Topic-based Discourse Analysis of Nahj-al-balāqa on Epistemology of Justice

Epistemology of different phenomena, i. e. the human’s endeavor to achieve an ideological/philosophical insight about their nature, can be his conduct in making decisions how to realize them. Since this is also true for bringing justice about the world, this research was carried out to investigate the epistemological basics of Alavi/Shiite justice in Nahj-al-balāqa, a reference book compiled from the lectures and letters of Ali, the first Imam of Shi’as. Applying Topic-based Discourse Analysis Model as our methodology, we arrived at two different categories of conclusions. As a result of theoretical analysis, ‘the consistent selection of our mental, verbal, and practical behaviors based on right’ was concluded to be a definition of the nature of justice, while meanings of ‘right’ are to be from ‘correctness of doing’ to ‘religious assignments’. So, the extentions of the term ‘right’ were divided into these three categories: a) religious instructions/rights, b) private personal rights, and c) exchange and service rights. Meanwhile, 7 topoi, or addresses to rational schemes, were also identified as a result of linguistic analysis.