Discursive Strategies used in Quran: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Social Issues in Surah Al-Isra

Abstract

The present study explores various social issues discussed in Qur’anic discourse through highlighting discursive strategies used to indicate widespread social problems in Meccan society at the time of revelation of Surah Al-Isra. The study also focuses the social ideologies presented in the respective surah. The study is delimited to selected verses of Surah Al-Isra, i.e., verse 31-37 (except verse 35). Qur’anic discourse predominantly focuses on the prevalent social issues in its depiction of current as well as historical events. It not only indicates the widespread social evils, but also guides to eradicate them through the application of Islamic ideologies. The present study applies Fairclough’s three dimensional model (2013) to the afore-mentioned verses of Surah Al-Isra. The verses are selected on the basis of their enhanced representation of social problems such as illegitimate sex, unlawful control of orphan’s property, arrogance, unnecessary curiosity, and murdering someone unjustly. The study selects the English translation of these verses given in The Easy Qur’an (Ahmed, 2005). The analysis of the verses is based on categorization of discursive strategies, i.e., Argumentation, Prediction, Perspectivation and Intensification (Wodak, 2005). Furthermore, the analysis argues for the significance of specific lexical choices, speech acts, and recurrence of various linguistic expressions in asserting the disapproval for all social evils in a morally upright society. The findings of the study imply the need to follow Islamic ideologies to resolve multiple social issues still prevalent in the contemporary world. Overall the study provides an impetus to future studies of Qur’an and other religious texts in CDA research paradigms, which is still an understudied area in the research body of religious literature. The selected framework (Fairclough, 2013), and method of manual codification of verses through Wodak’s categorization (2005) is, hence, recommended for further Qur’anic studies in the domain of CDA.