An Analysis and Evaluation of the Quranic Image schemas in Nahj al-Balagha

In the contemporary cognitive, linguistic researches, metaphor is a set of linguistic-mental processes originating from the mental and conceptual treatment with the things and the environment. This built-in mechanism in the metaphoric structure of the Quranic concepts paves the way in that it becomes possible to recognize and understand the abstract and mental phenomena of the Quranic doctrines and teachings by the way of metaphoric mapping of the concrete and physical phenomena that are understandable by their nature. Since Imam Ali’s speech in Nahj al-Balagha is in conformity with the Divine speech as well as with the epistemological teachings and the unique expressive miracle of the Quran, so, to have been portrayed and made understood the abstract phenomena as concrete and visual images, much of Nahj al-Balagha’s metaphors have been driven from the Quran. In fact, to find similarity and metaphoric mapping in the conceptual phenomena, Imam Ali has employed one conceptual domain to recognize another conceptual domain with respect to image schemas. As a result, the form and the content of Imam Ali’s speech have got a root in the Quranic image schemas. Accordingly, this study investigates the metaphoric structures in Nahj al-Balagha appearing in line with the metaphoric templates proposed by Johnson in the framework of three schemas: path, containment and power. In this regard, the framework of the subject matter deals with the image schemas in Nahj al-Balagha which their structures and natures are derived from Quranic conceptual metaphors. It seems that the function of the Quranic metaphors in the form of path schemas has a higher frequency in comparison to other kinds of schemas.