Empowering Women: A Multi-perspective Discourse Analysis of Women’s Dignity and Equality in Qur’an

According to Qur’an, God’s divine merit-demerit system never allows for any biased treatment towards men or women. Dignity instead is what God has granted on all children of Adam. The present article, hence, sought to trace back women’s dignity and equality to the discourse of Qur’an working on a sample of 11 Surahs. The discourse analysis was based on combinatory perspectives of text linguistics, pragmatics, and rhetoric. The results revealed that the most salient marked discoursal devices of women’s equality and dignity were the techniques such as parallelism, anaphoric repetitions, juxtaposition of the believers’ attributes, emphatic negative propositions. In addition, the sometimes situated hierarchical pattern of relationship between men and women were not indicative of any unfair evaluation of either gender. Instead, the yardstick was the amount of the believers’ efforts in the way of God’s “forgiveness and reward”.


Introduction
Humans are "entities with natural capacities for thought and free choice" (Lee & George, 2008, p. 175). No matter in what culture they start their life journey, they can almost make sure that improving their existence mostly depends on their ongoing commitment to knowledge gaining, regulatory compliance, upward mobility and actualization of dignity by means of which their mental, physical, and societal robustness are ensured. Dignity, singled out, encourages individuals to deepen their virtuous qualities since it prevailingly operates in normative, constitutional, and doctrinal dimensions of human life (Weinrib, 2016). In this regard, most heavenly teachings have ventured to raise awareness in people of their inalienable rights, and ability to do the best and feel dignified.
Drawn originally from Qur'an, Islamic teachings envisage dignity as a manifestation of equity and a transcendent value regardless of race, ethnicity, wealth, and gender. As stated in Qur'an, "We have bestowed dignity on the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them the good and conferred upon them special favors above the greater part our creation" (Q: 17:70). This conceptualization of "special favor", "dignity", and equality for "children of Adam" manifestly celebrates a point of departure from erstwhile longstanding mentality to treat women and people of different ethnicities as inferiors. All through Qur'an, in cosmological, ontological and injunctive verses, human beings are equally held responsible for what they opt unto God, and it is, sometimes, people's shallowness of faith that leads to irrationally unjust practices. Qur'an admits of no doubt that men and women's differences allow for different roles, but not any type of biased appraisement. As reported in the divine merit -demerit system of Qur'an, God's reward or chastisement is fair, equitable, and gender-neutral. Women are thus depicted as integral parts of all spectrums of social, cultural, economic, and judicial practices. "And those who will do some good deeds, male or female and be a Muslim, then they shall enter Paradise, and they shall not be wronged a bit" (Q: 4:124).
The present article, though limited in scope, addresses women's unequivocal right to equity, and dignity as established through the rhetoric of Qur'an. The study, thus, deliberately deploys a multi-perspective, micro-macro

Review of Related Theories and Concepts
The study of Qur'an has been encouraged by the very Qur'an: " [it is] a book we have revealed to you abounding in good that they may ponder over its verses, and that those endowed with understanding may be mindful" (Q: 38:29). There are ample studies on Qur'an's rhetorical eminence, literary style, semantic arrangements, pragmatic features, thematic analysis, textual and architectural superiority, and more recently the data mining studies of its texts to discover respective semantic or syntactic algorithms (e.g. Alhawarat, Hegazi, & Hilal, 2015; Javadi Amoli, 2005;Khorram-Shahi, 1994;Mir, 2016;Qutb, 1967).
