Investigating the Nuance Differences of the Lexical Synonyms in the Holy Quran - A Case Study of two lexical words in the Quran; كُتِ بَ (kutiba) and خوف (khawf)

Abstract

This study investigates the lexical synonym in the holy Quran as a linguistic phenomenon that the lexical synonyms which have different spelling and structure do not convey the same meaning and connotation in the Quraic text. For example; words like كُتِ ب : (kutiba) which has synonymous words as; فرض (furid), لزم (lazam), and أمر (amar) which they all revolve around the meaning of 'obligatory' but they have subtle semantic differences in terms of meanings and connotations. This study is conducted in Sudan, Africa which is limited to the book of holy Quran. In this study the researcher followed the quantitative approach where the comparative descriptive study is used aligned with the componential analysis. The sample of this study consists of two Quranic words synonyms for data collection. With reference to some interpretations of these words according to the historian Islamic scholar Ibn kathir as a famous expert of Tafsir (exegesis of Quran) and the current Islamic scholar Mohamed Shahrour as a reformist thinker in the Islamic studies. This study achieved its main aim which is reflected in the findings. In which the main finding is that there no two lexical synonyms in the Quran having different spelling and structure can be used interchangeably to convey the same meaning and connotation. This study recommends that: Understanding lexical synonyms in the holy Quran requires familiarity with word; concept, context, and recognition, therefore, researchers, readers and translators should know that every word in the Quran has distinctive meaning according to the contextual usages.