Islamization of Pragmatics

            Salaam beautiful readers! Our topic for today is Islamization of Pragmatics, since our blog’s title is Islamization of Pragmatics itself so this will be a long post. Stay tune! We will be posting things regarding four respective topics from Pragmatics which are Grice’s four maxims, speech acts, politeness, and lastly conversation and preference structure… Together with all these four topics, we will include Islamic perspectives as it is the gist of this whole blog. So sit back, relax and have fun reading! 

ISLAMIZATION OF......

              

               Dear our respected readers, language is a very powerful element on everyday life. Interaction, conversation, speech, and written text all are parts of language. The reliance on literal and outer text of the utterance in insufficient to explain many meanings intended by the speaker. Therefore, contexts are needed to fulfill the understanding. The pragmatic approach guides readers in interpretation and explaining their behavior. Relating to this,Crystal (2012) pointed out that “Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others.”(p.1)

In order to get brief overview of Pragmatics, let us take a look at this short video:

              So, how do you find the video? it is quiet helpful to assist us in understanding some elements discussed in pragmatics. Firstly, we will share about Grice's conversational maxims, H. Paul Grice came out with four conversational maxims which are the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. The maxim of quantity is concern with giving an appropriate amount of information to others, not too ambiguous and not insufficient. The maxim of quality is about saying the truth without altering information while the maxim of relation is to be relevant and suits one’s discussion. However, the maxim of manner is when one tries to be clear, precise and less ambiguity.

What Islam has to say about Grice’s four maxims?

               The maxim of quantity is very supported by Islam as in Islam, we are asked to speak when needed and remain silent when there is no purpose of talking. Thus, appropriate amount of knowledge is righteous to spread to others while ambiguous and insufficient information should be avoided. Insufficient and ambiguous information might give disadvantages to the listener and it might lead one to the wrong path especially when it is pertaining Islamic jurisprudence, Fiqh, the Quran and Hadith. A Hadith saying:-

The Prophet (SAW) said: “A man might speak a word without thinking about its implications, but because of it, he will plunge into the Hellfire further than the distance between the east and west.” [ Sahîh al-Bukhârî and Sahîh Muslim ]

Therefore, this above Hadith tells us that we are supposed to guard our tongue and speak purposely that gives out benefits to the people and not corruption to oneself.

         From this cartoon strip, we can see how the mother abuses the maxim of quality by not answering or somehow gives a vague answer to her child. Hence, abusing the maxim of quality should be avoided in conversation as it may also kill one’s thinking process.

           The maxim of quality is somehow in line with the Islamic teachings which teach us to tell the truth. In other words, do not lie. Honesty is the key to Heaven and innate characteristic of a true believer. Hence, lying is not one of the characteristics of a true believer.

         'Abdullah b. Mas'ud reported Allah's Messenger (SAW) as saying: Telling of truth is a virtue and virtue leads to Paradise and the servant who endeavours to tell the truth is recorded as truthful, and lie is obscenity and obscenity leads to Hell-Fire, and the servant who endeavours to tell a lie is recorded as a liar. Ibn Abu Shaiba reported this from Allah's Apostle (SAW).  

           Telling the truth is a righteous act and to tell a lie is the worst act. Thus, it comes to conversation with people, be sincere and even in written language whether in writing our assignment, article and et cetera; the best way to write is to produce pearls of utterances. For example, Kahaled Hosseini is a well-known author; who uses splendid sentences to write about neither the consequences nor a metaphor about lying:-

According to Khaled Hosseini (2007), “When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. There is no act more wretched than stealing.” p. 115

           The third maxim is maxim of relation which asks us to be relevant. We have to relevant, be it according to Islam or not. If we utter irrational saying, it shows how our mind operated and a wise man always up-to-date with current issues, religious studies and even knowledge pertaining social sciences. Therefore, relevancy is very important in a conversation to transmit right information to people and to be acceptable in a society. For instance:-

Mother: “Yasmin, where is my praying dress and Quran? I want to pray.”

Yasmin: “I think the kiblah is this way.”

              From the above extract, we can see that Yasmin is abusing the maxim of relation as she is not answering her mother’s question and she even changes the topic to a totally different issue. Hence, maxim of relation is very important in conversations to avoid misunderstanding.

