A Narratological Study of the First Sermon of Nahj al-Balaghah based on the Causal Model

The first sermon of Nahj al-Balaghah, despite the existing discussions about the authenticity of its narration, at least in its current composition, has a special literary and theological content that has been considered by scholars for centuries. Despite these considerations, it has not been addressed as a structured narrative, which is the main objective of the present research. In this regard, two questions can be asked at two levels of text criticism and text comprehension, which can be answered by narratological analysis: first, at the level of text comprehension, what is the main message in the narrative structure of the sermon, and second, at the level of text criticism, to what extent - beyond the usual methods of hadith critique- can narratological analysis defend the stability and validity of the text of this narration? This study's narratological model is a causal model based on the interaction of efficient cause and ultimate cause. As a result, at the text comprehension level, the main message in the sermon's narrative structure is to set the basic goals of creation and focus on human beings in this field. At the level of textual criticism, this sermon has a solid narrative structure and a high degree of narrative coherence and textual solidarity. There is no interruption or rupture in it.