Teachings, commandments, and lessons in the Qur’ān and ḥadīth was
conveyed in various method. One of this method is, to convey messages from
Allah and al-Nabī by parables or amthāl. The purpose of using amthāl was to
make people easier in understanding messages and lessons from Qur’ān and
ḥadīth. Many researches and discussions was talking about parables of the Qur’ān
and its concept, even it triggered the polemic among ulūm Qur’ān scholars. It was
inversely proportional on parables of the ḥadīth, because it still becomes minority
discussion, even contemporary scholars begin talking about it, but it was still too
few.
Amthal, or mathal in singular is comparison of something with something
other, comparison of the abstract into the concrete. It also lessons that contained
examples and phylosophies of life. There are three mathal as known: (1) mathal
sā’ir, idioms grew among people tongue, (2) mathal qiyāsī, narration contained
descriptions of particular things, and (3) mathal al-kuhrāfī, that came from nonhuman
tongue.

There

are two Muslim scholars was being the reference of parables
discussion, Ibnu Qayyim al-Jawzīyah with his Al-Amthāl fī Al-Qur’ān Al-Karīm
and Abū Shaikh al-Aṣbahānī with his Kitāb Al-Amthāl fī Al-Hadīth Al-Nabawī.
Inside their book was containing parables, but is was a little different. Al-Amthāl
by Ibn Qayyim clearly explained about the parables of the Qur’ān, and Al-Amthāl
by al-Aṣbahānī seems only collecting parables of the ḥadīth.
This research is a library research. Primary data was taken from both of
books of Al-Amthāl fī Al-Qur’ān by Ibnu Qayyim al-Jawzīyah and Al-Amthāl fī
Al-Hadīth by al-Aṣbahānī, and secondary data was taken from books of tafsīr,
sharḥ al-ḥadīth, and others. Data was researched by descriptive-comparison
method, in order to find similarities and differences between parables of the
Qur’ān and ḥadīth, and in this research parables are divided into two type, almathal
al-sā’ir
and
al-mathal
al-qiyāsī.

As
the
result
of
research
was
found
that
parables
of
the
Qur’ān
and
ḥadīth

has

similarities and differences in words arrangement, lessons contained, and
aimed object. If it was al-mathal al-sā’ir, both of them are using brief sentence,
but contains extensive meaning and lesson. If if was al-mathal al-qiyāsī, Qur’ān
clearly explained about the object of its parables, whereas ḥadīth still keep its
brief to convey messages.