The Construct State (Idāfah) and Its Omission in the Qur'anic Readings: A Syntactic Study

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of iḍāfah (genitive construction) and its omission in Qur'anic readings from a syntactic perspective, aiming to reveal its rhetorical significance and its role in diversifying grammatical structures and semantic interpretations. It focuses on the alternation between the genitive construction and other syntactic relations, including predication, subjecthood, objecthood, adverbial function, prepositional phrases, adjectival modification, apposition, and specification, highlighting the semantic and structural implications of these shifts. The study employs an inductive approach to collect Qur'anic readings, followed by a descriptive-analytical method to investigate their structural distribution, functional roles, and underlying semantic motivations. The findings demonstrate that the alternation between the genitive construction and its omission is not merely a variation in grammatical marking but a deliberate expressive device. While tanwīn (nunation) conveys lexical independence, event occurrence, and renewal, the genitive construction signifies permanence, stability, and continuity. Thus, the syntactic variation in Qur'anic readings enriches meaning and reflects the linguistic and rhetorical eloquence of the Qur'anic text.