RETRACT: Retraction
| RETRACT: Retraction | |
|---|---|
| Category | Linguistic Embellishments (‘ilm al-badī‘) |
| Subcategory | Persuasive Tricks |
| Balaghascore.com | |
| Code | CB-1 |
| BalaghaBase.org | |
| Code | Q123 |
| OpenAlex.org | |
| ID | W4415405303 |
| Cite this page | |
| 🔗 DOI | 10.64393/balagha.Q123 |
| Download PDF | |
| Taxonomy | |
| ARDT | v0.1.0, v0.1.1 |
Definition
Retraction (al-rujū‘) is an Arabic rhetorical device involving returning to a previous statement in order to negate or contradict it, for the purpose of a rhetorical point (nukta).[1] More broadly, saying something and then going back on it (yarjiʿu ʿanhu).[2][1]
Mechanism
- The speaker makes an initial statement, then returns to it by retracting or contradicting it.[1]
- According to al-Qazwīnī (as cited in ʿAkkāwī, 1996), this return to the previous speech serves a nukta — a specific rhetorical point or subtlety — rather than being mere correction.[1]
- In attested examples, the return may be marked by particles such as bal or balā, signalling the reversal of the prior statement.[2][1]
In this encyclopedia, the mechanism is described as:
- The device proceeds in two stages: (1) an initial assertion, and (2) a return to that assertion by contradiction or retraction.
- The second stage alters the force of the first and creates the rhetorical point that motivates the return.
Recognition
al-rujūʿ may be present when:
- A statement is made and then contradicted or retracted within the same utterance or immediately following it.[1][2]
- A return-marker such as bal or balā introduces the reversal of the prior speech in attested examples.[2][1]
The following diagnostic tests aid identification:
- Test 1: Does the speaker make a complete statement and then immediately return to contradict or retract it?
- Test 2: Does that return create a rhetorical point beyond simple correction?
Diagnostic Rhetorical Effects
- The device produces a nukta — a rhetorical point or subtle effect — through the act of returning to and negating the previous speech.[1]
- In the verse of Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā, the return produces emotional effects explicitly described as sorrow (al-ḥuzn), bewilderment (al-ḥayra), and astonishment (al-dahsha).[1]
Applying the Recognition Framework
The information on this page can be used to evaluate whether this device is present in a candidate lexical item using the Specific Device Recognition part of the Universal Framework for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices:
Examples
- Source Example
أَلَيْسَ نَظْرَةُ وَاحِدَةٌ هَيِّنَةٌ، حِينَ أُلْقِيهَا إِلَيْكِ. بَلْ مِنْكِ لَيْسَتْ هَيِّنَةً.
'Isn't one glance paltry, when I cast it at you (fem.). Far from it! From you it is not a paltry thing.'
- Explanation
- Attributed to Yazīd ibn al-Tathriyya.[2] The speaker first describes a single glance as insignificant, then returns to that statement with bal and reverses it, making the glance weighty because it is directed toward the beloved.
- Source Example
نُبِّئْتُ فَاضِحَ أُمِّهِ يَغْتَابُنِي عِنْدَ الأَمِيرِ وَهَلْ عَلَيْهِ أَمِيرُ
I was told that the one who shamed his own mother slanders me before the prince — and is there really a prince over him?
- Explanation
- Attributed to Bashshār ibn Burd, cited by Ibn al-Muʿtazz in al-Badīʿ and transmitted by Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī and Ibn al-Athīr al-Ḥalabī.[1] The speaker first reports the act of slander, then returns from that statement through a rhetorical question. ʿAkkāwī (1996) cites this verse as an instance of al-rujūʿ without further analysis of its mechanism.[1]
- Source Example
قِفْ بِالدِّيَارِ الَّتِي لَمْ يَعْفُهَا القِدَمُ بَلَى وَغَيَّرَهَا الأَرْوَاحُ وَالدِّيَمُ
Halt at the encampments that time has not worn away — nay, the winds and the rains have changed them.
- Explanation
- Attributed to Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā, cited by al-Qazwīnī in al-Talkhīṣ as an example of al-rujūʿ.[1] The speaker first asserts that time has not effaced the encampments, then returns from that statement with balā, affirming that they have indeed been altered. According to ʿAkkāwī (1996), this produces sorrow, bewilderment, and astonishment.[1]
- Constructed Example
إِنَّ الرَّحِيلَ عَنِ الوَطَنِ أَمْرٌ يَسِيرٌ، بَلْ لَيْسَ يَسِيرًا — فَهُوَ مَوْتٌ بِلَا قَبْرٍ.
Departing from one's homeland is a simple matter — far from it, it is not simple: it is a death without a grave.
- Explanation
- A constructed example for pedagogical purposes. The speaker first characterises departure from the homeland as something easy or insignificant, then returns to that statement with bal and contradicts it, before pressing the retraction further into a stark metaphor. The rhetorical point (nukta) lies in the emotional intensification produced by the reversal: the initial minimisation is exposed as impossible, and what follows carries the full weight of what departure truly costs.
Notes
- The term nukta is translated here as "rhetorical point" or "subtlety." It is a technical term in classical balāgha and does not have a single standard English equivalent.
- The particle balā in the Zuhayr example is distinct from bal, though both function as markers of return in the attested examples.[1]
- ʿAkkāwī (1996) notes that later scholars such as al-Nābulsī, al-Bāʿūniyya, al-ʿAlawī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Khazrajī, and al-Ḥillī also treated this device, especially in prophetic praise poetry (madīḥ nabawī).[1]
References
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Inʿām Fawwāl ʿAkkāwī, Al-Muʿjam al-Mufaṣṣal fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: Al-Badīʿ wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Maʿānī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1996), 573.
- ↑ a b c d e W. P. Heinrichs, ‘Rhetorical Figures’, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey (London: Routledge, 1998), 659, ISBN 0415068088. DOI: 10.4324/9780203020425
Page history
- 2026-02-11 - Migration to Semantic Device Identifiers: Renamed from CH-14: Retraction to RETRACT: Retraction.
- 2025-11-20 - Page incorporated into the Arabic Rhetorical Device Taxonomy (v0.1.1).
- 2025-04-13 - Page created: Retraction.
