an idea can actually be seen, much less shine. Instead we draw on the shared experience of light as revealing things with clarity that are obscured when it is dark. In that sense every metaphor is poetic.
Some metaphors, however -- such as "a bright idea" -- are so commonly used that they no longer really convey an image. These are conventional metaphors, and in effect they have shifted from being true, living metaphors to being simple figures of speech. These may be contrasted to more vivid, poetic metaphors that retain their evocative power. A third type of metaphor is conceptual. This is a form of analogy, explaining one thing, usually an abstract concept, in terms of something else that is more readily visualized. Finally, mixed metaphors are metaphors that combine more than one of these elements. (This is distinct from the common usage of "mixed metaphors" to mean a figure of speech that combines two inconsistant metaphors).
Unpeaceful metaphors abound in everyday language. We fight our way through difficult tasks, and shoot down ideas we disagree with. Movies that do poorly at the box office are described as bombs, while successful ones are hits. The important question that has been raised about unpeaceful metaphors is whether they have an unpeaceful effect on those who use them (Bangura, 2002). If we think of ourselves as "fighting traffic" on the freeway, does this encourage us to think of other drivers as enemies, and thus display actual hostility on the road?
The richer and more poetic an unpeaceful metaphor, arguably, the more strongly it may influence us. In contrast, conventional metaphors lose their force; if we say that a movie bombed, we probably do not form any actual mental image of an explosion. So, in considering Islamic metaphors, we may consider not only their connotations, but the strength of those connotations.
Let us first consider the metaphorical implications of the very word "Isl...