A Pragmatic Study of an Ironic Style in Some of the Quranic Texts

An irony means that the apparent meaning of the word contradicts the speaker's intent. The study of irony in the Holly Qur'an reveals depth of style of the Holy Qur'an and its effectiveness in achieving rhetorical and advocative goals. It is a means of showing the truth and exposing falsehood, provoking thinking and achieving psychological impact with a sacred elegant style. The irony is one of the strong rhetorical styles because it expresses many meanings in an indirect way and depends on addressee's realization for speech context and understanding the meaning hidden behind words. The objectives of Qur'an cannot be understood without resorting to find out textual evidence and contexts that the situation links with to reveal the contrary meaning. The problem of this study appears in finding ironic expressions in the Qur'anic texts and revealing to which extent they can convey the meaning for the listener with an effective and understandable way. The study aims at showing the aesthetic side of this rhetorical style in presenting and dealing with the Qur'anic issues like rebuking, highlighting the facts and effect on souls. The study depends on just one hypothesis which is: an irony in the Glorious Qur'an is not a random style of communication, but a vital one which reveals the miracle of the Qur'anic text in addressing mind and emotion as it is a perfect divine selection expresses a divine wisdom in delivering the lesson. This study comprises five axes, beginning with an introductory one. Second axe discusses the notion of an irony. Third one focuses on the words that include explicit ironic meaning. Fourth axe illustrates purposes conveyed through irony. Fifth axe highlights the features of irony within the texts of Qur'an. Sixth one is the conclusion which has findings reached by the study.