Religious discourses have communicating their messages and wining people's full attention as their paramount goals. Studying religious texts, however, imposes some problems for scholars since such discourses are usually entwined with various textual strategies and devices including metaphorical language, contradiction, negation, and paradox (Sztajer, 2011, p. 2-4). Scholars and exegetes, therefore, employ a combination of methods, quite compatible with the nature of discourse studies, to analyze and uncover the intended meanings of overt or covert messages. Indeed, discourse analysis can be, viewed as an ingathering of approaches comprising data analysis, metatheoretical and theoretical assumptions (Wood & Kroger, 2000). Johnstone and Eisenhart (2008) maintain that discourse studies should regularly incorporate an interdisciplinary fabric of rhetorical studies, genre analysis, semantics, pragmatics, and other aspects of applied linguistics. In fact, to unmask the functional aspect of language nothing works better than a multiperspective approach with a combination of discourse analysis and stylistics (Stubbs, 1983). In many discourse analysis models of religious texts, the discovery level most favors descriptive fashion (Bodine, 1995).The reason is, in part, attributable to the multi-layered organization of religious messages that requires an analyst's holistic attention to marked and unmarked clues while any direct access to precompiled knowledge is not possible.

The Trichotomous Rhetorical Analysis of Islamic Scripts
In its classical sense, rhetoric refers to the art of delivering a persuasive discourse. Rhetorical studies are age long in different cultures. For example, Aristotle believed that "taxis" or the order of elements in the configuration of a discourse had an undeniable role in making it rhetorically persuasive (Reboul, 1991). The classical Aristotelian rhetoric is based on three pillars of pathos, ethos, and logos 1 . While at the level of pathos, an analyst tries to create both emotional effect and the right environment for audiences to get the intended message (Legget, 2012), at the ethos, his aim is to project his own authoritative image. He then works with logical induction and deduction to deliver a convincing oration at the logos level (Williams, 2015).
In view of Qur'anic discussion, the goal of Qur'an is not merely to present its sublime eloquence, but rather to offer persuasive guiding principles to be socially conveyed and communicated. Thus, the literary features of Qur'an are not singularly of aesthetic value, but so much valuable for their unique ability to convey intended messages (Robinson, 2004). Knowing this, Arab rhetoricians, much ahead of western modern linguists, developed a three-dimensional approach in rhetorical studies that encompasses the three discoursal pillars of ethos, pathos, and logos in a much more comprehensive way. Arabic rhetorical approach incorporates three disciplines or constituents as well: ilm-al-ma'ani ilm al-bayan ilm al-badi The first one in the trichotomy revolves around cultural, socio-pragmatic nature of discourses that leads to meaning making by the parties involved ("Arabic gems", 2006).The other components accordingly deal with literary figures of speech and embellishments that beautify a discourse ("Bayan", 2016). It is mainly the first component that has captured the attention of sociolinguists and discourse analysts though the other two are also believed to serve as important enforcers of communicative messages (Abdul-Raof, 2006): "The rhetorical discipline of ilm al-mani is concerned with juxtaposition of sentence constituents in various word orders that lead to distinct pragmatic significations. Rhetorically, ilm al-ma'ani denotes the pragmatic functions of word order. The study of ilm al-ma'ani is interrelated to semantic syntax and discourse analysis" (p. 97).
Minding the three-component analysis system, Abdul Mohsen (2013) assigns the rhetorical uniqueness of Qur'an to its threesome features of concise and persuasive semantization, balanced and harmonious composition, and tangible artistic imagery. On the socio-pragmatic plane, ilmal-ma'ani, Tzortis (2015, 2013) offers a summative opinion saying that Qur'an's vastness of rhetorical features makes it even different from usual Arabic discourse since Qur'an applies these features in such a unique dynamic way that conforms to the theme of a text while enhancing the impact of its conveyable messages. All in all, one can concur on the idea that Qur'an's "sea of rhetorical features" has a pragmatic overtone since it is primarily a divine guidance to be taught and instructed in different life situations.

Text Linguistics and Aspectual Analysis in Qur'anology
According to Kilgour (1999), studying a text can include various language -bound aspects of human institutions such as religion, politics, law, and medicine. On the other hand, in a broader interpretive discourse level a blend of situated, interactive, and communicative aspects of spoken or written texts, considerations of authors as well as addressees make that textual study worthwhile (Trappes-Lomax, 2004). In other words, linguistic scholars attend to two convoluted constitutive levels comprising a text: manifest and hidden. Manifest, in text linguistics, refers to the structural variables that appear in a linguistic texture making it different from other texts and the later to the functional driving forces behind those variables (Shiffrin, 1994). Having this in mind, the challenging job of discourse interpretation can better proceed when one attends to both levels.
