Rhetorical Mastery and Arabic Style

Irshad al-Aql as-Salim is celebrated in the Islamic scholarly tradition above all for the quality of its Arabic prose and the depth of its rhetorical analysis. Abu as-Su'ud was recognized in his own time as one of the finest Arabic stylists among Ottoman scholars, and his tafsir reflects this mastery on every page.

His Arabic prose has a characteristic rhythm and elegance that later scholars noted with admiration. Unlike the dense technical prose of ar-Razi's Mafatih al-Ghayb or the compressed formulas of al-Baydawi's Anwar at-Tanzil, Abu as-Su'ud's commentary reads with a certain rhetorical flow — his explanations build toward their conclusions with care for how the Arabic sentence achieves its effect, not merely what it states.

This rhetorical sensitivity is most apparent in his analysis of the Quran's own rhetorical figures. For iltifat (rhetorical shift in person, number, or tense), Abu as-Su'ud offers analysis that has been cited by later scholars as the most perceptive treatment of this distinctively Quranic device in the tafsir literature. He identifies the specific emotional and spiritual effects of each shift and explains why the Quran achieves something in this form that direct narrative or consistent address would not.

His treatment of the Quranic parables (amthal) is similarly distinguished. The parables in al-Baqarah — the man who kindled a fire, the rain from the sky, the dead earth brought back to life — receive analysis that integrates their narrative details, their rhetorical structure, and their spiritual application. Abu as-Su'ud's reading moves fluidly between the image and its referent, showing how each detail of the parable illuminates the spiritual reality it represents.

For the Quranic oaths and their answers, Abu as-Su'ud's analysis of the relationship between the oath (qasam) and what is sworn by illuminates the logic of Quranic rhetoric: the divine oath by created realities (sun, moon, night, day) functions as an argument from the evidence of creation to the reality sworn to — a rhetorical move that brings divine testimony and natural evidence into alignment.