Discover the meaning of the term Al-trṣyʿ (ترصيع) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIt is the saj' found in one of the two paired phrases, or more, corresponding to what answers it from the other in meter, and the accord on the other intended letter, of the two phrases concurring in meter and rhyme, as: 'he embellishes the rhythmic sayings by the manifest words of his speech, and he strikes the ears by the thunderbolts of his exhortation'; so all that is in the second phrase accords with what answers it.
It is that the words be equal in meters and unanimous in endings, as in the Most High's word: 'To Us is their return, and upon Us is their reckoning'; and as in His word: 'The righteous shall be in bliss, and the wicked shall be in Hell'.
With the preposing of the ra': it is a kind of antithesis (tibaq) called the inlaying of speech (tarsih al-kalam); it is the association of a thing with that with which it joins in a common magnitude, as in the Most High's word: 'It is granted you that you hunger not therein, nor are naked; and that you thirst not therein, nor exposed to the sun's heat': he mentioned hunger with nakedness, and the sun's heat with thirst; and hunger with thirst, and the sun's heat with nakedness; but hunger is the inner void, and nakedness the outer void: they shared then in voidness; and thirst is the inner burning, and the sun's heat the outer burning: they shared likewise in burning.
That the words be equal in meters and unanimous in endings, or their nearness.
The saj' found in one of the two paired phrases, or more, corresponding to what answers it from the other in meter and rhyme, as al-Hariri's word (author of the Maqamat, Abu Muhammad al-Qasim ibn Ali al-Hariri, died 516 AH; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-A'yan, 4/63): 'he embellishes the rhythmic sayings by the manifestations of his speech, and strikes the ears by the thunderbolts of his exhortation'.