Counterfactual Mental Structures in the Qur’an: A Cognitive Approach within the Framework of Conceptual Blending Theory

Abstract

Across the centuries, the Qur’an has remained a source of intellectual, spiritual, and practical inspiration. In every age, new facets of its inimitability emerge, extending beyond verbal eloquence and stylistic coherence to the mental architectures and conceptualizations woven into the text and shaping the cognitive and moral orientation of its recipients. Within this frame, the value of interdisciplinary inquiry—engaging insights from diverse fields—becomes clear, yielding a broader and deeper account of Qur’anic discourse. This study contributes to that trajectory by adopting a cognitive-linguistic approach grounded in Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier & Turner). The theory elucidates how the mind builds complex mental models by linking multiple mental spaces. Among these models, counterfactuality merits special attention: structures that arise from envisioning alternatives to past events or states—expressed in formulations such as “what might have been”—which move beyond actuality toward possibility. While counterfactuality has often been defined in philosophy of language and linguistics as a mental supposition establishing a conditional relation between two non-actual events, viewing it through the lens of conceptual blending uncovers deeper cognitive mechanisms underlying the construction of alternatives and the emergence of meaning in the text. Accordingly, this study analyzes such structures in the Qur’an from a cognitive-linguistic perspective to illuminate new dimensions of inimitability in structure and meaning.