“Assertion” and its applications in the Qur’an are among the Qur’anic discourses that the exegetes and rhetoricians have dealt with. Two main viewpoints are introduced in this respect. One group believes that assertion does not exist in the Qur’an and traditions, for assertion is based on repetition and repetition is vain. Others assume that since the Qur’an was revealed in its own folk’s language and is not out of Arabs’ style and method, and that assertion is common in Arabs’ tongue, so also it is applied in the Qur’an and is regarded as one of the significant indices of the Qur’anic rhetoric, for it provides many benefits.
The writer of the present article regards the second viewpoint as acceptable. He goes on to introduce the methods of assertion used in the Qur’an along with various examples. In its early division, assertion consists of many types: spiritual assertion which takes place with terms such as kull (all), ajma‘ (all of), kilā(both), kiltā(both), nafs (self), and ‘ayn (self) used in fending off the misconception of unreality, general signification and inclusiveness of all individuals of a concept, as well as lack of elimination, error, and oblivion, etc.
The second type is the literal assertion, i.e., repetition of the earlier term.
Assertion by swearing, substitution, conjunction, description, particles of the genitives and particles of assertion are among other types of assertion. Also, other various rhetoric approaches like receding from a verb in the imperative mood to interrogation; apostrophe; using proper name in place of a pronoun; receding from a verbal to a nominal sentence; giving precedence to what is to be delayed, etc., are among other methods frequently used in the Qur’an.
)