Document Type : Research paper
Author
Abstract
Nahj-ol-belagha” has been studied from various perspectives, but an important rhetorical feature of this text, namely “the method of Ghasr”, has often been ignored. In Arabic, various emphatic strategies are employed to highlight the significance of topics, the most important of which is “Ghasr”. “Ghasr” means “to dedicate something to something else and to deny its counterarguments using a specific method”. The emphatic point about “Ghasr” is that two sentences are compacted and reduced to one sentence. There are six well known strategies to achieve this as follows: denial and “ella”, “pronoun of fasl”, “ennama”, “taghdim”, “bal, laken, and la”, and “al of jens”, which have been used in “Nahj-ol-belagha”. In the present paper, after a brief explanation of technical and aesthetic features of “method of Ghasr”, an attempt will be made to highlight Imam Ali’s (AS) concerns regarding power, government, and politics. Imam Ali (AS) has employed this rhetorical strategy to discuss and emphasize the following issues: regarding power and governance as tools to materialize justice, security and awareness, propagating justice, ignoring power and worldly benefits by rulers, truthfulness, accepting criticism, humbleness, having a sound command of religion, appointing truthful advisers, avoiding dictatorship and unjust taxes, etc.
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