What Can the Prophet Muhammad’s Metaphors Do?

Abstract

The current article approaches the issue of the persuasiveness of metaphors in The Prophet Muhammad’s Tradition. The main concern of the article is to show that the Prophetic metaphors are discursively practiced by the Prophet for the function of persuading his audience to accept Islamic laws, and introduce rites and rituals, and to prohibit the unlawful. Through a survey of instances of metaphoric scenarios and images, and in reference to the contemporary cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980), the article demonstrates that the persuasiveness of the prophetic metaphors is primarily evoked by disambiguation, arousing the emotions, and implicit threat.