Grazer Linguistische Studien 82 (Herbst 2014); S. 47-62 Metaphors we think with: a critical dis­ course analysis of Pakistani religious Snobra Rizwan Karl-Franzens-Universitat Graz Abstract. The metaphoric conceptualization of religious doctrines employed in Pakistani religious scholars’ speech discourse is examined through a data-driven lin­ guistic analysis. The focus is put on the representation of Islamic concepts of God and characteristics of a good Muslim in five speeches delivered by five Pakistani religious scholars called Mawlana Tariq Jameel, Doctor Tahir-ul-Qadri, Doctor Israr Ahmad, Mawlana Yousuf and Mawlana Hashmi. The major metaphoric categories identified in the study include the description of religious doctrines as 'concrete objects', animals', 'diseases' and certain generalized 'personas'. By substantiating religious doctrines, such a representation serves to construct certain identities and ideologies in Pakistani Muslims. Keywords. Religious doctrines, metaphors, representation, ideology, Critical Dis­ course Analysis, Muslim religious scholars, speeches 01. Introduction This article seeks to identify metaphoric representation of religious doctrines employed in Pakistani Muslim religious speeches discourse. It further aims to unveil the ideological perspective embedded in such metaphoric conceptualization, with the focus on the examination of indoctrination of certain ideologies in masses and making them believe a particular interpretation of religious injunctions. The research examines religious speeches delivered by Sunni scholars in religious gatherings of big Pakistani cities: Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad. The motivation for the choice of these cities lies in the larger audience which religious scholars manage to attract in these cities. Secondly, this study delimits itself to the analysis of Sunni speeches only, leaving aside the other major sect of Islam, Shi'ism. The reason for selecting the Sunni sect is that it is the largest Muslim sect in Pakistan followed by about 80% of Pakistani Muslims (Malik, 2006:34). The followers from various walks of life join these gatherings and construct their identities as devout Sunni Muslims. The audience range from the illiterate and low-income group of Pakistani society (below 10000/- PKR per month) to highly educated and high-income group of Pakistani society. The indoctrination in such religious gatherings has deep repercussions not only on the ideological development of Pakistan society as a whole but also on the psyche of the individuals. This could be observed in the frequent collective murders of 48 Snobra Rizwan members of country’s minority groups in the name of blasphemy laws at the hands of deranged mobs on the one hand , and eulogization of murderers like Mumtaz Qadri who assassinated Salman Taseer—the Governor of Punjab Province of Pakistan—in the name of Islam on the other1 2. Five speeches considered to be representative of Pakistani Sunni scholars’ speeches have been chosen for analysis. The speeches have been chosen randomly, but the speaker’s choice has been made as the result of a survey. In Pakistan, there are many religious scholars, and it is not easy to choose a sample that is truly representative of them all. Thus a form (Appendix 1) was distributed among 100 participants randomly which asked them to write down the name of their favorite religious scholar. Table 1: Pakistan’s Most Popular Religious Scholars and percentage of research participants liking them Scholar’s Name % Scholar’s Name % Tariq Jamil 27 Hashmi 11 Tahir-ul-Qadri 15 Alyas Athar 10 Israr Ahmad 12 Saeed Yousuf 10 Saeed Ahmad 07 None 03 Qari Hanif 05 Total 100 The result of the survey (see Table 1) helped determining the sample. The top five most popular speakers were taken as a representative sample who include: a) Tariq Jamil b) Dr Israr Ahmad c) Dr Tahir ul Qadri d) Mawlana Hashmi e) Mawlana Yousuf Furthermore, it is pertinent to add here that all these religious speeches have a common structure. Each religious speech can be divided into three basic parts: 1. Recitation 2. Preaching 3. Prayer The first part consists of the recitation of Quranic verses as it is the part of Islamic teachings. Deming (2005:46) writes: To start every work, “especially a good one”, with the name of God in order to “be blessed by God” is a common religious practice. After that, the second part of the speech starts which comprises the preaching. It is 1 Mail Online March 16 2011, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366805/Pakistani- Christian-jailed-blasphemy-dies-prison-lawyers-claim-murdered.html; The Express Tribune July 4, 2012 http://tribune.com.pk/story/403534/ blasphemy-mob-bums-man-alive-for-buming- holy-quran 2 Washington Times January 5, 2011 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/ 2011/jan/5/ islams-blasphemy-murders/; IPT News January 7, 2011 http://www.invesiigativeproject.org/ 2482/disappointing-silence-on-pakistani-blasphemy Metaphors with think with 49 the main part of the speech and entails 90% of the whole speech. The very first