Discover the meaning of the term Al-astṭrad (استطراد) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readCarrying on the discourse in a way that entails another discourse, intended not in itself but incidentally.
Carrying the discourse on in a way that entails another discourse, intended not in itself but incidentally; from 'the horseman isttarada his gallop in war': fleeing before the enemy to make him believe in defeat, then wheeling upon him; it is a kind of stratagem.
In Persian (in the Taj al-Masadir): 'to slip away before the enemy to beguile him'. In the sciences: mentioning a thing not of set purpose but in the train of another; as in 'ask forgiveness for your sin and for the believing men and women': that is, for your community's sin. If it is objected that an exception must then be made of 'and the believing men and women', the answer is: it is a particularization after generalization, for the Prophet's community numbers seventy-three sects, and the command to seek forgiveness concerns only one of them: the believing men and women, namely those who believed after the way of the people of the Sunna and the Community. If 'your sin' means the Prophet's sin, the objection falls away. But there then arises the establishing of intercession for the believers' lesser sins to the exclusion of greater ones, since their sin would be restricted to the greater by the companion phrase 'for your sin', the Prophet's sin being certainly lesser, the prophets being preserved from greater sins, as is established in its place. The answer: the word 'sin' by institution covers both together; the sin attributed to the Prophet is the leaving of what is preferable, namely the lesser sin; and our Prophet's intercession is general for their sins, lesser and greater. (The exposition continues.)
Al-Manawi said: mentioning a thing out of its place; one says: 'that occurred by way of isttirad (digression)', a word taken from drawing along (ijtidhab), because you did not mention the thing in its place but prepared a place in which to mention it (al-Tawqif, p. 58).
Treating one subject, then another occurs to him that suits it, and he inserts it there.
Mentioning a thing out of its place; one says it occurred by way of digression, a word taken from drawing along, because you did not mention the thing in its place but prepared a place in which to mention it.