Concerning Qur'anic studies, it is a heartfelt Islamic conviction that Qur'an must be highly cherished and the believers are required to fathom the real value of its instructions that go beyond words. Islamic exegetists, therefore, deal with two discourse practices in Qur'anic research, namely ta'wil and tafsir in handling the manifest and the hidden layers. Tafsir is an Arabic equivalent used mostly for the exegesis of Holy Qur'an. The term is more general than ta'wil that refers to the assignment of special meaning to a verse or verses (Kamali, 2003). In the exegesis of Qur'an, some verses elucidate the meaning of other ones and help the scholars in ta'wil -tafsir practices (Taqi Usmani, 2006, p. 339). In other words, Qur'an itself is regarded as a source where some intertextual parts are clarified by some other discourse chunks (e.g. Taha et al., 2013;Tzorits, 2012;Abdul-Raof, 2003). Furthermore, the exegesis of Qur'an spans not a single tradition, but a variety of competing traditions such as discourse and textual criticism aimed at finding the historical and cultural origin of a Qur'anic text, different communicative devices, literary genres, grammatical, morphological, and syntactical aspects of the script. Such multi-dimensional aspectual frame work of Qur'anic exegesis operating at both ta'wil and tafsir levels is, in fact, an endeavor to make the job of macro-level interpretation easier and to establish some new analytic micro models. In the science of Qur'analogy, such a discussion is known as linguistic aspectual study (Najjarzadigan, 2012, p. 4-6).
Historically speaking, in aspectual and pragmatic studies of utterances, ilm-al-ma'ani rhetoricians have also found it beneficial to determine the illocutionary intended forces of text samples. Their concern have mainly centered around various speech act taxonomies such as constatives and performatives (Al-Hindawi, Al-Masu'di & Mirza, 2014) This way, they have been further able to decide on the types of effects text samples produce in the real world. Matloob (as cited in AL-Hindawi et al., 2014), for instance, believes that discourse pragmatics is part of the scholastic theology of Islam since the verses of Holy Qur'an command, prohibit and constate to bring about some changes in the world.
The main speech acts are of nature directional and have the world-to-word, the word-to-world, the double, and the empty direction of fit (Tsohatzidis, 1994). The direction of fit concept refers to the fact that in some situations, our words matches the world thus having the word-to-the world direction whereas in some other situations the world matches the speech act in the opposite direction. Searle and Vanderveken (1985) briefly classify the main speech acts in the following way: Constatives: statements that may be assessed true or false because they tend to describe a state of affairs in the world Performatives: The speaker performs an action in uttering specific words. Performatives include the following sub-categories: • Directives: statements or propositional contents that guarantee an action by the addressees. • Commissives: statements in which a speaker takes a course of action as expressed by the propositional content • Expressives: statements that convey attitudes or emotions about state of affairs in propositional contents of the utterances • Declaratives: statements that a speaker makes to bring changes in the state of affairs by the very act of uttering them

The Study Framework
The present exploratory study tries to exhibit a multiperspective approach in surveying the taxonomic classification of linguistic devices, and marked discoursal features of a sample of Qur'anic verses followed by some supporting discussions. Since translated verses impose either semantic or stylistic problems, as in case of any translated work, to ensure accuracy, the related Arabic verses 2 alongside their translations by Marmaduke Pickthall are presented 3 . Furthermore, within the main traditions of discourse analysis 4 , the combinatory structural and functional approach of the study borrows ideas from text linguistics, pragmatics and rhetoric to establish a kind of interlink between the samples and their social functioning.

