Rhythm and Harmony in Jihad Sermon of Nahj-ul-Balaqa and Their Role in the Eloquence of Speech

Parallelism is a linguistic behavior frequently used in the eloquent sermons of Nahj-ul-Balagha. Therefore, examining and explaining factors leading to parallelism can reveal part of the magic of this systematic and eloquent masterpiece. Rhymed components, lexical parallelism in different types of rhymes and syntactic parallelism of sentences have brought this success. In the present study, descriptive-analytic approach was adopted to examine the contributing factors to rhythm and harmony in Emam Ali’s Jihad sermon. The findings revealed that the sermon is rich with respect to different harmony generating elements. It is evident that Amir-al-Momenin (PBUH) has utilized various types of parallelism, particularly phonological one and overt music resulted from different types of rhymes and also covert music developed from repetition, symmetry and syntactic parallelism to present the themes of the sermon persuasively and emphatically. Moreover, the use of different phonological and rhythmic elements shows Imam Ali’s mood on that occasion. For instance, when he wants to warn, encourage, or threaten the audience, his voice rises by using phonological elements.