بَيَانٌ

Full Definition

بَيَانٌ is originally the Verbal.Noun of بَانَ as syn. with تَبَيَّنَ, and so signifies The being [distinct or] apparent &c.; or it is a subst. in this sense: or a subst. from بَيَّنَ, [and so signifies the making distinct or apparent &c.,] being like سَلَامٌ and كَلَامٌ from سَلَّمَ and كَلَّمَ.
2 Hence, conventionally, The means by which one makes a thing [distinct,] apparent, manifest, evident, clear, plain, or perspicuous: this is of two kinds: one is [a circumstantial indication or evidence; or] a thing indicating, or giving evidence of, a circumstance, or state, that is a result, or an effect, of a quality or an attribute: the other is a verbal indication or evidence, either spoken or written: [see also بَيِّنَةٌ:] it is also applied to language that discovers and shows the meaning that is intended: and an explanation of confused and vague language: or the eduction of a thing from a state of dubiousness to a state of clearness: or making the meaning apparent to the mind so that it becomes distinct from other meanings and from what might be confounded with it.
3 Also Perspicuity, clearness, distinctness, chasteness, or eloquence, of speech or language: or simply perspicuity thereof: or perspicuity of speech with quickness, or sharpness, of intellect: or perspicuous, or chaste, or eloquent, speech, declaring, or telling plainly, what is in the mind: or the showing of the intent, or meaning, with the most eloquent expression: it is an effect of understanding, and of sharpness, or quickness, of mind, with perspicuity, or chasteness, or eloquence, of speech: or a faculty, or principles, [or a science,] whereby one knows how to express [with perspicuity of diction] one meaning in various forms: [some of the Arabs restrict the science of البيان to what concerns comparisons and tropes and metonymies; which last the Arabian rhetoricians distinguish from tropes: and some make it to include rhetoric altogether:] Esh-Shereeshee says, in his Expos. of the Maká- mát [of El-Hareeree] that the difference between بَيَانٌ and تِبْيَانٌ is this: that the former denotes perspicuity of meaning; and the latter, the making the meaning to be understood; and the former is to another person, and the latter to oneself; but sometimes the latter is used in the sense of the former: or the former is the act of the tongue, and the latter is the act of the mind: or the former concerns the verbal expression, and the latter concerns the meaning. It is said in a trad., إِنَّ مِنَ البَيَانِ سِحْرًا or لَسِحْرًا [Verily there is a kind of eloquence that is enchantment: see this explained in art. سحر]. The saying in the Kur [lv. 2 and 3], خَلَقَ ٱلْإِنْسَانَ عَلَّمَهُ ٱلْبَيَانَ means He hath created the Prophet: He hath taught him the Kur-án wherein is the manifestation of everything [needful to be known]: or He hath created Adam, or man as meaning all mankind: He hath [taught him speech, and so] made him to discriminate, and thus to be distinguished from all [other] animals: or He hath taught him that whereby he is distinguished from other animals, namely, the declaration of what is in the mind, and the making others to understand what he has perceived, for the reception of inspiration, and the becoming acquainted with the truth, and the learning of the law.
4 It is also applied to Verbosity, and the going deep, or being extravagant, in speech, and affecting to be perspicuous, or chaste, therein, or eloquent, and pretending to excel others therein; or some بيان is thus termed; and is blamed in a trad., as a kind of hypocrisy; as though it were a sort of self-conceit and pride.

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