The Data
The sample verses that address women's dignity have been drawn from 11 Surahs: Al-e-Imran, An-Nisa, An-Nahl, Maryam, Al-Ahzab, An-Najm, Ar-Rahman, Al-Hadid, Al-Mumtahanah, At-Tahrim, and At-Takwir. A list of the rhetorical terms used in the study has been provided in 36 Vida Dehnad and Azar Hosseini Fatemi: Empowering Women: A Multi-perspective Discourse Analysis of Women's Dignity and Equality in Qur'an Appendix A 5 . The study also knowingly detaches its thread of thought from any copycat feministic orientation or interpretation and seeks to trace back women's equity and dignity to the discourse of Qur'an through the given Surahs.

The Analysis Procedure
Verses of Qur'an are both microcosmic and macrocosmic in nature (Herlihy, 2009, p. 110). The microcosmic nature of a verse refers to the fact that even a single verse encapsulates a wholesome discourse for an analyst to construe and the macrocosmic nature emphasizes the point that each single verse is connected to the overall discourse of Qur'an. The analysis, therefore, hinges on the connection of verses to each other and the propositions they make. The following table captures both structural and functional aspects of the analysis:

Discussion
It is worth reminding that Qur'anic verses are of three main types: cosmological, ontological, and injunctive, each to increase insight and contemplation in men and women about the power of God the Almighty. Regarding injunctive verses, the use of third person male pronouns does not exclude women since third-person male pronouns are frequently used in generic sense in Qur'an (Javadi Amoli, 2005, p. 115-119). Pay attention to the following verse (i.e., verse 97) from Surah An-Nahl: Translation: Whosoever doeth right, whether male or female, and [he] is a believer, him verily we shall quicken with good life, and We shall pay them a recompense in proportion to the best of what they used to do. Q: 16:97 The first proposition of the verse that sets a condition encompasses both female and male servants by putting them on an equal plane via the use of independent coordinating conjunction "or" shown as َ ‫"أ‬ ‫وْ‬ " in Arabic. Therefore, the phrase " (i.e., "Whosoever doeth right, whether male or female") links the potential agents of both genders equally to the commissive illocutionary 5 The terms are extracted from Silva Rhetoricae, http://rhetoric.byu.edu/ propositions appearing later in the verse: we shall quicken [him] with good life We shall pay them a recompense in proportion to the best of what they used to do Neither the single third-person male pronoun " َ hُ ‫"ھ‬ (i.e., he in English) nor the plural male pronoun " wُ ‫ھ‬ " and the masculine verbs " َ Tِ Vَ W " and " ْ ‫ا‬h ُ fXَ ‫ن‬h ُ p َ Vْ ‚َ y " (i.e., doeth and do) refer to masculine gender; therefore, the commissive propositions, apodoses, that result from the first condition are gender equal. The point on gender equality of the propositions is further confirmed noting that " َ hُ ‫ھ‬ َ ‫و‬ ٌQ ِ S ْk ُ S " (i.e., and [he] is a believer) is a kind of rhetorical epitasis or an affirmation device to amplify the already stated ideas. In fact, the gender equality of the divine merit-and-chastisement system holds for whole verses where the addressees are given either cautionary advice, or promises of reward. By the same token, the following verse from Surah Al-e-Imran exhibits a very similar formula that is further elucidated in the following table. َ‫ب‬X ﴿ 95 ﴾ Translation: And their Lord hath heard them (and He saith): Lo! I suffer not the work of any worker, male, or female, to be lost. Ye proceed one from another. So those who fled and were driven forth from their homes and suffered damage for My cause, and fought and were slain, verily I shall remit their evil deeds from them and verily I shall bring them into Gardens underneath which rivers flow -A reward from Allah. And with Allah is the fairest of rewards. Q: 3:195 (i.e., male, or female) We have use of independent coordinating conjunction ‫وْ‬ َ ‫أ‬ (i.e., "or") to signify equality. Rhetorical epitasis such as has been employed (i.e., Ye proceed one from another) for further emphasis of the previously stated ideas. Illocutionary commissive propositions of rewards include both genders equally.
