THE GRAMMAR OF EMOTION VERBS IN THE QUR'AN: A CASE STUDY OF THE VERB XAFA

The concept of emotions has been studied from numerous perspectives in psychology, the history of emotions and religion. This study sheds light on the linguistic devices implemented to articulate emotions in the Qur'an by taking the emotion verb xafa 'to fear' or 'to be afraid' (and its derivatives) as a case study. In both modern and classical dictionaries of the Arabic language as well as in Quranic exegesis, the verb xafa is often replaced by another verb that expresses fear such as xasiya 'to be afraid' or 'to be in awe'. Here it is shown that the verb xafa occurs in certain syntactic structures and has specific meanings that are not denoted by other verbs expressing fear in the Qur'an. Specifically, when the verb xafa is followed by a subordinate clause that starts with the particle 'an, it can be rendered as 'to fear' or 'to be afraid' since the cause of this fear is a probable event. When the verb xafa is followed by the preposition 'ala it denotes 'to fear for [the wellbeing of] someone (e.g., a family member)' because of a situation in which they are likely to be found. When it is followed by the noun rabb 'Lord' or Allah 'God', the verb refers to 'fear of God', where fear of His punishment motivates the people to worship Him. When the verbal noun xawf has no object and is used in conjunction with the verbal noun 'amn ('security') it can be interpreted as 'insecurity about something'. Because the verb xafa is central to the religious concept of fear of God, it is used in the Qur'an to express a general and collective attitude of fear or awe. However, xafa is also used to express individual experiences of fright at specific times or places.