Sermons by Imam Ali - Peace Be Upon Him - in Basra: a Study in Linguistic Levels

Abstract

In this study, we highlighted some of the sermons of the Emir of believers, Peace be upon him (henceforth PBUH) in Basra, when he lived there after the Camel War, and studied it linguistically. We confined ourselves to what some of the commentators of Nahj Al-Balaghah recalled about sermons that were not included by Sharif Al-Radi in his treatise. The sermons discussed in our study were 10 sermons in total. The research adopted a descriptive analytical approach aimed at highlighting aesthetic performance and its semantic indications by analyzing its structural composition according to linguistic levels. Therefore, the research accounts for three main levels: the first is about the phonetic level to determine the great role of sound in the production of connotations and addition of an aesthetic touch to the whole text. As for the second, it deals with the structural level to show the structure of the sentence and the predicate in which the meanings were poured. The third level is the semantic level which is concerned with the connotation resulting from that structural fabric, as well as some contextual connotations that filtered through the context and its clues. The research also presents its results of these three levels.