An Investigation of Paradoxicality as a Literary Technique in Nahj al-Balāgha

Paradoxicality appears to be one of the most interesting topics in aesthetics of written rhetoric. Employing paradox is assumed to be an outstanding approach to poetic defamiliarization which cause the statements to be unfamiliar, striking, and highly effective. With a noticeably high range of paradoxical utterances, Nahj al-Balāgha has attracted the attention of linguists and rhetoricians. Thus, It seems to have the potentials of being explored from literal point of view beside religious one. It is presumed that Imam Ali (PBUH) applied this rhetorical device when he meant to elucidate on the world or provide people with knowledge of God. The main reasons of this choice is likely to be bidimensionality of world as well as impossibility of recognition of God through external senses. Additionally, when taking the form of simile, paradoxical statements may become more obvious and simple to interpret. So, the audiences can discover the beauty of the primary context. In addition to presenting a new categorization of different paradoxicalities, the current study tries to probe and compare sermons, letters and narrations in Nahj al-Balāgha in terms of their paradoxical statement. The linguistically prominent instances of paradoxicalities in Nahj al-Balāgha are also attempted to decode and analyze.