Third Matter
The fascinating garment or mold of a speech is woven on the loom of style. The beauty of speech lies in its style.
Concentration on a matter or affinity with it causes some inclinations to appear in the imagination. These inclinations take on some forms that are particular to themselves; when these come together they open a door to various comparisons, similes, and metaphors. Thus, styles that are formed of or derived from all these comparisons, similes, and metaphors are the molds of speech and the loom on which its fascinating garment is woven.
When willpower, which we can describe as the trumpet of the intellect, speaks, the meanings lying in the dark corners of the mind appear naked and head for the imagination to take on forms. Each takes on a form it finds there or, at least, wraps a scarf around its head and puts shoes on its feet. If they cannot find anything to wear at all, they pin a medal to their chest or a button, and depart, showing us in whose mind they have been trained.
If we carefully study the style of a word which has not been uttered randomly, but has emanated from the very nature of a person, it will clearly mirror the person who has dressed it. If you attempt to, based on the voice or breath that they release and the way they write or speak, understand what a person is like, and if you can imagine what kinds of things they do or how they do them, the “school” of fantasizing will not condemn you. If your imagination is afflicted with a disease that causes you to ask whether doing so is really possible, then you may end up in the hospital, which the wise doctor Busayri48 built in the following couplet and use the prescription he wrote with repentance and tears:
And shed tears from the eyes which have been filled
with forbidden sights and hold on to the fasting of repentance.
Or if you have a thirst and can see how the beverage of the meaning is suited to the bottle of style, and you desire to drink it, then you can go to a vintner and ask him what an eloquent word is. The art of that vintner will cause him to speak as follows:
An eloquent word has a meaning that is fermented in the vats of knowledge, and kept in large barrels of wisdom, distilled through filters of understanding. The cupbearers, who are kind people of good taste and fine articulation, circulate the goblets of wine, and the minds partake of this offering. In this way, those meanings travel into the depths of people’s inner worlds and stimulate feelings.
If you do not like the speeches of such drunkards, then you can heed the news which the Hoopoe brought to Prophet Solomon from the Queen of Sheba. Listen to how that bird, which served Solomon as a water engineer, describes the Majestic One Who sent down the Qur’an and created the heavens and the earth most beautifully, without anything preceding Him to imitate: “I found a people who do not prostrate before God, Who brings to light what is hidden in the heavens and the earth” (27:24–25). See how the Hoopoe mentioned God with His Attribute related to its art of engineering.
AN INDICATION
What I mean by style is the form of the word. Others can use other words to describe the same thing. The benefit of a style is that it solders the separate statements together, forming a unity. According to the rule, “Something is established through the existence of all its parts,” styles set the whole into movement by setting even only one part into movement. When a piece of writing or speech demonstrates the accomplishment of style in even a part of it, the reader or listener can sense that style throughout, albeit dimly.
For example, wherever the word “combat” is used it displays, as if through a window, a battlefield and the fighting on it. There are many words that are similar. They can be described as the cinematographers of the imagination.
A REMINDER
There are many kinds and degrees of style. They are sometimes so elegant that they blow more gently than the early morning breeze. Sometimes they are more hidden than the schemes of modern diplomats. Their perception requires more than the perceptive ability of a diplomat.
For example, the commentator Zamakhshari49 saw a challenge in the Qur’anic verse that narrates the unbelievers’ rejection of the Resurrection: “Who will give life to these bones when they have rotted away?” (36:78) Truly, rebellious people attempt to defend themselves and even struggle against the orders of the Creator.
Said Nursi
48 Muhammad ibn Sa‘id al-Busiri (Busayri) (1212–1296) was born and mainly lived in Egypt. He studied both Islamic sciences and language and literature. He is known primarily for his Qasidat al-Burda (“The Eulogy of the Cloak”), which he wrote in praise of our Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. (Trans.)
49 Abu’l-Qasim Jarullah Mahmud ibn ‘Umar al-Zamakhshari (1075–1144) was a Mu‘tazilite scholar of Islam, one among the most well-known interpreters of the Qur’an. He lived in Kwarazm. His interpretation of the Qur’an called al-Kashshaf was famous for its deep linguistic analysis of the verses. (Trans.)