In contradistinction to conferring reward on both men and women justly, we have the awaiting chastisement for infidels, nonbelievers and idolaters either male or female as presented in the verses 6, 7, 8 of Surah 66, At-Tahrim. The point to be mentioned is that all the aforementioned verses start with masculine interjection words and masculine pronouns that is to say with Xَ y" Xَ x‫ﱡ‬ y َ ‫أ‬ Qyِ ' ‫ﱠ‬ ‫ا[‬ " (i.e., O ye) to address either believers or disbelievers of both genders. For the sake of conciseness, just the beginnings of the verses 6 6 to the verse 9, develops into directive illocutions: "Ward off", "Make no excuses", "Turn unto…. in sincere repentance", and "Strive against". As noticed, as the opener of the verse 9, God directly commands the prophet and the believers to take action against non-believers and gives account of believers and nonbelievers through three clear exemplifications in indicative mood in the verses 10, 11 &12: Translation: Allah citeth an example for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot, who were under two of Our righteous slaves yet betrayed them so that they (the husbands) availed them naught against Allah and it was said (unto them): Enter the Fire along with those who enter. Q: 66:10 ﴾ Translation: And Allah citeth an example for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh when she said: My Lord! Build for me a home with thee in the Garden, and deliver me from Pharaoh and his work, and deliver me from evil-doing folk. Q: 66:11 Translation: And Mary, daughter of 'Imran, whose body was chaste, therefor We breathed therein something of Our Spirit. And she put faith in the words of her Lord and His scriptures, and was of the obedient. Q: 66: 12 In the above verses, (i.e., "the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot"), " َ ‫ة‬ َ ‫َأ‬ _ْ Sِ ‫ا‬ ‫ن‬ ْhَ W ْ_ ِ q َ " (i.e., "the wife of Pharaoh"), and َ wَ y ْ_ َ S" َ¦َ nْ ‫اﺑ‬ ‫َان"‬ _ْ V ِ W (i.e., "Mary, the daughter of 'Imran") are God's female exemplifications of" " َQyِ ' ‫ﱠ‬ pِ [ ‫ُوا‬ _َ -َ ¤ and " َQyِ ' ‫ﱠ‬ p ‫ﱢ‬ [ ‫ا‬h ُ n َ S‫آ‬ " , or the Qur'an's believers and non-believers. Obviously, the juxtapositions of " َQyِ ' ‫ﱠ‬ pِ [ ‫ُوا‬ _َ -َ ¤ " as a masculine pronoun followed by a masculine verb immediately with the phrases like " , and in the same manner the masculine pronoun and verb as observed in َQyِ ' ‫ﱠ‬ p ‫ﱢ‬ [ ‫ا‬h ُ n َ S‫آ‬ " "with the phrase " " َ ‫ة‬ َ ‫َأ‬ _ْ Sِ ‫ا‬ ‫نَ‬ ْhَ W ْ_ ِ q present neither a gender incongruity nor an opacity.
In view of logic, the fact is that Qur'an speaks of the attainability of the utmost degree of nearness to God, taqarrub 6 , neither through gender exceptive propositions nor through exclusive ones. Therefore, we do not have the like of the two following exclusive and exceptive propositions 7 : "None but men are muqarrabun 8 (i.e., ‫ن‬h‫¯_ﺑ‬S meaning close to God)" as well as "All muqarrabun are men." "All except women are muqarrabun " as well as "All non-women are muqarrabun" Clearly, being of a gender does not pragmatically adjoin 6 " ‫ﺗﻘﺮب‬ = in Steingass, Johnson, Richardson, & Wilkins (1988). A comprehensive Persian-English dictionary 7 From "Translating Propositions" (2013) 8 In "Tafsiru Kalimat'it Tawhid" (2015) any privilege in the divine evaluation system and thus both gender groups are of equal standing. Quite interestingly, the presence of a rhetorical anaphora or the repetition of the phrase " َ Ž ‫َبَ‬ _ ُ ‫ﱠ‬ ‫ﷲ‬ £ َ e َ S yِ ' ‫ﱠ‬ pِ [ Q " (i.e., "And Allah citeth an example for those") at the opening of the two successive verses 10 and 11 emphatically asserts the no-gender-exception message about the assembly of believers or non-believers.
