Critical Judgments on the Pattern of ’Af’al’ of Preference

The critical judgments on the pattern of afal of preference are well-known and common judgments in the Arab environment, as this pattern has been used a lot by poets, critics, caliphs and the society in general. The reason for choosing this pattern may be attributed to their strong admiration for a poets poetry rather than others, and, therefore, they used the pattern of afal of preference to indicate their admiration for the poet. This pattern suggests the meaning of a comparison between two things that share a property, and one of them is greater than the other in that property. It might also suggest that the property is restricted to the described person without regarding the other one.Furthermore, both cases can be found in the critical judgments: the first case is the comparison between two poets and the choice of afal of preference to be the judgment and the basis for the comparison. For example, we can say: Umru Al-Qays is ashar (more poetic) than the Genius (Althubyani), where both poets share the property of flirting and using ashar, which is in the pattern afal of preference, is the judgment of preferring Umru Al-Qays over the Genius (Althubyani). Using the pattern afal implies great absoluteness and generality, because it is not possible to give an absolute judgment such as ashar (more poetic), aghzal (more flirting), amdah (more praiseful) , awal (premier), ahja (more satirical), akthab (a bigger liar) or artha (more pitiful) than the poetry of another poet without taking into account the reasons, the study, the research, and the investigation on the reality of this. As for the second case, it is to limit the adjective to the one described without looking at the other, such as saying amdah (more/most praiseful) verse said by Zuhair bin Abi Sulma or amdah (more/most praiseful) poet is Zuhair bin Abi Sulma.