Verses of Impossibility in the Holy Quran: A Grammatical and Rhetorical Analysis

Abstract

Verses of impossibility are those that refer to events that can never or rarely happen, tasks that are difficult or impossible to perform, people or things that are of no use, things that are impossible to find or futile efforts. Impossibilities can be classified into logical, physical, causal, nomological, temporary, permanent, partial, total, objective or subjective impossibility. This study sought to analyze verses of impossibility in the Holy Quran, their grammatical structure, rhetorical features, types of questions and conditional, emphatic, and/or negative particles used. Results of the analysis showed two kinds of impossibility (i) those in which Allah challenges the disbelievers and those in which the disbelievers ask the Prophets for what they consider impossible demands. In addition, verses of impossibility in the current study use a combination of grammatical structures and rhetorical devices that mainly contain conditional sentences beginning with conditional particles أن /?an/ (if), لو ,حتى /Hatta:/ (until), لولا /laula:/ (if), negative, imperative, interrogative, and emphatic structures, few modals and rhetorical questions, some metaphors, hyperbole, antitheses and counterfactuals to describe challenges, futile efforts, stubbornness of the disbelievers and their incongruous behavior. They also focus on logical, temporary and permanent impossibilities. Other rhetorical features of the Holy Quran, such as antiphrasis, asyndeton, cadence, chiasmus, epizeuxis, equivoque, isocolon, palindrome, polyptoton, and synecdoche are still open for further investigation by future researchers.