Argumentation Styles in Muqtada Al-Sadr's Reformative Tweets for 2022

Abstract

Argumentation is one of the pivotal methods of presenting the intellectual perspectives of the discourse author. The present study examines the argumentative techniques employed in the reformative tweets of Sayyid Muqtada Al-Sadr during 2022, a year marked by his political faction securing the highest number of seats in parliamentary elections. The study begins by elucidating the linguistic and terminological concepts related to the research title and provides an overview of Muqtada Al-Sadr's life as a prelude to delving into the argumentative techniques prevalent in his tweets on the platform currently known as X (formerly Twitter). These techniques include repetition, apostrophe, and conditional structures. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach. The findings reveal that the tweets exhibit a directive and authoritative tone, possessing a performative argumentative power that profoundly impacts the recipient, whether the discourse is direct or indirect. Furthermore, the author intertwines rhetoric with aesthetic judgments, the secrets of eloquence, and the faculties of the human psyche. The study underscores the importance of conducting similar research in the future to shed light on the role of understanding argumentative techniques in deducing the intentions of discourse authors.

Analysis of the tweets reveals that the speaker connects rhetoric with refined taste, the secrets of eloquence, and the faculties of the human soul. He seamlessly transitions between different styles, a characteristic of someone proficient in the Arabic language and its intricacies. Sayyid al-Sadr sometimes gently encourages his audience to act, while at other times he employs a more admonishing tone to draw attention to the issue. Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr draws upon a broad religious, cultural, and linguistic background, which contradicts the common misconception that he did not complete his formal academic studies. This did not prevent him from diligently pursuing linguistic knowledge through his religious seminary studies, which equipped him with the skills to write eloquent tweets on a wide range of topics.