Embodied Metaphors of Death in the Verses of the Qur'an and Hadiths of Imam Ali (AS)

Hosseini, Mina Sadat; Khoshfar, Mohsen

doi:10.22034/hsr.2025.51684.1047

Embodied Metaphors of Death in the Verses of the Qur'an and Hadiths of Imam Ali (AS)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Level 4, Comparative Interpretation, Fatemeh Zahra (S) Higher Education Institute; Lecturer at Al-Mustafa International University. Isfahan, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Department of Hadith, Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran.

10.22034/hsr.2025.51684.1047

Abstract

Human understanding of divine knowledge, particularly abstract and intangible concepts such as death, significantly influences human behavior and ultimate destiny. Consequently, the concept of death in verses and hadiths, especially in the words of Imam Ali (AS), has been depicted in a tangible manner. A descriptive-analytical study of "Death" with a focus on conceptual metaphors within the cognitive semantics framework has transformed tangible spaces into unfamiliar ones and opened up new perspectives on religious knowledge about death. Based on Verses of the Qur'an and the words of Imam Ali (AS) in the context of embodied conceptual metaphor, the concrete concepts of humans, animals, and plants are mapped onto death: 1) Death is portrayed as a human who preaches, comes, and meets one's soul; or as a human who pursues another, waiting to seize them like an officer with a judicial order, or a thief and hunter who takes advantage of one's negligence and steals or hunts all their possessions (life and soul); 2) Another image for death is that of a ferocious animal with sharp claws, directly targeting a person's soul; 3) The third embodied conceptualization presents death as a plant with a pleasant scent or as autumn, symbolizing the end of life. In some of these tangible depictions, pleasure, comfort, and tranquility are the focal points, while in most cases, the certainty and imminence of death, its harsh and terrifying nature, the transience of life, the inevitability of death, and the feelings of loss and regret are emphasized.

Keywords

Main Subjects

semantic

References

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