Authentication of the Interpreters' View Concerning the Concept of the Phrase "Lā Tanharhumā" (Do not Chide them) in Verse 23 of Surat al-Isrā’ with a Structuralist Semantic Approach

A study and reflection on the content of verses (23-24) of Surat al-Isrā’, centered on the verb lā tanhar (do not chide), provides a concept different from its interpretive impressions. Most interpreters have expressed the phrases and terms used in these two verses around the general theme of "respect for parents", in different and sometimes distinct meanings, whereas the general message of these two verses centered on the phrase "va lā tanharhumā" (and do not chide them), refers to not "rejecting and driving" the parents away from oneself, and each of the words and phrases of these two verses, as a single entity, complements the concept of the verb "nahara" and the meaning derived from it. The present study, with a structuralist semantic approach that deals with the meaning of words in the context and structure of sentences, focuses specifically on the juxtapositions of the verb “nahara”, such as the phrase “yablughanna ‘indaka al-kibara aḥadahumā”, the word “uff”, the attribute “karīm” and the allusive phrase “khafḍ u'l-janāḥ”, and explains the central and key meaning of the verse, namely “protecting and taking care” of the parents and not “rejecting and driving” them away from oneself, as one of the main duties of children when their parents get old and decrepit. The findings of the study indicate that, contrary to the views of most interpreters, the word “uff” implies the maximum meaning of insulting, hating and distancing from parents, while the meaning of the verb “lā tanhar” is not used in the sense of “not being aggressive”, but rather to prohibit “rejecting, driving away, and distancing from”. Meanwhile, the attribute of qawlan karīmā (noble words) and the phrase wakhfiḍ lahumā janāḥ al-dhull (lower the wing of humility on them) also complement the general concept of the two verses, namely “taking care of and protecting” the parents.