HYPERBOLE IN THE HADITH

Abstract

UDK 811.411.21ˇ38:23-23

This article relates about hyperbole, the figure of speech for exaggeration and its use in the Hadith. The first section offers a definition of the hyperbole along with examples of its use in every day speech as well as examples of its use in the poetic form of expression. The second section is dedicated to the use of hyperbole in the Hadith. We established that in only three of the referent commentaries namely: Al-Buhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ, Fatḥ Al-Bārī of Ibn Ḥaǧar al-ʻAsqalānī (d. 1449.), Umda al-qārī of Badruddīn al-ʻAynī (d. 1451.) and Irshād as-sārī of Shihābuddīn al-Qasṭalānī (d. 1517.) – a few hundreds of mentions of hyperbola are given. We also quoted five representative examples of the hadiths which are, according to the opinion of the mentioned commentators, expressed or there is a possibility that they have been expressed in a hyperbolic form. In the third section, we discussed the hadith according to which the Messenger s.w.s. was thinking about burning the houses of those who did not come to attend the isha salah in jama’at. In the fourth section we analysed those Hadith that make a mention of the best/dearest to Allah te’ala deeds and the worst/the deeds most despised by Allah te’ala. In the final section of this article we analysed those Hadith that use the syntagm: “is not one of us” and “does not believe”. All the Hadith were analysed in the light of the given topic, stressing that the literal understanding of these hadith contrasts and contradicts the very spirit and the intentions of Sharia or it brings about a contradiction where it otherwise is not present.