Intertextual Relations of “Hereafter” in Nahj al-Balagha and the Quran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 MA, Department of Quranic Sciences and Hadith, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant professor, Department of Quranic Sciences and Hadith, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Intertextuality is a theory of interaction or relation between texts, which results in the creation of a novel idea. On this theory, every text or writing is derived from other texts, and there is no writing apart from other writings. The Quran, as the guidebook of humankind, affects the hadiths of the Prophet and Shiite Imams (a), which is why the latter frequently cite the former. One text of hadiths, which bears an intertextual relation with Quranic verses, is Nahj al-Balagha. Focused on the theme of the “hereafter,” this research adopts a descriptive-analytical method to answer the following question: How to analyze the intertextual relations between Nahj al-Balagha and the Quran on the theme of the “hereafter”? The results show that there are only two cases of full intertextuality in Nahj al-Balagha. In several parts of Nahj al-Balagha, there is modified intertextuality, but there is widespread allusive intertextuality in the words of Imam ʿAlī (a), as he frequently talks about the hereafter using themes from Quranic verses.

Keywords

Main Subjects