Persuasive Strategies in Religious Discourse: A Pragmatic Analysis of Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza’s Lectures

Abstract

The religious discourse is a critical tool of persuasion, as the beliefs are shaped and the authority is built. Amidst the emergence of digital preaching, rhetoric approaches have taken a new form in new communicative settings. Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza in Pakistan has become well known in his rational and reformist lectures which prompts an enquiry into the linguistic processes involved in his persuasive appeal. This study seeks to establish the key pragmatic measures used by Engineer Mirza in his religious talks and discusses how the pragmatic measures create authority and credibility in his lectures. Based on the Rhetorical Theory of Aristotle, this qualitative study uses reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2019) on chosen lectures in Urdu language on YouTube. The themes considered in the analysis are the themes on ethos, logos and pathos in the lectures of Mirza. The findings indicate that the persuasion of Mirza is based on the use of rational argumentation (logos), moral integrity (ethos) and moderate emotional appeal (pathos) which allows his presentation of intellectual credibility and spiritual authenticity. The study emphasizes the fact that Aristotelian appeals are still useful in online religious, which complements the knowledge on persuasive pragmatics in contemporary Islamic communication.