Kaidah Mufrad dan Jamak: Analisis Klasifikasi Teoritis dan Implikasi Semantis dalam Tafsir

Abstract

The Arabic language has a detailed classification of object quantity through the rules of singular and plural forms. Misunderstandings regarding these word forms have the potential to cause interpretive biases, both syntactically (nahwu) and semantically (dalalah). The purpose of this study is to explain the meaning, form, and rules of singular and plural forms in the interpretation of the Qur’an. This is a descriptive qualitative study based on a literature review. The results show that the use of singular and plural forms in the Qur’an does not merely indicate grammatical quantity but also serves profound semantic, rhetorical, and theological functions. Certain terms were found to consistently appear only in the singular (al-ardh, al-nur) or only in the plural (ulu al-albab). When two plural terms occur together, there are three rules of meaning: individual distribution (muwajahah), universal, or specific to each object. Furthermore, the contrast in meaning between the terms rīḥ (azab) and riyāḥ (rahmat), the singular form of al-naar and the flexibility of al-jannah, as well as the variations in the forms of al-masyriq and al-maghrib, demonstrate that the exegetes’ linguistic acuity regarding these rules of quantity is crucial to uncovering the contextual meanings hidden behind the verses.