Figurative Speech in the Style of the Prophet Muhammad: An Analysis with Special Reference to Hadiths on Faith in Muslim’s al-Jāmi？ al-？a？ī？

Reference to Hadiths on Faith in Muslim’s al-Jāmi？ al-？a？ī？ The Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) used frequently the expression techniques such as simile, metaphor and allusion for the purpose of getting across his messages effectively to his interlocutors. Figurative speech is used heavily in the hadiths as a narrative technique. The metaphor, which allows concrete expression of abstract subjects such as faith, is one of the elements that constitute the Prophet Muhammad’s religious language. In this article, some sample phrases selected from the hadiths found in the chapter on faith (Kitāb al-īmān) of Muslim’s al-Jāmi？ al-？a？ī？ are discussed in terms of the various meaning dimensions that the metaphor adds to the expression. At the end of this study, it is concluded that the metaphorical expression technique used especially in the abstract fields had an important place in the Prophet Muhammad’s literary styl