The emphasis on equality in Qur'an is sometimes rendered through some techniques other than the repetition of a word or a phrase as noted by Ahmad khan (2013) in the opening verse of Surah An-Nisa. On the significance of women's inalienable rights to respect and dignity, God says: Translation: O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women. Be careful of your duty toward God in whom ye claim (your rights) of one another, and toward the wombs (that bear you). Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer. Q: 4:1 The verse semantically expresses the equality of men and women both intrinsically and extrinsically. That is to say, the equality of genders has been emphasized in terms of the very nature of their creation since they are from a single soul (i.e., " ), and their duties before God. In God's persuasive terms, the use of "the wombs" (i.e.," " َ ‫م‬X َ s ْ ‫ر‬ ‫ا˜َ‬ ) at the end of the verse intensifies women's dignity. To a reader or a listener, the persuasiveness of the verse smoothly grows in intensity since the illocutionary force of such an admonitory verse is strengthened by the anaphoric repetition of the verb ْ ‫ا‬h ‫ﱠُ‬ ‫"ا•‬ " (i.e., "be careful of") and a rhetorical auxesis (i.e., a kind of emotional climax) ending in " َ ‫م‬X َ s ْ ‫ر‬ ‫ا˜َ‬ " (i.e., "the wombs"). Moreover, the metonymic use of the term "the wombs" instead of women semantically produces a climactic effect and amplifies the contrast between the hidden, or the esoteric versus the apparent, or the exoteric. The point is further confirmed when the attention is drawn to the use of the term " Xً uoِ -َ ‫ر‬ " that, once more, semantically emphasizes the superiority of what God knows since he is the authoritative observer or " »oِ -َ ‫ر‬ " . In terms of logic, the application of sorites that is a kind of concatenated syllogisms explaining why the believers must be "careful" well accords with the gradual process of natural evolution of which women are considered as undeniable members. Moreover, the conjunctive propositions that are connected to each other with َ ‫"و‬ " , and build upon one another further heighten the solidity of God's argumentation. The diagrammatic figure below shows how the verse emotionally progresses and resolves in the phrase " َ ‫م‬X َ s ‫رْ‬ ‫ا˜َ‬ َ  Taking into account the organizational mode of Qur'anic discourses, we can also find a hard-hitting reproach leveled against any defective male culture in Surah At-Takwir (i.e., Q: 81) in the verses 6, 7, and 8. ‫ا‬ : " And when the seas rise" Q: 81: : "And when the souls are reunited" Q: 81:7 : "And when the girl-child that was buried alive is asked" Q: 81:8 : "For what sin she was slain" Q: 81:9 The governing illocutionary force of the Surah is assertive and the emotional intensity of the verses is strengthened with their short, parallel syntactic patterns. In other words, most verses are rhetorically isocolonic with the same repetitive endings in parallel positions (i.e., ‫.)"ت"‬ The latter rhetorical technique is called homoioptoton with the goal to illicit maximum response from audiences. On the other hand, the anaphoric repetition of " ‫ا‬ َ ‫ذ‬ ِ ‫إ‬ َ ‫و‬ " (i.e. "And when") doubly puts emphasis on the great determinate event of the future when the oppressed girls are invoked to witness before God and to ask why they were been buried alive: ﴾ Translation: She said: How can I have a son when no mortal hath touched me, neither have I been unchaste. He said: So [it will be]. Thy Lord saith: It is easy for Me. And (it will be) that We may make of him a revelation for mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is a thing ordained. Q: 19:20-21 Not only the same syntactic structure is repeated in the verses 9 & 21, but also similar diction has been maintained. The use of parallelism, here in the Surah, can implicate three important pragmatic functions: Creating phatic balance, harmony, equal weight and functional equality ("Parallel Construction", 2009) Linking different chunks of texts Showing the rhetorical continuity and progression 9 of the same thing Parallel structures, indeed, invite exegetes not to interpret a text linearly, but to attend to larger portions of the text to get an impact beyond the meaning of individual sentences, as noticed in Surah Maryam. Moreover, sometimes, ambiguous words can be clarified only in the light of some larger context (s) where instances of parallelism are observed (Bratcher, 2013). Thus, the same wording of Qur'an in the two different commissive verses 9 & 21 as well as similar syntactic structures indicate not only an emphatic signification, but also a kind of plausible status likeness of the two addressees.
