Is there metaphor in Allah’s saying: “And how many a town…” because the intended meaning is the people of the town?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks regarding Allah’s saying, “And how many a town,” saying: Is there metaphor in this verse because the intended meaning is the people of the town, not the buildings?
Answer:
The people of the town are the ones who are called the town; the buildings are not called the town. The town is the people gathered together; they are called a town. The singular is *qaryah*, the dual is *qaryatan*, and the plural is *qura*. The plural indicates gathering. But these people do not understand the language, so they assume that *qaryah* is used only for the buildings. They think it is used for the people metaphorically. This is their assumption because they do not understand the language at all. Yes.
May Allah reward you, Your Eminence, father. The questioner asks regarding Allah’s saying, “And how many a town,” saying: Is there metaphor in this verse because the intended meaning is the people of the town, not the buildings?
Answer:
The people of the town are the ones who are called the town; the buildings are not called the town. The town is the people gathered together; they are called a town. The singular is *qaryah*, the dual is *qaryatan*, and the plural is *qura*. The plural indicates gathering. But these people do not understand the language, so they assume that *qaryah* is used only for the buildings. They think it is used for the people metaphorically. This is their assumption because they do not understand the language at all. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [2144- 4717] هل في قوله تعالى:﴿وكأين من قرية﴾ مجاز؛ لأن المراد أهل القرية؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.