A Comparative Analysis of Metaphor in Cognitive Science and Islamic Jurisprudence: Toward an Integrated Framework for Interpreting Religious Texts

This paper investigates the cognitive and neural dimensions of metaphor in shaping religious experience. It argues that religious metaphors are not merely rhetorical tools but embodied cognitive mechanisms that influence perception, memory, and emotional salience. Drawing on insights from cognitive neuroscience, embodied linguistics, and classical Islamic hermeneutics, the study examines how metaphor activates distributed brain systems, including sensorimotor, limbic, and visual cortices. The research employs an interdisciplinary analytical approach, integrating textual analysis of Qurʾānic metaphors with empirical findings from fMRI and EEG studies. The article highlights how metaphors such as “the Hand of God” or “the Light of God” engage embodied neural pathways, turning abstract theological concepts into affectively rich and experientially grounded phenomena. Furthermore, it explores the parallels and divergences between the Islamic concept of majāz and contemporary cognitive metaphor theory. While majāz is governed by legal-theological constraints, it shares structural affinities with embodied metaphor. The paper concludes that cognitive metaphor theory—when combined with neuroscientific evidence—offers a valuable framework for understanding the phenomenology of religious experience and opens new pathways for interdisciplinary theology.

کلیدواژه ها:

Embodiment ، Majāz ، Ḥaqīqa ، Qurʾānic Exegesis ، Uṣūl al-Fiqh