النقوض عليه

Janulka

Senior Member
Czech
Hello,
Can you please help me understand the underlined expression? I can't find any meaning that would make sense.
Logically, I would say it is a masdar of نقض (to contradict) but I can't find it in any dictionary, also the preposition is confusing.
Here is the whole sentence (from Tabaqat al-muatazila):

ومن هذه الطبقة ابو الحسين الخيّاط عبد الرحيم بن محمد بن عثمان استاذ (14) ابي القاسم البلخي عبد الله بن احمد (13) ، وكان ابو علي يفضّل البلخي على استاذه ابي الحسين ،
قال القاضي : كان الخيّاط عالما فاضلا من اصحاب جعفر ، وله كتب كثيرة في النقوض على ابن الراوندي ، وكان فقيها صاحب حديث واسع الحفظ لمذاهب المتكلّمين

Thank you
 
  • It’s the plural of نَقْض according to almaani. However, you are right in that the context implies a مصدر in the singular as it seems to be replacing the verb here.

    Also, نقض doesn’t mean to contradict, it has several meanings but not contradict. You might be confusing it with مناقضة وتناقض.

    As I said, نقض has many meanings and based on context it probably means “to refute, to disprove, to show to be wrong”. It could also be used to mean “to demolish, to knock down (like a building), to badly damage (of a thing)” used figuratively of course. However up to my knowledge all the meanings of نقض are transitive and the use of على here doesn’t make sense.

    But I was thinking, perhaps the author is being a little liberal in choosing the مصدر and he means it to be another مصدر for انقضّ and he means the same thing as انقضاض = to pounce on, to swoop on, to attack suddenly, used figuratively of course. In this case the use of على makes much more sense.

    I was also thinking that perhaps there is typo, or the person that found the original manuscript read it incorrectly, the word is not النقوض, rather it’s النكوص meaning to withdraw or turn away, in this case the مصدر is correct and the على makes perfect sense. I don’t know, perhaps this is less likely.
     
    In that context it means "refutations", this usage is not very common it's mostly used in religious books.

    In the Encyclopaedia of Islam:
    "naḳḍ (A) : ‘refutation’, in particular when used in reference to a book."

    In Lane's Lexicon:
    "And يَنْقُضُ عَلَيْهِ (tropical) [He undoes, or annuls, or contradicts, what he (another) has said]; said of a poet replying to another poet."

    And in الإبانة في اللغة العربية:
    "وقولهم: نقائض جرير والفرزدق أي نقضَ أحدهما على الآخر؛ والمناقضة: أن يقول شاعر قصيدة فيَنْقُضَ عليه شاعر آخر بغير ما قال؛ والاسم النَّقِيضة، وتجمع على النقائض."

    And in أساس البلاغة:
    "ومن المجاز: نقض العهد. وناقض قوله الثاني الأول. وفي كلامه تناقض. وهذا نقيض ذاك أي مناقضه. وتناقض القولان والشاعران، وناقض أحدهما الآخر: يقول قصيدة فَيَنْقُضَ صاحبُه عليه. وهذه القصيدة نقيضة قصيدة فلان."
     
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