of his brother [Abel].''53

Some caution is needed here. This example illustrates some of the problem
with the rules set up by the Arab literary tradition which emphasize form over
sound. It is hard to see how, in this example, a reader or listener would perceive
(without some degree of analytical reflection) the presence of a pun between
'show' (root: ra'd; here: yuriyd) and 'hide' (root: ward; here: yuwdri) as is
asserted in some traditional treatments of this verse. The actual form of the
words as they appear in the Qur'an (as opposed to their theoretical roots)
obscures the potential for a perception of punning between the words. This
type of problem in dealing with word play has been extensively discussed in
the context of Biblical Hebrew. James Barr has argued that care must be taken
to make sure that a sense of the root of word (and consequent' root meaning')
does not suggest commonalities between words which may be perceived only
after analytical analysis. But given the presence of ba'atha,' send', and bahatha,

50
Cited in Neal Robinson, Christ in Islam and Christianity: the representation of Jesus in the
Qur'an and the classical Muslim commentaries (Basingstoke: Macraillan, 1991), 3 7 - 8 .
51
See, for example, al-Tabarl, Jami' al-baydn 'an ta'wTl ay al-Qur'an (Cairo: D a r al-ma'arif,
1955), ii, 1 4 3 - 5 , a d Q. 2:62.
The idea that p u n n i n g lies at the basis of allegory, such that allegory is a narrative
development from a core p u n , is an idea that may find application in the Q u r ' a n . See Maureen
Quilligan, The language of allegory: defining the genre (Ithaca, N Y : Cornell University Press,
1979), 33.
" Cited in al-Suyutl, m, 273; Lashln, 163.

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 205

' scratch', in this Qur'anic passage also, it certainly is tempting to see the whole
narrative as a punning telling.54

A very specific usage of word play occurs when a thematic unit is created,
frequently as a verse couplet, through a playful linking of rhyme words. The
potential for using words which are more fully related in sound than the
demands of a rhyme scheme suggest, is tremendous, of course, but such
instances do not necessarily lead to the perception of a successful word play.
If the connexion between the lines is weak thematically, or if the sense of the
verse is completed by another line outside the range of the potential pun, then
while the appearance of a pun is present, in fact little seems to be conveyed
by the play. 55 Consider the example of Q. 100:7-8. 56 These verses end in,
respectively, shahid,' witness', and shadid, ' passionate'. It may be argued that
there is a pun here which illustrates that the witness of one's ungratefulness in
action is found in the firmness of love of wealth. When one looks at the context
of these verses (vv. 6-11), however, such an interpretation may only be achieved
by force.
'Surely Man is ungrateful to his Lord
and surely he is a witness against that!
Surely he is passionate in his love for good things.
Knows he not that when that which is in the tombs is overthrown,
and that which is in the breasts is brought out
surely on that day their Lord shall be aware of them?

Xf.ti dli Js.

The passage is not easy to interpret, especially in light of the vagueness of the
pronominal references, but it does seem that the verse ending in shahid links
closely to the previous verse, while the following verse ending in shadid sits
mostly by itself. Another passage sometimes cited but in which the punning
accomplishment is doubtful is Q. 84:17-8 with its use of wasaqa and ittasaqa51
where the idea of the 'twilight' in the preceding verse 16 and the conclusion
in verse 19 indicates that these two verses are linked more significantly to a
wider context than they are to each other. Q. 24:43-4 demonstrates another

54
N. Calder has pointed out to me that puns between ra'a and ward are common in spoken
Arabic, reflecting the fact that, in certain instances, there is an easily perceivable punning
connexion between the forms of the two words. This suggests that a reader may bring to the text
of the Qur'an a previous knowledge of the punning potential between these two words and would
be able to perceive it in this passage quite easily, despite the dissimilarity of the form of the words
in this particular case.
55
F o r some of these considerations, see D . F r i e d , ' R h y m e p u n s ' , in J. Culler (ed.), On puns, 90.
56
Cited in al-Suyup, m, 272; Lashln, 162.
57
Cited in al-'Askari, 340.

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 206 A. RIPPIN

similar instance: absdr as physical vision in verse 43 and mental insight in verse
44. The role of metaphor may be noted here.58
There are punning rhymes in the Qur'an, however, and the occasions upon
which they occur illustrate further the ways in which puns function, emphasiz-
ing the correlation between the ambiguity (with both good and bad implica-
tions) of human experience in relationship to God.
Q. 75:22-3 provides an excellent example in a very famous verse.59
' Some faces on that day will be radiant;
upon their Lord (they will be) gazing.'

*T3 (_y> * V r * ^ - * - ^
Radiance will result from looking at God and the two terms join into one:
gazing at God is radiance. The way this entire passage (i.e., verses 22 through
30) forms couplets and triplets is worthy of note.
Q. 37:72-3 puns 'warners', mundhirin, and 'those warned', mundharin.60
The passage (vv. 71-4) reads:
'Before them erred most of the ancients, / and We sent among them warners;
and behold, how was the end of them that were warned, / except for God's
sincere servants.'

The warners are the prophets; the warned are the heedless who end in hell, a
punishment for their failure to see how to transform themselves. The active,
the passive, the saved, the damned: they are but two sides of the same root
under God.
One final example may be cited from Q. 26:79-80 which puns 'gives me
drink', yasqini, and ' cures me', yashfini, both spoken of as gifts of God to
the believer.61 It may be noted that taking these statements as Qur'anic support
for an idea that a liquid diet might cure illness (in the manner of al-tafsir al-
HlmT) would seem to destroy the literary qualities of the text!

In terms of the questions posed at the beginning of this paper, some general
points may be made regarding the Qur'an's use of word play. Certainly, the
phenomenon is a part of the reader's encounter with the Qur'an and further-
more, the examples cited here point towards certain rhetorical thrusts within
the text. The way words are used is a part of the meaning conveyed and the
message is heightened through the vocabulary employed. Certainly this emphas-
izes the fact that words convey meaning only through context. On the other
hand, a more modest assessment of word play in the Qur'an is called for when
asking about its productiveness. Word play does not seem to be the basis for

58
Cited in al-Suyuti, m, 271.
59
Cited in ibid., m, 273.
60
Cited in ibid., m, 2 7 1 - 2 ; Lashin, 161.
61
Cited in al-Suyflp, m, 271; Lashln, 161. N . Calder has suggested to me that this example
should be treated a n a n ' o r t h o g r a p h i c ' p u n , given the relationship between the written forms sin
and shin, and fa' and qaf. There remains, to my perception, a sufficient relationship between the
words in terms of t h e i r ' m u s i c ' t o allow this example to qualify within the parameters of this study.

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 THE POETICS OF QUR'ANIC PUNNING 207

a great deal of Qur'anic narrative or midrashic-type elaboration. Explanations

or discussions of the implications of words or names, especially within situ-
ations in which the attentive reader may well be alert for word play, do not
seem to proliferate. Just what this might mean in terms of the overall thrust
of the Qur'anic message remains to be explored.62
62
Portions of this paper were first presented at the American Academy of Religion annual
meeting, San Francisco, November, 1992. For the context of puns in the overall poetics of the
Qur'an, see my forthcoming work, sponsored by the Late Antiquity and Early Islam project, The
Qur'an: content, text and interpretation, vol. i, Rhetoric, symbolism and poetics of the Qur'an, to
be published by Darwin Press.

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