The Role of Arabic Language in the Usuli Cognitive Framework: Investigating Linguistic Functionality and Polemical Dialogues

Abstract

This article aims to explore the status of the Arabic language within the Usuli epistemological framework, addressing it from two perspectives. The first perspective is its role as the language of the sacred revelation and the language of the explanatory discourse that engages with it, particularly in the field of deriving legal rulings (ahkam shar‘iyya). It treats the Arabic language as a natural language, governed by a linguistic system similar to other natural languages, consisting of various linguistic levels employed to understand the meanings of words and syntactic structures that form Sharia discourse. The second perspective emphasizes the Arabic language as the primary tool used by scholars of various Islamic theological sects, each according to its doctrinal stance, to support their positions in what is known as doctrinal polemics. These polemical debates involved both linguistic and non-linguistic tools, and the theological disputes between Islamic sects served as an arena for establishing and affirming the fundamental principles of their doctrinal and intellectual schools. The article employs a descriptive methodology, tracing the role occupied by the Arabic language in Usuli thought and analyzing how it was utilized in the derivation of legal rulings on one hand, and how the theological schools viewed it as both the material and interpretive tool of religious discourse on the other hand.