The Qur'anic discourse is a unique linguistic pattern that reflects highest methods of expression and communication that gather between illocutionary speech acts, like impact, persuasion, direction and linguistic tools to achieve this impact. The role of Qur'anic discourse exceeds conveying information to perform one of the most notable functions in pragmatics, i.e., directive and communicative functions that address mind and feelings together, like commands, prohibitions, requests, advices and other purposeful methods direct behavior or affect the addressee.

The importance of pragmatics is shown in the religious discourse and especially the Qur'anic text to understand how direction is built and how the command and prohibition are presented in a rhetorical and communicative way taking care of status of the speaker and the status of listener as well as the educational context.

Nelson [1] shows that " the beauty of Qur'anic language and style is itself considered a proof of the divine origin of the text".

Problem of the Study

The study addresses two key problems: first, how the directive speech acts are formed and employed in the Qur'anic discourse?   Second, what are the pragmatic features that distinguishes them according to the context, intention and the relationship between the addresser and the addressee?

Aims of the Study

The study aims at identifying the directive acts according to speech act theory as well as classifying them to commands, prohibition, advice. Analyzing the pragmatic dimensions according to context, intention and the relationship between the addresser and addressee. Revealing the unique rhetorical and communicative strategies used in the Qur’anic discourse to direct, guide, or influence the addressee. 

The study aims at analyzing how commands, prohibitions, requests and advices are expressed in the Qur'anic text as impactful communicative tools which carry semantic and contextual dimensions exceed the direct linguistic function.

Hypotheses of the Study

The study sets out of two hypotheses: the directive acts are essential means in communication and the Qur'anic text has various shapes of these acts that are employed accurately to achieve various purposes

The study, in its methodology, depends on a pragmatic descriptive analysis for chosen patterns of Qur'anic ayahs that include directive acts classified to commands, prohibitions, advices and requests. The study highlights communicative and rhetorical features that the Qur'anic discourse is distinguished with, particularly in its ability to affect the addressee and direct his behavior through precise linguistic methods and correct rhetorical contexts. 

The pragmatics and Religious Discourse Analysis

A pragmatic is the study of meaning in context of use, focusing on how speech is influenced with conditions of context and speakers' intentions to exceed the literal meaning to what is intended from speech. It deals with how linguistics understanding is affected with communication's conditions (speakers' intentions, their social relations, and their environment). Understanding speech becomes a key to understand human interaction, decisions and cultural performatives through mixing intention, context and impact.

Ibn-Jini [2] states that a pragmatics is the sounds that each nation uses to express its purposes. 

Grice [3] indicates that pragmatics deals with the way of understanding un explicitly stated meaning that exceeds the literal interpretation of words. He explains how listeners and addresser and addressee cooperate in communication to explain the unstated meaning. 

He views maxims for conversation to include cooperation as follows:

• "-Quantity (make contribution informative as is required)

• -Quality (make true contribution)

• -Relation (Be relevant)

• -Manner (Be perspicuous)"   

The pragmatic principles that are linked with analyzing speech acts:

• Context, 

• Intention,

• Politeness

• Grice's Maxims

A pragmatic is a branch of linguistics that is concerned with the study of language in context of use and how the language is used in true communicative situations, not only its structures or grammar. It seeks understanding the relationship between language and speakers' intentions as well as social and cultural matters that are linked with communications [4].

Leech [5] sees a pragmatic as the science that studies how people understand the communicative event or speech act in a context.

Brown and Levinson [7] look at pragmatics as the use of language in social context and the way addressers use politeness to manage relationships through communication. They concentrate on the concept of face, which includes (positive face: the wish to be liked) and (negative face: the wish to be free from imposition). Their pragmatic theory deals with the way people perform speech acts as well as the way of using politeness strategies to soften face-threatening acts (FTAs).

Dellash [7] states that a pragmatic is a linguistic specialization, studies how people use linguistic evidence in their discourses as it deals with how they interpret these discourses. 

Yule [8] gives many expressions for pragmatics, like speaker meaning, contextual meaning, more communication than is said, the expression of relative distance and the relationships between linguistic forms and their users. 

He indicates that people through their utterances, in order to express themselves, do not only say grammatical structures, but they do or perform actions that is called speech acts, like apology, promise, request.

Istitiyeh [9] states that pragmatics is the relation to which the linguistic structures indicate and the relations between language and contexts used and those who creates contexts are utterers of this language. 

Sehrawi [10] mentions that a pragmatics is a new science for human communication studies linguistic phenomenon in use and realizes human abilities for linguistic communication so, it is called linguistic use science.