           Maxim of manner requires precision rather than obscurity and ambiguity. Precision is very important in Islam as without precision; the unity of brotherhood and faith issues will be affected. The easiest example we can take is from our compulsory ibadah i.e salah and sawm. Salah must be performed five times in a day when the specific and precise time comes. For instance, Fajr is around 5.47am; one cannot pray Fajr until it is 5.47am. This same goes to sawm where all Muslims can break their fasting when the call of Maghrib is being heard. Thus, if one breaks his fasting even a minute before the call of Maghrib; it is considered invalid. Precision appears in many forms such as actions, saying and et cetera. The reason Grice came up with this maxim of manner is to make people aware of being precise is very important in a conversation to get a mutual understanding.

            Dear our beloved readers, pragmatics also discussed the issue of politeness. Yule defined politeness as “the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face” (1996: 60). In Islam, it is irrefutable that we must show our respect to others and approach them politely in speech as well as in manner. In Quran, Allah has mentioned many times that we need to use kindness, gentle and wisdom in order to preach to others. In Surah Ibrahim, verse 14, Allah said that, “I did not send any messenger except that he spoke the language of his people to explain to them”. Here, we can see that the message of Islam is always through the words of truth and applied the politeness principles in many ways. Our prophet Muhammad PBUH is the best example of a man with polite words and manners. He used different approaches when he spoke to the Quraish leaders according to their face wants (the expectations concerning their public self-image).

            In pragmatics, speech act refers to us performing our action via utterances. However, there are certain conditions for us to say something. Under Felicity conditions there are general condition, content condition, prepatory condition and essential condition. When our parents said study hard and we understand what they said is a general condition. Our reply as In shaa Allah or okay is the agreement that the act of study hard will happen in future (content condition). Our reply also denote that the act of study hard getting good result will not happen by themselves but we, as the promise will initiate the act of study hard and making the goal of getting good result will happen in future, sincerely and not for the sake of other things likely present or additional on our monthly allowance (preapatory condition).

In the first verse of Surah Al Maidah, Allah said “O you who believe, fulfill your promises!” Keeping promises is one of characteristics of true believer. In Islam, Allah called upon His believers not only in the chapter stated above but also in another chapters like Al Isra’ (17:34) and Maryam (19:54).

            Beyond our realization, everything that we said is a promise. When our parents said, “study hard son” and we gonna reply, “In shaa Allah”, or simply replied “okay” is a promise. Therefore, this is an example of speech act which illustrates the promise.

According to Yule (1996), in order to make our speeches become meaningful, speeches should be uttered according to situations or circumstances. The situation in which speech act occur is what we called as speech event. In performing our act through utterances, we should first produce a meaningful linguistic expression or utterances (locutionary act). This is followed by the purpose of the utterances.

            On the other hand, speech acts are very much related to the methods of dakwah (spread the message of Islam). Alquran and prophetic history always emphasize on spreading the message of Islam by wisdom. Hence, one of the ways of wisdom in dakwah is by using speech act. Speech act is very applicable in performing da’wah. As for certain situation, it is inappropriate to directly say something to someone. 
                For example, when we want to encourage our friend to wear hijab, we must say it in a proper way and using right word such as by saying “Subhanallah, you look georgeous with hijab!” therefore she will feel encouraged to wear hijab. Here, we can see the three dimension of speech act by saying such thing indirectly in a way of imperative yet very meaningful in order to praise that friend as the nature of the sentence suggest but at the same time we want to encourage her to continuously wear hijab in future. Why such praise is chosen? Firstly is because human being loves beauty. Secondly, not all people can receive direct comment like “eh, you are sinful because you do not wear hijab”. Our duty is not to judge others but to show and share the right way of Islam. 
          In Surah Al Nahl, verse 125, Allah mentioned the best method to preach: “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided ...”. Hence, in order to preach, we should observe the situation we are in (speech events) and performing speech acts with its three dimensions in order for the message to be successfully delivered.

