The Dark Koran: A Semantic Analysis of the Koranic Darknesses (ẓulumāt) and their Metaphorical Usage.

Darkness (ẓulumāt) as a Koranic literary image has not been systematically analyzed, even though it is connected to fundamental Koranic topics such as understanding, salvation and the omniscience of God. The aim of this article is to argue for a close reading of the occurrences of ẓulumāt in the Koran and to discuss their metaphorical usage. By joining cognitive metaphor theories with the Koranic material, the article contributes to a new understanding of how and why modes of darkness are applied in the Koran. In the article, I argue for a six-fold classification of the occurrences, in which the utilization of particularly two conceptual metaphors, A mental state is darkness and protection is darkness appear. The former is employed to explain the imperative difference between belief and unbelief through the binary pair of darkness and light, whereas the latter is chosen to elucidate the omniscience of the Koranic God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L'obscurité (ẓulumāt), en tant qu’imagé littéraire coranique, n'a pas été systé matiquement analysée, même si elle est associée aux thèmes coraniques fon damentaux tels que la compréhension, le salut et l'omniscience de Dieu. Le but de cet article est de plaider en faveur d'une lecture très attentive des occur rences de ẓulumāt dans le Coran et de discuter de leur usage métaphorique. En joignant les théories de la métaphore cognitive à la matière coranique, l'article contribue à comprendre comment et pourquoi les modes d'obscurité sont appliqués dans le Coran.Dans l'article, j'opte pour une classification en six niveaux des occurrences, dans lesquelles l'utilisation de deux métaphores conceptuelles apparaissent principalement: l'obscurité est un état mental et l'obscurité est protection.La première sert à expliquer la différence essentielle entre la croyance et l'incrédulité par la paire de l'obscu rité et de la lumière, tandis que la seconde a été choisie pour élucider l'omnis cience du Dieu coranique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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