For sure, maintaining the idea of status equality of men and women believers does not negate their differential physical, psychological, and social characteristics. The status equality view instead solidifies the fair judgment and evaluation of all believers as human beings who are responsible before God. Such a view is manifestly observable in the verse 35 of Surah Al-Ahzab where a spectrum of detailed, itemized pairs of masculine and feminine nouns is displayed.
﴾ Translation: Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who 9 ‫اﳊﺪوث‬ ‫اﻟﺘﺠﺪد‬ ‫و‬ in "Glossary of Arabic rhetoric "by Abdul-Raof persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember Allah much and women who remember -Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward. Q: 33:35 The masculine-plus-feminine pairs in this long verse such as (i.e., make the pathos effect of the verse weightier and deeper. The pairs are not just a congeries of dissimilar terms, but rather similar in the sense that they all converge in the idea of ‫ﱠ‬ •َ W َ ‫"أ‬ ُ ‫ﱠ‬ ‫ﷲ‬ wُ x َ [ ً ‫َة‬ _ِ -ْ ‫ﱠ‬ S ‫ا‬ ً _ ْ| َ ‫أ‬ َ ‫و‬ "woِ°َ W (i.e., Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward"). Grammatically explaining, the masculine plural pronoun " has all the preceding masculine-plus-feminine pairs as its anaphoric reference (s). Providing " wُ x َ [ " as the syntactic reference of the pairs noticeably consolidates the gender-equal evaluation of the believers. In other words, though we have a detailed classification of believers with varying attributes, the very end of their story that is "forgiveness and a vast reward" happen in unison. Pragmatically, the verse 35 is a commissive illocution emphatically opening with " ‫نﱠ‬ ِ ‫إ‬ " (i.e., verily, or Lo! in English) and the world-to-word direction of fit. That is to say, God wills to transform the world for the believers, female or male, to match the propositional content of the commitment (Humberstone, 1992). The table below recapitulates the points made on the verse 35.

Combinatory structural and functional features
Commissive illocutionary force A rhetorical congeries of masculine-plus-feminine pairs to signify equality Plurality synthesized into unity when all the pairs end in "Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward" (i.e., " ‫ﱠ‬ •َ W َ ‫"أ‬ ُ ‫ﱠ‬ ‫ﷲ‬ wُ xَ [ ً ‫ِ_َة‬ -ْ ‫ﱠ‬ S ‫ًا‬ _ ْ| َ ‫أ‬ ‫وَ‬ XVoِ°َ W ) The world-to-word direction of fit In theological perspective, religion infuses all aspects of the believers' lives. This kind of perspective is important for ensuring balance, vindicating rights, defining limits and rendering justice. Acts of any type, in this perspective are bearers of meaning and effect. Thus, justness, balance, and lawful limits, or " " ِ ‫َان‬ zoِ V ْ ‫ا[‬ encompass all forms of human conduct, as it is doubly emphasized in the verses 7 and 8 of Surah 55, Ar-Rahman: