Allegory in Quran

The word Tamsil (allegory) is derived from Masal (instance), which basically means standing (Istadan). And Masal (instance or example) is an utterance about something which is similar to an utterance about something else and there is similarity between the two utterances so that one explains and illustrates the other.
The word Tamsil (allegory) in Arabic is defined in the following way:
Masal in Arabic language basically means Mesl (like), that is, match, example, similar, resembling, alike, semblance, and analogous, and if a statement is used in a manner of tamsil (allegory), it is called a Masal (example).
Regarding lexical meaning, the word Tamsil has different meanings and functions in Persian:
To give an example, to compare, to liken, to illustrate the shape of something, and to narrate a story or an anecdote as an example and to tell a tale.
In addition to meanings above, some vocabulary specialists have defined it as "a story, an anecdote or a tale that is recounted to prove something. Allegory is a literary genre in which a story or an anecdote is used as an example or a sign to express or approve of a subject"
In logic, Tamsil means "movement from a similar object to a similar object, and applying the rules of the first object to the second object because of the similarity between them". For instance, we can use the similarity between Saeed, who is Hamid's brother, to say that Saeed , like Hamid, is good-tempered.
Tamsil (simile) is a type of figurative language which is accompanied by comparison prepositions (e.g., like, as), unlike metaphor, which does not involve comparison prepositions. However, some have categorized it as a type of metaphor.
Some contemporary writers, reminding that Tamsil is sometimes used instead of simile and proverb, state"
Therefore, Tamsil (allegory and simile), like metaphor, expresses an ethical, religious, theological, or social message in a hidden and mysterious way, in the form of a short or long anecdote."
Ahmad Khalfollah states that allegory can be an untrue story, and in an allegory events are not required to have happened and characters are not needed to be real, as conversations are not required to be really carried on, but all these aspects or some of them could be imagined and visualized.
We can infer from scholars and vocabulary specialists' remarks that allegory is sometimes in the form of a proverb and sometimes a simile (giving an example), and in both cases it can represent truth. The origin of a proverb might be a real story, which has gradually turned to a proverb, and it is the case in most cases. Also, behind a simile there is a real relationship between the compared object (Moshabbah) and the compared-to object (Moshabbahhon beh), which is concealed from us. Therefore, Ahmad Khalfollah's statement, on the one hand, is correct as allegory might be real or imaginary, on the other hand, considering his conclusions about Qoranic allegories and taking them imaginary and mythical, his statement is not correct. Because subjects and remarks in Qoran are righteous and untruth never appears in Qoran. More investigations will be offered in this regard in the following sections.
Types of Tamsil (allegorical language):
Tamsil is categorized into different types:
1- Famous proverbs or anecdotes, which are the same brief allegories. A concise and expressive speech which contains figurative comparison, and is widely used by ordinary people, and to communicate that meaning, everybody cites it in certain situations. As there are certain proverbs in every language, there are some proverbs in Qoran too.
Example: يَاأُخْتَ هَارُونَ (Oh you Aaron's sister), which was used to refer to Marry, the mother of Jesus Christ. It is mentioned in Hadiths (remarks of the Prophet and Imam's) of the Prophet, and exegetes, in their interpretations, have clearly asserted that this address term was used as a proverb for every chaste lady: You who are like Aaron's sister in chastity. Some orientalists, due to their unawareness of the fact that this is a proverb, have assumed it a historical error of Qoran to consider Mary as Aaron's sister, while there were several centuries between their times.
Seyvati (911 after Hijra) collected proverbs in Qoran. But some remarks and verses of Qoran might become proverbs in every age. For example, in the current age the verse تَبَّتْ يَدَا أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ is used for oppressive and domineering kings and authorities of countries and has been commonly used in the literature of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Reminder: Although sometimes there is some kind of exaggeration in allegory, the similarity between compared object (Moshabbah) and compare-to object (Moshabbahon beh) is so much that, in the speaker's view, its use has become a proverb. Therefore, using proverbs in Qoran and other texts does not require them to be untrue.
2- Masal (example) or Simile
This is the same literary term Tamsil, meaning to give an example, which is comparing the intellectual to the tangible for conveying an intention to the hearer. Many examples and similes are used in Qoran. Seyvati (911 after Hijra) categorized Qoranic allegories into two general groups:
First: obvious and noticeable ones, in which the word Mesl (like) or the preposition of comparison, Kaf (as) are used.
Second: concealed ones, in which prepositions and words of comparison and giving examples are not used.
These examples are sometimes taken from nature and sometimes from history. These Qoranic examples are sometimes for offering great religious and ethical teachings, sometimes for promises and oaths (of reward or punishment), and sometimes for teaching lessons to people.
To understand allegories, similes, and examples in Qoran, one should not restrict himself to the surface of them. Although the surface of the comparisons is comprehensible for laypeople, their real meanings are realized by the wise, as Tamsil is used to compare the intellectual to the tangible for conveying an intention to the hearer. Pointing to the notions above, Allameh Tabataba'i considers Masal (allegory or simile) a sentence or story which reflects the intention of the speaker in the form of allegorical (Tamsili) metaphor in the mind of the hearer. For example:
مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَاراً بِئْسَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ لاَ يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
Allame, referring to the verse below, which compares the righteousness and unrighteousness to water and foam, claims that this example represents the fact that events and realities of the tangible material world are suitable indications to depict the nonmaterial world and spiritual events.
َانزَلَ مِنَ السَّماءِ مَاءً فَسَالَتْ أَوْدِيَةُ بِقَدَرِهَا فَاحْتَمَلَ السَّيْلُ زَبَداً رَابِياً وَمِمّا يُوقِدُونَ عَلَيْهِ فِي النَّارِ ابْتِغَاءَ حِلْيَةٍ أَوْ مَتَاعٍ زَبَدٌ مِثْلُهُ كَذلِكَ يَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْحَقِّ وَالْبَاطِلَ فَأَمَّا الزَّبَدُ فَيَذْهَبُ جُفَاءً وَأَمَّا مَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ فَيَمْكُثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَذلِكَ يَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْأَمْثَال

