Verse-endings (fawasil)

A fasila is the last word of a verse, like a poem's rhyme or the paired end of rhymed prose; al-Zarkashi made the knowledge of verse-endings the third type in al-Burhan. ¹ He cites Abu Amr al-Dani that it is the last word of a sentence, al-Ju'bari that this departs from the technical usage, and Qadi Abu Bakr that fawasil are matching sounds at the ends of segments through which meanings are conveyed. ¹

Al-Dani distinguishes them: a fasila is speech set off from what follows, which may or may not be the end of a verse — every verse-end is a fasila but not every fasila is a verse-end; that is why Sibawayh, illustrating rhymes, cited words agreed not to be verse-ends. ¹ They are called fawasil because two utterances are separated at them, not saj': the name follows the Qur'an's own description of its verses as set out distinctly, and saj' was avoided because the word comes from the cooing of birds, from which the Qur'an was kept apart, and because the Qur'an is among God's attributes and may not be described in terms not sanctioned. ^{1 2} They also distinguished them thus: rhymed prose is sought for itself and the meaning made to follow it, while fawasil follow the meanings and are not sought for themselves. ²

On this basis al-Rummani in his book on inimitability held that fawasil are eloquence and rhymed prose a fault; al-Baqillani followed him and reported from the Ash'aris that the Qur'an cannot contain rhymed prose, as Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari stated. ² Many of their opponents affirmed rhymed prose in it as one of the ways speech excels, like paronomasia and change of person, citing Harun placed before Musa in one place and after him in another to keep the rhyme. ² Al-Baqillani answers that if it were rhymed prose it would not leave the Arabs' own styles and so could not be inimitable, and that rhymed prose was the soothsayers' habit, so denying it of the Qur'an is all the more fitting. ²