Isharat al-I'jaz | Verse 17-20 | 128
(127-134)

The First Matter

The source of the embroideries of eloquence is none other than the arrangement of the meanings; it is not the ordering of the words, which was the domain of the grandiloquent literalists. Their passion for words developed into a chronic illness so that finally 'Abd al-Qâhir al-Jurjânl refuted them in his Dalail al-1'jâz and Asrâr al-Balâgha, devoting more than a hundred pages to disputing them.

The arrangement of the meanings consists of the grammatical meanings being placed systematically among the words; that is, the literal (harfi) meanings being dissolved among the words to obtain the novel embroideries. If you look into it closely, you will see that the natural channel for ideas and emotions is the ordering of the meanings.

The arrangement of the meanings is constructed through the rules of logic. For it is only by means of logic that thought progresses towards truths. And thought reaches truths when it penetrates the subtleties of the natures of things and their relations. And the relations between the essences of things are the bonds of [the universe's] perfect order. And the perfect order is the shell of sheer beauty, which is the source of all beauty. And sheer beauty is the garden of the elegant and refined sayings that are the flowers of eloquence. This flower-filled garden is where the nightingales wander who are known as the men of eloquence and lovers of creation. And the sweet, soft songs of those nightingales arise from the harmonious spiritual echoes wafting from the pipes of the meanings' arrangement.

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Isharat al-I'jaz