Use of the Term fāʾida in Qurʾānic Exegesis

This article discusses the uses of the term fāʾida in Qurʾānic exegesis. Although extensively discussed in the Arabic grammatical tradition, it remains unexplored in the field of Qurʾānic exegesis. Sheyhatovitch examined the term fāʾida in grammatical treatises (2015, 2022) and suggested several interpretations for fāʾida including “communicative value”. The current study adopts this interpretation and applies it to refer to the contribution of lexical and syntactic components to the meaning of a message. The term fāʾida is used by commentators to characterize trivial or self-evident information expressed by a specific lexical component, repetition, ambiguity or syntactic constructions. These components usually involve emphasis, clarification, elimination of metaphorical meanings, reminders to the addressees, or to disambiguate. Hence, when commentators explain the fāʾida of such components, they are referring to devices that enable the addressee to infer the speaker’s intentions. Added keywords: fāʾida; Qurʾānic exegesis; communicative value