الياقوت

[amirsherman]

Hi everyone,

This is a hadeeth:

عَنِ النَّبِىِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ إِنَّ الْمَرْأَةَ مِنْ نِسَاءِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ لَيُرَى بَيَاضُ سَاقِهَا مِنْ وَرَاءِ سَبْعِينَ حُلَّةً حَتَّى يُرَى مُخُّهَا وَذَلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَقُولُ كَأَنَّهُنَّ الْيَاقُوتُ وَالْمَرْجَانُ فَأَمَّا الْيَاقُوتُ فَإِنَّهُ حَجَرٌ لَوْ أَدْخَلْتَ فِيهِ سِلْكًا ثُمَّ اسْتَصْفَيْتَهُ لأُرِيتَهُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ

Why does الياقوت have the article even though there is no mention of it previously? I expected كأنهن ياقوت ومرجان.

Thank you in advance

 

[Finland]

Words that refer to uncountable material usually behave this way in Arabic, they are not used without article like in English (glass, wood, sand, coffee...) but with the article الـ.

 

[analeeh]

That's true generally, but in this sort of position ('as if it were X') they're usually indefinite. But sometimes they're definite in classical stuff, for unclear reasons.

 

[Ali Smith]

Would this be an instance of لام الجنس?