What is the stronger opinion among scholars regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence of metaphor in the Noble Qur'an?

The questioner : Shaykh, if you would please clarify for us—may Allah bless you—the issue of metaphor; because they have differed on whether there is metaphor in the Qur'an or not; so we want, may Allah bless you, the correct and stronger opinion from the words of the righteous Salaf?

The Shaykh : By Allah, the issue is as they say: "With the Juhaynah is the certain news." Ibn Taymiyyah spoke very beautifully on this topic, and we draw from him. First: because I am an Albanian, I have no Arabic. Second: because I am a student of knowledge, not a scholar; therefore, we draw from people like Ibn Taymiyyah.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : We are all equal, we are all in the air equal, we are all students of knowledge.
The student : But Allah grants His favor to whom He wills.

The Shaykh : This is a great favor from Allah.
The Shaykh : The point is: what appeared to me specifically regarding the literal and the metaphorical, and the metaphor which Ibn Taymiyyah denies regarding many scholars of language who frequently use the term metaphor and apply it to some of the sacred texts from the Book and the Sunnah, is that there is a verbal disagreement on one hand and a real disagreement on the other. The verbal disagreement: Ibn Taymiyyah believes in the existence of what scholars of language call metaphor in some texts; he believes in this but does not call it metaphor. He says: it is literal. And following my statement—and this is not humility but clarification of reality—due to my lack of specialization in this science, I say: I will give just one example of what the scholars who repeat the term metaphor on their tongues call metaphor, and Ibn Taymiyyah says: No, this is literal, not metaphor. The example: In Surat Yusuf (peace be upon him): , scholars of language call this the metaphor of omission, its estimation being: "And ask the people of the town." He does not call it metaphor, neither the metaphor of omission nor any other metaphor. He says: this is literal, and he argues with them using their own logic; because they say: the default in every Arabic expression is the literal, and that it is not permissible to depart from it to the metaphorical unless the literal is impossible. So Ibn Taymiyyah says: In language, what is the literal? It is the meaning that comes to the mind of the listener of the Arabic speech; that is the literal. Then it does not matter to you after that whether you called it metaphor or called it literal. So in this example, who is the Arab who understands from this verse and its counterparts in Arabic usage; who understands its apparent meaning? Its apparent meaning is , meaning its walls; no one understands this speech. So what is the concept of this Arabic speech?

The questioner : The people of the town.

The Shaykh : It is what linguists call metaphor. So this, Ibn Taymiyyah says, is not metaphor; because metaphor is departing from the literal to a meaning that is not the first thing that comes to a person's mind when they hear that expression. Here it is the exact opposite: the metaphorical meaning never comes to anyone's mind, but rather the meaning is directly: ask the residents of the town and the passengers of the caravan and the like. And he mentions examples of this from Arabic usage, for example, the Arab says: "I walked with the moon," "I walked with the moon," the moon is in the sky and you are on the earth; who understands that he walked beside you and you beside him?! But they call it metaphor. He says: No, this is not metaphor; this is literal; because no one understands except this meaning that you are calling metaphor, but it is literal. So here we did not take the implied meaning to a non-implied meaning, but we remained on the implied meaning, except that those people called it metaphor.
= -- And upon you be peace -- =

The questioner : So we say: the disagreement is verbal, our Shaykh?

The Shaykh : Did I say that? There is a meeting in one aspect, and I am not yet done completing for you the disagreement. There is a verbal disagreement and a real disagreement. So here now I am on the verbal disagreement. As for the meaning, we agree on it in the end. No one says: its walls. Neither the one who says: there is metaphor here, nor the one who says: there is no metaphor, they agree on this.
The Shaykh : But there is a real disagreement, which is the expansion of those who use metaphor in applying metaphor, and they contradict in their application of metaphor the rule that the default is to remain on the literal unless this literal is impossible by Shari'ah or by reason. Here the danger of the theory of metaphor becomes apparent; because they came to texts that speak of the unseen, indeed of the unseen of the unseen, which is Allah and His exalted attributes. Metaphor; why? He said: Because Allah comes when we say: He comes. So we likened Him. Here the interpretive mechanism starts working and they fall into clear misguidance; because this leads them to absolute denial, to denying Allah (Mighty and Majestic) as a Self described with all attributes of perfection.