Semiotics of the Noble Hadith of Selselah Al-Zahab

Considering the special historical context in which Imam Reza (AS) lived, the hadiths narrated by the Imam is of especial significance, among which the hadith of Selselah Al-Zahab (The Golden Hierarchy) is of great eloquence and attractiveness. The necessity of scrutinizing the statements of Imam Reza (AS) is an important issue that had often been carried out from mystical point of view over the past centuries. Given the significant advance in Western Linguistics, it sounds necessary to reexamine the Hadiths through the concepts borrowd forom Semiotics and Text Linguistics. The current study thus sets out to explore the The Golden Hierarchy hadith thorough the lens of semiotics. The main research question here is: “What are the structural and cohesive features the Hadith in terms of contextual formation and the factors involved in it?” Using the concepts borrowed form semiotics in the form of operationalized concepts of Halliday’s linguistic analysis approach, this paper examines the structural features and the textual integrity of this noble hadith. The results of the study indicate that the text of this noble hadith is at the highest possible level of Halliday’s analytical perspective in terms of all textual cohesive elements.