Istifham in the stories in Alquran from the perpective of Speech Act Theory

Abstract

One of the most effective ways to attract an audience in order to influence him is through question. Many kinds of question. Questions in Arabic terms known as istifham are also found in the stories. This study will make an attempt in affirmation of how istifham, which is then simplified into the terms of questions, are clearly highlighted to enhance the connectivity of the components of the Quranic texts. Specifically how questions in the stories in Al-quran found and understood using contextual frameworks. The content analysis is employed through speech act theory. It is found that Istifham serves as question words, either to inquire about something of understanding, or not, the past and the future. Istifham are specifically used to ask about the place, time, circumstances, number, case dubious and uncertain. Sometimes question words come out of its original meaning to another meaning that can be seen through the sentence structure, so the function istifham here not as a question word again. Therefore, the sentence does not allow it to be interpreted as an interrogative sentence.Keywords: Istifham, Stories, Al-quran, Speech Act. This is an open access article under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. IntroductionThe Qur'an was revealed in Arabic. The analysis of single Quranic passages in the light of the Quran's cultural context is an important key to improving our knowledge and comprehension of the Arabic text. However, taking the knowledge, the beliefs, and more generally the collective imagination of the Quran's contemporaries into account is crucial in understanding how the Quran was originally meant to be understood. The analysis of textual relations in the holy Quran, usually regarded as Munasaba or the organic unity, is an intersection between Tafsir and Linguistics. Considerable debates exist on whether the Quran possesses such an integrity or not in terms of linguistic analysis of the verses and suras. The lion's share of the muslim literature on this issue believe in the existence of unity within the holy scripture whose inimitability and authenticity is beyond dispute. However, there might be cases where the themes in consecutive verses are not related to the same idea unit. Nevertheless, they are unified in terms of conveying the Islamic preaching to the recipients. That is, spiritual unity can be traced in sequence of verses (Setyarahajoe, 2012).The intersection between Tafsir and Linguistics in the Qur'an could not be separated. Indeed, many passages appear in dialogical forms, where the message can not be deduced merely from Linguistics . I mean by dialogical forms the various texts in prose and poetry that are based on the opposition of views. This broader perspective allows us to cover not only the Qur'anic but also the legal and theological debates. Such a scope enriches the study of the debates so far confined almost entirely to literary munazarah. Furthermore, it helps us to take a closer look at the Qur'anic studies in their literary and theological environments. By doing s...