The Meaning and Usage of laʿalla in the Qur’an

Abstract

This study examines the use of laʿalla in the Qur’an, arguing that its most common meaning is ‘so that’ rather than ‘perhaps’, the common dictionary meaning. A few Western scholars have realised this, mainly on the basis of their independent inspection of the Qur’anic text, despite the fact that this meaning did not appear in any of the available dictionaries, grammars, and reference works in European languages until recent years. This interpretation of laʿalla is supported not only by the general sense indicated by contextual reading, but also by syntactic analysis of passages in which laʿalla appears. The present study corroborates and refines earlier analyses and shows that the interpretation of laʿalla as ‘so that’ is supported by several Arabic grammatical and lexical works. Furthermore, it finds that in the Qur’anic context, laʿalla is strongly connected with rhyme; it generally serves to introduce verse-final clausulae that rhyme, most often, but not always, in - ūn.