Allegorical expression, which actually is the comparison of the intellectual to the tangible, is a common way in conventional and intellectual conversations. This method does not work like symbolic expression, which complicates the topic and makes it less comprehensible; on the contrary, it leads to more effective comprehension. In other words, since ordinary people's mind is more familiar with sense perceptions, Qoran, which contains many abstract, intellectual, non-perceptional, and transcendental ideas and realities, attempts to communicate its teachings by using allegories, similes and examples (Tamsils). The role of Tamsil is to clarify intangible teachings for human sense perceptions.

Allameh Tabatab'i, in explaining the intension of verse 10 of Safat, which speaks about the repulse of evils by meteors and prevention of their eavesdropping on heaven news, states:
In this verse, Almighty God uses allegory and simile to compare non-perceptional facts to perceptible events in order to communicate his intention in a way more familiar to people's mind. God states in another place: We mention these examples for people and nobody except thinkers ponders over them. Other examples include Arsh (bed, referring to heaven), Korsi (chair, referring to heaven), lovh (tablet, referring to man's soul), and Ketab (book, i.e., Holy Qoran). Therefore, by the heaven where angles reside, a heavenly spiritual world is meant, where there is a horizon greater than that of the tangible material world. And evils' approaching the heaven and eavesdropping, and being bombarded with stones refer to the fact that evils approach the angles' world to learn about secrets of creation and future events, subsequently, they are bombarded with the lights of the heavenly world of angles and their misconducts are destroyed.

Reminders:

Reminder 1: In Qoran some verses explicitly (using words and prepositions of comparison, i.e., like, Arabic preposition of comparison Kaf) and some verses implicitly (e.g., bed, chair) use Tamsil (allegory and simile) to compare the intellectual to the tangible and communicate transcendental and heavenly truths to us.

Reminder 2: Tamsil (allegory and simile) and giving examples is a type of comparison which transfers the focus of mind from one object to another object, which is similar to the first one, to clarify the point. But it does not require the subject to be untrue, since there are lexical indicators of comparison words in the examples and the hearer or reader realizes that the goal is to make the intellectual points more tangible and comprehensible. That is, the comparison of Moshabbah (compared object) to Moshabbahon beh (compared-to object) expresses a reality which is concealed from us, but it is not a myth or imagination.

Reminder 3: Some writers have mentioned other types of Tamsil, including myth and mysterious allegory. And some authors have considered Tamsil as symbolic and emblematic. These views can be investigated and evaluated, and we have to distinguish the boundaries of Tamsil (allegory and simile) from mystery, myth, symbol, and emblem. Basically, Tamsiol is a kind of figurative language which requires an indicator; however, as it will be discussed in the following sections, mystery (or symbol and emblem) is used without an indicator, and accordingly, is different from dvarious types of figurative language, simile, and allegory. Myths are usually untrue and imaginary exaggerations, while it was previously said that figurative language is not untrue.

Reminder 4: Also, some writers state that allegorical stories in Qoran are imaginary and illusory and are not required to recount real events. In some way they compare allegorical stories of Qoran to myths. They refer to the stories of sending heavenly foods to the Jesus Christ (Maedeh, 115), Abraham and the dead birds (Baqareh, 260), Aziz the prophet (Baqareh, 259), Able and Cain's sacrifices to God (Maedeh, 27-31), as some examples. We discuss these peoples' remarks as related to the topic of myths and the corollary of what they say is to refuse the morale-awareness bestowing quality for sentences of Qoran, which was previously rejected offering numerous reasons. Moreover, there are serious problems in their examples. As most of the examples are outside the area of Tamsile Estelahi (idiomatic comparison) – proverb and simile – but are real stories that have educative morals. Shahid Motahary, referring to the story of Adam and Eve, states that the story recounts a historical reality and real events and makes some ethical and spiritual points at the same time, and accordingly, is not imaginary and untrue.

Regarding mystery (symbolic and emblematic) and mythical language, we will provide a detailed explanation and reveal the boundaries between them and Tamsil (allegory and simile) to clarify the discussion thread.

Reminder 5: Some scholars and exegetes have sometimes referred to some Qoranic stories as examples of Tamsil and it seems that they do not mean Tamsile Estelahi (idiomatic comparison), which we explained in this section. An example is Allameh Tabatab'i, who introduce the story of Adam, Eve, and Satan in the heaven and their descending from the heaven as an instance of Tamsil. He also considers the verse Zar (E'raf, 172) and the verse Amanat (Ahzab, 72) as Tamsil. Considering the evidence existent in Allameh's remarks and his general method of exegesis and interpretation of Qoran, which considers Qoran righteous, reality-representing, and moral-awareness bestowing, we cannot assume that Allameh, like Ahmad Khalfollah, regards Qoranic stories as allegories which do not represent real events and facts. On the contrary, he considers them as real stories which contain mysteries, teachings, and ethical and theological points. In the section on the Functions of Allegory in Language, we pointed to this notion (that stories are symbolic). Likewise, Shahid Motahhary considers the story of Adam and Eve as symbolic, while emphasizing that the story recounts a real event but includes ethical and spiritual points.