sentence of this part conveys the main idea of the speech: (1) Mery mohtarm bhaio aur dosto, Allah Tala ne insan ko is tarha bnaya hai ke jab tak ye Allah tak nahi pohanch jata is ko dunya ki koi cheez, sukh , chaien, skoon nahi de sakti. (Moulana Tariq) (My respected brothers and friends, God has made human beings in such a way, unless and until they connect with God, they can’t get satisfaction.) This idea is further explained through Quranic references, references from Hadiths and examples from daily life in the rest of the speech. The last part consists of the prayer in which the religious scholar begs forgiveness and mercy from Allah for himself and the whole gathering. (2) Meherban Allah hamari dunya bhi bhali kar dei, hamari oqba bhi bhali kar de aur is sary majmay ko intahai khair e kaseer ata kar, jo itni dur se teri mohabbat me chal kar aey hain. Amen (Moulana Saeed) (O Merciful God, bless our worldly life and bless our life hereafter. Shower countless blessings upon this gathering which came for your love from dis­ tant places. Amen). Concerning the content of the speeches, the speeches revolve around various themes targeted at inculcating love for God and Islam in the hearts of the audience. The topics of the speeches along with the name of the speaker who delivered them are mentioned in Table 2. As table 2 indicates, the corpus consists of 5982 clauses which is the total of all the clauses of analyzed speeches. Table 2: The data Scholar’s name Speech topic No. of ranking clauses 1 Tariq Jamil “In the Search of Allah” 1475 2 Dr. Israr Ahmed “The Reality of Hypocrisy” 1312 3 Mawlana Yousuf “The Preparation for the Afterlife” 879 4 Mawlana Hashmi “The Reformation” 921 5 Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri “The Difference between a Muslim and 1377 a Momin” Total 5964 As the title indicates, this study revolves around the study of metaphors in religious speeches. The reason for delimiting this research to the study of metaphors is that this particular rhetorical device is used veiy extensively by Pakistani religious scholars. Following the cognitive theory of metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003), it could be claimed that metaphor could be studied “not just as a matter of language, but as a matter of thought as well [...] In other words, metaphor constitutes an important tool by means of which we conceptualize reality, which has an impact on the way we behave” (Trckova, 2012: 138). 50 Snobra Rizwan 02. Background of the present study The religion of Islam has various versions of shariah (Muslim religious law) known as fiqah (Islamic jurisprudence). Malik (2006) distinguishes several sects or masalik (Muslim schools of thought) in Pakistan such as sunni, shiah, ahl-e- hadith, etc. He believes that although these masalik seem to differ in some respects, their fundamen­ tals are almost the same. Malik (2006) further declares these sects different inter­ pretations of the religion of Islam given by different religious scholars at different junctures of time. Since the birth of Pakistan in 1947, there erupted serious sectarian and religious disputes in Pakistani society. The perspective of different Pakistani Muslim scholars always seems to be contradictory regarding religious, national and international issues. Sometimes the ulema (religious scholars) hailing from conflicting masalik (religious schools of thought) do not hesitate issuing a fatwa (religious decree) of kufr (infidelity) against the believers of a different version of Islam (Akhtar, 2000). Pakistani society is facing problems due to religious extremism and sectarianism. A large number of ulema and people have lost their lives in secta­ rian and religious killings. The murder of the governor of Punjab, Mr. Salman Taseer, at the hands of Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri on January 4, 2011 is an example that shows how ideology-invested religious discourses shape the mindset of the people. In the cited event, the assassin Malik Mumtaz Qadri openly confessed (Express Tribune, January 10, 2011) that he was “persuaded to carry out the murder after listening to the rousing sermons delivered by Maulvi Hanif Qureshi and Ishtiaq Shah at a religious gathering”. According to Binder (1963) the roots of Pakistani society “lie in the fundamentals of religion i.e. Islam. Islamic government, Islamic state and Islamic constitution were the slogans of Pakistan’s creation”. Demming (2003) argues that the ulema are highly honored by the Muslim masses as they not only impart religious teaching, but also offer solutions to social problems. According to Encyclopedia Britannica (1986: 256), “they (ulema) are the one who possess the quality of ilm or learning about religion”. There are various schools of thought among the Pakistani ulema and different associations have been made to propagate certain versions of Islamic maslak such as Tablighi Jamaat by Mawlana Tariq Jamil, Tehreek-e-Minhaj-ul-Quran by Dr.Tahir-ul-Qadri ,Tanzeem-e- Islami, Tehreek-e-Khilafat and Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Quran by Dr.