Stylistic Features in the Poetic Structure of Abū Ḥammū Mūsā al-Ziyānī

Abstract

This article examines the stylistic features of poetic construction in the work of Abū Ḥammū Mūsā al-Ziyānī through the model of his poem “O You Who Answer the Call of the Distressed”, considering it a Sufi discourse founded on an emotional tension between the confession of sin, the plea for mercy, and the supplication for relief and deliverance.

The analysis proceeds from the premise that stylistic structure is not an external ornament, but rather a semantic apparatus that actively participates in the production of meaning through interrelated levels: sound and rhythm (both external and internal), syntax, rhetoric, and finally semantics and lexical fields.

The prosodic analysis reveals the poet’s reliance on the basīṭ meter, whose expansive, chant-like quality suits the devotional context of supplication, alongside the presence of metrical variations (especially khabn), viewed as a meaningful rhythmic deviation that translates the inner disturbance and fluctuation of the poetic self. The absolute, compounded rhyme and the broken jīm as rhyme letter further establish a sonic closure that reinforces a tone of humility and brokenness.

At the level of internal music, phonetic and lexical repetition (distress / unveiling / constriction / relief…) emerges as a mechanism of insistence and fixation of the poem’s central axis, while the opposition between voiced and whispered sounds embodies the dialectic of confession and reverent submission.

At the syntactic level, past-tense verbs dominate, shaping a “biography of sin,” whereas imperative forms appear as supplication rather than command. The dense presence of religious proper nouns (prophets and means of salvation) provides a referential framework that legitimizes hope. Rhetorically, implicit metaphor and personification prevail, transforming crisis into an entity that “unfolds” and mercy into a force that “arrives,” thereby enhancing the poem’s suggestive energy.

The article concludes that the poem constructs a clear semantic trajectory: the darkness of distress → the light of deliverance, achieved through repentance and intercession.