Signification of the Ayah of Mavaddat Taking the "Cognitive" Approach

The twenty-third ayah of Surah Ash Shura, known as the ayah of Mavaddat (amity or friendship), in its middle part, asks the audience to show attachment to their relatives and friends. In the interpretation of this part of the ayah, various views have been proposed but the dominant one is narrative and extratextual. And there are few cases referring to intratextual clues. This fact encouraged the authors to evaluate the ability of the text in providing such clues. As a result of the investigation of this element, according to the opinion of the theologian's norm-evading action in establishing the relationship between the two categories of mavaddat and qurba (relatives and friends), by using the preposition fi’, it may be able to play a part as an intratextual clue. Therefore, the present article was organized by referring to library sources and using a descriptive-analytical method with the aim of investigating the consequences that this comparison brings to the phrase in terms of semantic load. Since it was necessary to know the meaning of the preposition fi’ in order to understand the meaning of this comparison, a cognitive model was used. The model provides a more expressive explanation of conceptual structures due to the clarification of their empirical bases. By studying the cognitive model and how it is used in the semantics of the preposition fi’, this hypothesis gradually gained strength in the mind that considering the functional capabilities that the cognitive schemata recognizes about the meaning of this preposition,   the view of showing attachment to the Imams can be presented as a point of view with intratextual relatability. Thus, in this article, we tried to propose and strengthen this hypothesis that if the theologian was trying to express affection to the Imams, he would most likely have used an interpretation similar to the phrase of the same ayah, "Al-Mavaddata fi’ Al-Qurba" in formulating his intention.