A New Reading of the Jihad Sermon of Imam Ali (a.s.) Based on the Theory of Textual Meta-Functionality (Halliday's Role-Oriented Approach)

According to Halliday's theory, one of the characteristics of the text is to have coherence, therefore, by giving importance to the beginning-end structure and marking and unmarking of each paragraph, it determines the author's method and performance in inducing his intended message.  Based on the mentioned theory, by examining the grammatical, lexical and linking relationship of a text, a comprehensive analysis of how its different clauses are coherent and interconnected is obtained. This research has examined the jihad sermon of Imam Ali (a.s.) based on the meta-textual approach (Halliday's role-oriented approach) in a descriptive-analytical way. The results show that most of the clauses of the mentioned sermon have a compound beginning, and especially its expression with such a beginning was a suitable point for inducing the message and validates the coherence of the text. Also, other types of cohesion such as intra-textual reference, substitution, deletion, lexical cohesion, especially synonymous expressions, and also link cohesion are prominent elements of this text. The examination of this sermon from Nahj al-Balaghah based on Halliday's theory, further identifies its value and importance in both religious and literary contexts.