International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2011, Vol. 3, No. 1: E27 Debating Torment of the Grave: An Optimality-Theoretic Account of (Inter) Textuality Rasheed Saleem Al-Jarrah Language Center, Yarmouk University Irbid, Jordan Tel: 9-622-721-1111 (4177) E-mail:
[email protected] Received: July 27, 2011 Accepted: September 19, 2011 doi:10.5296/ijl.v3i1.814 Abstract Influenced by the on-going discussion on textuality (Halliday and Hassan 1976, 1985, Hassan 1984; Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995) and shielded with the basic premises and conventional notations of some linguistic theory, namely Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993, McCarthy and Prince, 1993a, b), this study aims to present a new religious outlook of grave torment that depends mainly on ijtihad (re-interpretations of the scriptures). The main thrust of the argument is like this: grave torment (we believe) is never backed up by verses of the Holy Qur'an. This is not to present a view that conflicts with the previously established canon of belief, but to show two things: (1) the reported prophetic evidence about grave torment is violable; and (2) the often-cited Qur'anic evidence for grave punishment is misinterpreted. In order to do just that, some of the local and global intuitions invoked by some Qur'anic verse (commonly alluded to as evidence for grave torment) are brought to light. Key words: Grave torment, Grave punishment, Text analysis, Optimal solutions 1 www.macrothink.org/ijl International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 2011, Vol. 3, No. 1: E27 1. Background According to the most common understanding of Islam, the following excerpt from The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, Entry: Islam(Note 1)summarizes the basic beliefs of mainstream Muslims about grave torment: … as Muslims believe that the deceased can hear and understand what is being said.