Study of Salafis’ point of view on metaphor

One of the most important principles of Salafism is the belief that there exists no metaphor, neither in language nor in Quran. Relying on some arguments they hold that all the words both in Quran and language should be attributed based on their literal meaning. They claim that all the early Muslims did this and none of them even used the term metaphor in their writings and sayings. But if we study the verses of the Holy Quran and refer to the logical and lexical reasoning, we will conclude that this opinion, negation of metaphor in language and Quran, is baseless. Because the arguments supporting the existence of metaphor are so convincing that even Salafis cannot deny it. Because of this fact the Salafis have tried to find solutions for approving their theory. Ibn Teymieh has believed “common concept”, Mohammad Amin Shanqiti has believed in “methods” in the Arabic language, and others have believed in “expansion in Arabic language”.  All these alternative solutions are actually equal to believing in existence of metaphor in Quran. Because of this fact, the contemporary Salafi scholars and researchers have come to this conclusion that this debate between the believers and unbelievers of metaphor is nothing more than a dispute on one concept but with different wordings.