Assalamu Alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
Firstly, its important not to be trying to explain the Quran with languages other than Arabic. All the words in the Quran have no equivalent in English. There is no "translation" to the Qur'an. All we have is a rough meaning to the ayahs of the Qur'an.
The word "Ayah" has no equivalent in other language. It is often referred to as "verse" but this is totally wrong. Due to lack of suitable words in English we use "Sign". It is best to use the Arabic word, "Ayah".
To truly understand the Qur'an in its beauty we must know the language of the Qur'an, Arabic. - Therefore what you mentioned about "signs" and deriving meaning from some dictionary is very wrong.
As for the rest of the question it seems to be about majaz - metaphor. The following is a fatwa from Shaykh Abdul Aziz Ibn Baz (rahimahullah). I will put the original Arabic alongside my translation as well.
Question:
كثيرا ما أقرأ في كتب التفاسير وغيرها بأن هذا الحرف زائد كما في قوله تعالى: لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ فيقولون: بأن الكاف في كمثله زائدة، وقد قال لي أحد المدرسين بأنه ليس في القرآن شيء اسمه زائد أو ناقص أو مجاز، فإذا كان الأمر كذلك فما القول في قوله تعالى: وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ، وقوله تعالى: وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ.
Question:
A lot of what I read from the books of Tafsir and other than them that this is an extra letter in the saying of Allah: لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer.
And they say the letter ك (kaaf) in كمثله (kamithlihi - "Like unto him") is extra. And one teacher said to me that there is no such thing as something being extra, missing or metaphorical in the Quran. So, if this is the case then what is the statement on the saying of Allah:
وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ
(was-alil qaryah - "And ask (the people of) the town")
and the saying of Allah:
وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ
(.."and their hearts absorbed (the worship of) the calf because of their disbelief")
الصحيح الذي عليه المحققون أنه ليس في القرآن مجاز على الحد الذي يعرفه أصحاب فن البلاغة وكل ما فيه فهو حقيقة في محله ومعنى قول بعض المفسرين أن هذا الحرف زائد يعني من جهة قواعد الإعراب وليس زائدا من جهة المعنى، بل له معناه المعروف عند المتخاطبين باللغة العربية؛ لأن القرآن الكريم نزل بلغتهم كقوله سبحانه: لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ[1] يفيد المبالغة في نفي المثل، وهو أبلغ من قولك: (ليس مثله شيء)، وهكذا قوله سبحانه: وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ الَّتِي كُنَّا فِيهَا وَالْعِيرَ الَّتِي أَقْبَلْنَا فِيهَا[2]. فإن المراد بذلك سكان القرية وأصحاب العير، وعادة العرب تطلق القرية على أهلها والعير على أصحابها، وذلك من سعة اللغة العربية وكثرة تصرفها في الكلام، وليس من باب المجاز المعروف في اصطلاح أهل البلاغة ولكن ذلك من مجاز اللغة أي مما يجوز فيها ولا يمتنع، فهو مصدر ميمي كـ المقام والمقال وهكذا قوله سبحانه: وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ[3] يعني حبه، وأطلق ذلك لأن هذا اللفظ يفيد المعنى عند أهل اللغة المتخاطبين بها، وهو من باب الإيجاز والاختصار لظهور المعنى. والله ولي التوفيق. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] سورة الشورى الآية 11. [2] سورة النساء الآية 82. [3] سورة البقرة الآية
Answer:
The correct answer is that which the authenticators are upon that there is no metaphor in the Qur'an according to the definition known by the people of the subject of balagha. So everything here is real in the sense of place and meaning. Some of the people of tafsir said that that this letter is extra meaning from the perspective of the rules of i'raab (i'raab is to do with Arabic Grammar) and not extra from the perspective of its meaning. Rather it has a well known meaning to the Arabic speakers, because the Quran was revealed in their language, like the statement of Allah, most Glorified and High,
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ
"There is none like unto Him"
It provides emphasis by negating similitude المثل . And this is more eloquent than you saying (ليس مثله شيء) - (laysa mithluhu shay - without the Kaaf).
And likewise is the statement of Allah (Most Glorified and Exalted)
وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ الَّتِي كُنَّا فِيهَا وَالْعِيرَ الَّتِي أَقْبَلْنَا فِيهَا
"And ask (the people of) the town where we have been, and the caravan in which we returned..." (Yusuf 12:82)
So the meaning of this is the inhabitants of the town and the people of the caravan. It is customary of the Arabs to use the word "town" to refer to the dwellers of the town and "caravan" refers to the people of the caravan. This is due to the vastness of the Arabic language and its many constructs in speech and is not the well known metaphor from the terminology of the people of balagha. But that is from the metaphorical sense of the language, that which is permissible in it and not prohibited. So it is the 'masdar meemi' (verbal noun beginning with the letter meem) like moqam and moqal. Likewise is the statement of Allah:
"وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ"
(and their hearts absorbed (the worship of) the calf because of their disbelief)
Meaning their love of it's worship. That was used here because this word has meaning to the people of the language being addressed by it. This is by way of simplicity and succinctness to bring out the meaning. And Allah is the owner of success.
by Shaykh Abdul Aziz Ibn Baz (rahimahullah)
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I was forwarded the following which is also useful for this topic:
We need to differentiate between two things:
1) Metaphoric words (Majaaz).
2) Metaphoric sentences (not majaaz).
Metaphoric Sentences:
For example, when we say: “Zaid is a fox”, we do not mean: Zaid is an actual fox, the animal. From the context we understand that we are only giving a metaphor of how cunning Zaid is.
This is a metaphoric sentence. This exists in the Quran in abundance. For example:
“And, out of kindness, lower to them (your parents) the wing of humility …”.
Obviously, humility does not have a wing to lower. But from the context we understand: be kind to your parents, etc.
This is not Majaaz. It is not the point of dispute between people of Sunnah and people of Bid’ah.
Metaphoric words (Majaaz):
Again, when we say: “Zaid is a fox”, notice that the word fox does not mean anything other than: fox; the animal. The word fox does not mean cunning in itself. The entire sentence means: Zaid is cunning. But the word fox still means: fox; the animal.
In the example of: “lower the wing of humility”, we see that the word “wing” does not mean anything other than the well known wing, (as in a bird’s wing).
What people of Bid’ah say is that the words themselves have an apparent meaning, and a different hidden meaning (Majazy meaning). This is to help them in saying things such as “Yad” means: ability, self … etc.
Ahlus-Sunnah disagrees; words can only have one meaning dictated by the context.
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This is a deep subject and not really one we have resources to dive into here, and Allah subhana wa ta'ala knows best,
Wasalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah
Ameer
