Overview and Critique of the View of Theoretical Salafis concerning Literal and Figurative Language with Reliance on Remarks by Sunni Scholars

The problem of figurative language has been a challenging issue in the history of theological and exegetical problems. Each sect tries to establish or reject it based on their own argumentations, and those who deny figurative language have in some cases ended up with tashbīh (assimilation of God to creatures) and tajassum (attributing physical features to God). However, theoretical Salafis have opted to deny figurative language in their consideration of divine attributes, because they deem invalid the rational justifications for figurative language. This has led us to deploy a library research method, draw on remarks by Sunni scholars, and appeal to the component of figurative language and its role in making sense of divine attributes, in order to consider and criticize Salafi principles about those attributes, glean implicit arguments by Salafis for the denial of figurative language, and analyze the most fundamental problem with Salafis in their misunderstandings of Quranic verses and hadiths. After these considerations, it turns out that semantic manifestations of figurative language are so powerful that they should be treated as a semantic process in our languages that remarkably contribute to the constant creation of novel concepts and meaning-making changes, rather than a literary technique. Moreover, it turns out that the conceptual error by Salafis and Zahiris in their improper understanding of figurative language arises from their failure to understand the power inherent in implicit meanings of words, which cannot be captured by the primary literal convention of words. A new convention as figurative usage can make the word more suggestive and dynamize the intended meaning.