              Another important thing discussed in Pragmatics is the preference and conversational structure (Yule, 1996). According to Yule, the preference and conversational structure mainly consist of the elements used in the conversation processes such as turn-taking, pauses, overlaps, and backchannels. In Islam, these are called manners in dialogues. It is indisputable that Muslims must observe manners while converse with other people. The process of turn-taking (an attempt to control the right to speak) is very important is Islam because it will give the speaker an opportunity to explain what in his minds and it also gives the respondent a chance to ask or refute. In Surah Al-Baqarah verse 258, Allah said:

“Hast thou not Turned thy vision to one who disputed with Abraham About his Lord, because Allah had granted him power? Abraham said: "My Lord is He Who Giveth life and death." He said: "I give life and death". Said Abraham: "But it is Allah that causeth the sun to rise from the east: Do thou then cause him to rise from the West." Thus was he confounded who (in arrogance) rejected faith. Nor doth Allah Give guidance to a people unjust.” (2:258)

        In this verse, we can clearly see one example from thousands of example in the Al-Quran that contains dialogue. Here, these dialogues are between Prophet Ibrahim and his people when his people have a dispute with him about the Lord. From this verse, prophet Ibrahim observes the principle of turn taking and argues with them with patience and even replies to their words with simple and wisdom. He does not dominate the ‘floor’ of conversations but gives them their right to speak. We can see the Transition Relevance Place (TRP) between prophet Ibrahim and his people.

            Dr.Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (2008) explained that the examples of dialogues and arguments in Al-Quran are wide and cover many issues. There are dialogues of Allah and the prophets, the angels, the devils and dialogues of various people.

           In Pragmatics, sometimes people use pauses in their conversation. As defined by Yule (1996), pauses are the transitions with a long silence between turns. This happens probably because of unfamiliarity, or the absence of information about certain knowledge. In Islam, pauses are allowed in conversation but it is more recommended to reply with an answer if the respondent does know about the question. There is an example in Surah An-Naml : 20-23, when prophet Sulaiman asked a group of birds about the absence of Hud-Hud. They remained silent until Hud-Hud bird came and explained to Prophet Sulaiman about what it saw in Saba’.

      In Islam, some of the principles of conversation as discussed by Dr.Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (2008):

1)  Based on the truth and avoid from false misconceptions.

2)  Stick on the issue of discussions (avoid personal opinions and interests)

3)  Clear and logical arguments, without emotional influence.

4)  Have a clear aim to solve the issues with justice and truth.

5)  Humbleness, not arrogant, and observing politeness.

6) Give a full chance to all speakers to give their own opinion without aggressive refutation or humiliating their personal being.

7)  Respect opinions from more experienced scholars.

8)  Do not rush in defining Shariah (rules and regulations), and do not astray from the truth.

9) The contents of the dialogues must be beneficial to various people intellectually. 

   Last but not least, as long as the pragmatics is concerned, it is related with the linguistic forms and the users of the forms. It concerns how people interact with each other and the significant meanings behind each interaction. Hence, Muslims should utilize various ways of speaking to their aesthetic functions that are very much related with Islam because Islam always emphasizes on good relations with other people through actions and utterances.

As a conclusion, Allah says in Al-Quran Surah Ibrahim verse 24-25:

Have you not considered how Allah presents an example, [making] a good word like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed and its branches [high] in the sky?  

It produces its fruit all the time, by permission of its Lord. And Allah presents examples for the people that perhaps they will be reminded. (14: 24-25)

References

Afzal Iqbal. (1992). Diplomatic Practices of Rasulullah S.A.W. Pustaka Salam Sdn Bhd: Kuala Lumpur.

Dr. Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. (2008). The Religious Aspects of Dialogues in Islam. Translation Institute of Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur.

Khaled Hosseini. (2008). The Kite Runner.Riverhead Books: New York:

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press: NY

Crystal, D. (2012). Pragmatics and Speech Acts. Retrieved from http://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/lang/pragmatics.htm  on 2nd Dec 2012

http://islamicbooks.info/H-7-Ethics/7--Ethics-4.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawah

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/dravling/grice.html 

http://en.islamtoday.net/artshow-427-3256.htm 

http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?

book=032&translator=2&start=129&number=6308 

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/ 

 Lastly, let us recite this du'a, hopefully our deeds will be accepted by Allah..amiin.