A Critical Discourse Analysis of the of Imam Ali’s Letters To Abdullah Ibn Abbas

Understanding the discourse of the Islamic management can be very helpful for both leaders and individuals who take managerial responsibilities in the society. This research is intended to have a critical discourse analysis of Imam Ali's letters to Abdullah Ibn Abbas.  Hence, Imam Ali's letters to Abdullah bin Abbas, the ruler of Basra, are reviewed and analyzed through a qualitative method using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. These are seven letters analyzed through critical discourse analysis at three levels. At the level of important linguistic features of the letters, the eloquence dominating the letters was assessed. An attempt was made to interpret the eloquence of the discourse of this textual features in the context of writing of these letters in the era of Imam Ali (AS) at the level of interpretation. At the level of explanation, the researchers tried to identify the relationship between discourse eloquence and the text as well as its socio-political context. All in all, the findings indicate that in Imam Ali's discourse, there is only one identifiable practice or discourse practice which reveals that Imam Ali’s practice was only in an Imam-governor position. At this position, Imam Ali demonstrated different types of discourse to structure Islamic management in their letters. In general, six discourses were employed in the production of Imam-governor discourse to present the order of Islamic management discourse including justice-oriented and truthful management discourse, managerial open-minded discourse, managerial discourse orientation, fate-orientation discourse, martyrdom-orientation discourse and unworldliness discourse.