Representation of Muawiyah Identity in Nahj al-Balaqah Letters via Social Semiology Approach

The unbreakable bond between hadith and history paves the way for the efficiency of each in order to measure the other. In this regard, the explorations of the hadith and history scholars have included incompatible propositions in the drawing of Muawiyah's identity, the first Umayyad Caliphate. In the present study with the approach of social semiology, with emphasis on the process of meaning-making in the context of community and culture, the main question raised is in Imam Ali's letters to Muawiyah, regarding the set of linguistic and content symbols, what are the symbols to draw Muawiyah's personality used and based on this set of symbols, how can the religious and historical identity of Muawiyah be identified? From the authors' point of view, the letters of Imam Ali (AS) have a very good capacity for studying social semiology and provide a clear and comprehensive reflection on the problems of Imam Ali's era. Imam Ali (AS) has analyzed Muawiyah's identity codes using social symbols in various aspects and provided the context of audience access to a clear picture of Muawiyah's identity by providing an identity representation system. The study indicates that the purposeful selections of Imam Ali (AS) in the letters of Nahj al-Balaqah provide a new reading of historical events according to religious, Arab culture and literary symbols and are considered as the reliable sources of measuring contradictory historical propositions.