THE RHETORICAL STRATEGIES OF AN INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED PREACHER: NOUMAN ALI KHAN

Abstract

Nouman Ali Khan, a distinguished preacher at the international level, accentuates a remarkable phenomenon in preaching history as he has been consecutively listed among 500 influential Muslims for almost a decade. This raises the question of how prominent his preaching approach is in the realm of Islamic discourse. Despite his incredible achievement in this sphere, there is a paucity of his discourse analysis to exemplify the preaching strategies to other preachers. Hence, this study aims to investigate his video’s most crucial persuasive features to identify the rhetorical strategies. The transcribed video scripts were analysed using ATLAS.ti 23 through thematic analysis, guided by Fairclough’s triple-dimensional model. Regarding the preliminary analysis done, the present emphasis is on analysing the text rather than discursive and social practices, which is the highlight of the paper. As a result, Khan’s speech on the ‘Power of Bismillah’ orchestrates three significant elements of ethos, pathos, and logos based on Aristotle’s persuasion triad. It concludes that logos is the highest component Khan utilises. The significance of such approaches in giving da’wah will enhance one’s skills when delivering Islamic knowledge to the audience. The study has implications for Muslims, especially preachers worldwide, as a milestone in conducting effective preaching.