RETRACT: Rhetorical Retraction

    From The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric

    الرجوع
    RETRACT: Rhetorical Retraction
    CategoryLinguistic Embellishments
    (ʿilm al-badīʿ)
    SubcategoryPersuasive Tricks
    Built upon6 sources
      
    Annotation Unit
    ARDT CodeRETRACT
    Level1 (Rhetorical device)
      
    Included in Taxonomy
    ARDTv0.1.1
    v0.1.0
      
    External Identifiers
    BALAGHAScoreCB-1
    BalaghaBaseQ123
    OpenAlexW4415405303
      
    Cite this page
    🔗 Live DOI10.64393/balagha.Q123
     
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    Definition

    Rhetorical Retraction (al-rujūʿ) is an Arabic rhetorical device in which the communicator returns to a previous statement in order to negate or contradict it.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

    Linguistic Operations

    • The speaker makes an initial statement, then returns to it by retracting or contradicting it.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
    • According to al-Qazwīnī, this return to the previous speech serves a nukta — a specific rhetorical point or subtlety — rather than being mere correction.[4][1]
    • In attested examples, the return may be marked by particles such as bal or balā, signalling the reversal of the prior statement.[7][1]

    Rhetorical Retraction differs from ordinary self-correction in that the initial statement remains functionally relevant after it is withdrawn. In ordinary correction, the first statement is simply replaced because it was mistaken; in Rhetorical Retraction, the contrast between the initial statement and its subsequent withdrawal contributes to the intended effect.

    In this encyclopedia, the linguistic operation is analysed as a deliberately staged two-part structure:

    • The speaker first presents an assertion as though it stands.
    • The speaker then returns to that assertion and retracts, negates, or contradicts it.
    • The first assertion remains rhetorically relevant because its contrast with the second creates the point of the reversal.

    Recognition

    Rhetorical Retraction may be present when:

    • A statement is made and then contradicted or retracted within the same utterance or immediately following it.[1][7]
    • A return-marker such as bal or balā introduces the reversal of the prior speech in attested examples.[7][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: Is the first assertion still communicatively functional after it is withdrawn?
    • Test 3: Does the contrast between the first statement and the retraction contribute to a rhetorical or pragmatic effect, rather than merely correcting an error?

    Communicative Enhancements

    • 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:

    • Use the Definition, Mechanism, and Recognition sections of this page in Step 1.
    • Apply the substitution test in Step 2.
    • Consider contextual indicators in Step 3.
    • Use the Diagnostic Communicative Enhancements section of this page in Step 4.

    Examples

    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.[7] 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.

    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]

    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][2][3] 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]

    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.

    His departure cost us nothing. Well actually, it probably cost us the heart of the whole enterprise.

    Explanation
    The speaker first asserts that the departure caused no loss, then explicitly returns to that statement with "actually" and contradicts it. The first assertion prepares the listener for a sharper reversal: the departure is presented not merely as costly, but as depriving the enterprise of its essential centre. The rhetorical point (nukta) lies in the force created by this deliberate return and contradiction.

    The meeting starts at six - sorry, five thirty.

    Explanation
    This can function as Rhetorical Retraction when the speaker intentionally gives the earlier time because the addressee is habitually late. The speaker presents one time, then immediately retracts it and substitutes another, but the first statement is not merely an error: the staged correction is used to influence the listener's behaviour. The rhetorical point (nukta) lies in using the apparent correction itself as part of the communicative strategy. By contrast, “The meeting starts at six — sorry, seven” would normally be a simple factual correction if the first time had merely been stated by mistake.

    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

    1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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.
    2. ↑ a b c Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998); §130, ISBN 9783447040327.
    3. ↑ a b c Pierre Cachia, The Arch Rhetorician: Or The Schemer’s Skimmer: A Handbook of Late Arabic Badīʻ Drawn from ʻAbd al-Ghanī an-Nābulsī’s Nafaḥāt al-Azhār ʻala Nasamāt al-Asḥār, Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 3 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), p. 94, ISBN 9783447040327.
    4. ↑ a b c Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qazwīnī, known as al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī, al-Īḍāḥ fī ʿUlūm al-Balāgha: al-Maʿānī wa-al-Bayān wa-al-Badīʿ, ed. and comm. Ibrāhīm Shams al-Dīn (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2003), 266, ISBN 9782745139078.
    5. ↑ a b Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, al-Muṭawwal: Sharḥ Talkhīṣ Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm, ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Hindāwī, Shurūḥ al-Talkhīṣ 3, 3rd ed. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 2013), 651, ISBN 9782745131768.
    6. ↑ a b Badawī Ṭabāna, Muʿjam al-Balāgha al-ʿArabiyya, 3rd rev. and expanded ed. (Jeddah: Dār al-Manāra; Riyadh: Dār al-Rifāʿī, 1988), 239-241.
    7. ↑ a b c d 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



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