Q: I read in books of Tafsir (exegesis of the meanings of the Qur'an) that the letter "ك" (Kaf) in the Saying of Allah (Exalted be He):
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
There is nothing ever like Him; and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer
And ask (the people of) the town
وَأُشْرِبُوا فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْعِجْلَ
And their hearts absorbed (the worship of) the calf
A: According to the analytic scholars, the Qur'an does not contain figurative speech in the sense understood by the scholars of rhetoric. All that is stated in the Qur'an is real. The comment of some Mufassirs (exegetes of the Qur'an) that a certain letter is extra is from the aspect of the rules of I'rab (desinential inflection) and not the meaning.