Structuralism; a methodological approach to the comprehension of Nahj al-Balaghah

Understanding the text of Nahj al-Balaghah is not always easy, rather it may be associated with difficulties. To overwhelm them one is required to employ an academic method, would be specified in accordance with what Nahj al-Balaghah requires and would vary according to its characteristics. Such characteristics as style, structure and content are among the components that affect the understanding of Nahj al-Balaghah, and cause a different perception of it. What has been discussed in this article is a methodological theory that aims at suggesting a new approach to the understanding of Nahj al-Balaghah by means of a comparative study between the two branches of knowledge: hadith comprehension (fiqh al-hadīth) and linguistics. The findings of this research indicate that attention to the structure of hadith as one of the linguistic elements has a remarkable part in understanding Nahj al-Balaghah, and causes the formation of an approach termed structuralism. It is an approach that puts emphasis on the constituents and words of the text and detects the semantic relationship between them in the realm of the context of the text, and this way it attains what the speaker has intended.