Al-Mashta [11] mentions that pragmatics is recognized as the study of the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction, the effect of this choice on others, and how they come out at the general principles which mutual understanding is depended on. 

Hassan [12] assures that pragmatics addresses the way linguistic features and textual elements interact in the interpretation of utterances, enabling listeners to remove the gap between the literal meaning of an expression and the speaker's intended meaning.

Birner [13] indicates that pragmatics means, when uttering a sentence, knowing in what context to make inference, about what is said, as well as what must be understood of what has been uttered. So pragmatics represents the use of language in context. 

Blanchet [14] indicates that a pragmatics is the study that concerns with linguistic use and takes care of the issue of compatibility between symbolic expressions and modern referential and situational contexts.

Speech Act Theory

Speech Act theory is one of the basic theories in pragmatics. Its roots go back to the British philosopher Austin [15] in his famous lectures that have published in a book called (How to Do Things with Words). The theory discusses how the utterance makes changes in the world through the act of speaking [15].

He indicates that utterances change the world around us by functioning as actions, for example " I apologize" conveys regret, performs apology, repairs the relationship between addresser and addressee. Also the utterance " I promise to help you" performs more than stating an intention; it makes a social obligation. The linguistic function is not limited to describing the world as true or false, but there are another types of utterance perform speech act, like a man says to his wife " you are divorced"

The importance of speech acts comes from their ability to do social relations and shared understanding. Apologizing, congratulating or offering thanks do not mean communicating a message only, but also affect the social consistency. The pillar of this theory is the concept of "force"—a complex idea that reveals the speaker’s intention and the impact their utterance has on the listener. The locutionary force indicates the literal meaning expressed by the words themselves. For example, the sentence "The cat is on the mat" simply telling the cat's location. Grasping this basic, surface-level meaning is essential for interpreting the speaker’s intended message. The perlocutionary force concentrates on the influence an utterance has on the hearer. While the addresser may intend a certain illocutionary act (such as making a request), it is the addressee's interpretation and response that define the perlocutionary force. For example, saying "Can you pass the salt?" may be intended as a polite request (illocutionary force), but the addressee might respond by passing the salt (a perlocutionary effect) or simply acknowledge the request without acting on it (a different perlocutionary effect). This concept identifies the dynamic nature of communication, where the intention of the speaker interacts with the listener's perception to shape the final outcome [15].

The development of this theory, is by [16] through presenting the concept of illocutionary force. He recognizes many types of illocutionary acts, like asserting, requesting, promising, and commanding. Speech act theory exceeds performing the actions through language, but it performs the factors that affect the actions, which are speaker's intentions, hearer's interpretation, social context, and the shared knowledge between the two part of the speech.

Grice [3] states that speech acts takes part in constituting understanding of the world, as in "It's raining outside" which does not only convey information , but also change the conception of reality; and this refers to exceeding the literal meaning to the addresser's intended effect on addressee's understanding.

Searle [17] explains that the speech doesn't aim to convey information, but to achieve certain actions by saying it within a specific context. He distinguishes between two types of sentences: descriptive sentences which expresses truth or conveys fact and performative sentences which performs action through saying it like promise, command, etc...

Arminco mentions that speech act theory is considered one of the basic topics in pragmatics, where a pragmatics seeks to answer many questions: who speaks? To whom? What do you say when speak? How do you speak something and intend other? 

The effectiveness of direct speech acts largely depends on shared knowledge between the speaker and the listener; both must recognize the conventional meaning tied to the grammatical form employed [18]

Verschueren [19] mentions that direct speech acts show a tight relationship between the grammatical structure of the sentence and its intended illocutionary force, as in the declarative sentence " it's shining", performs the act of telling the fact. In the same way, the imperative sentence "close the door" expresses a command. So the addressee understands the addresser's intention directly depending on the kind of sentence and the context.

The clarity of speech comes from the conventional link between grammatical structures and specific speech acts. The users of language improve a common understanding of how specific forms of sentence are commonly used to achieve certain communicative purposes. For example, questions that have an interrogative pronoun (e.g., "Who travels abroad?") are more usually understood as genuine requests for information than those do not include such pronoun (e.g., "You have the salt?") Verschueren [19].

Sehrawi [10] refers to the speech act as central core in many pragmatic actions, and its essence is that every utterance is based on a formal, pragmatic, performative, and influential system.

Muhammed indicates that speech act theory is a basic dimension of pragmatics where it concentrates on what the speakers do to achieve, influence, and inform with taking in consideration the context of situation, the purpose of speech, the goals of communication and knowing the relationship between addressers and addressees.   

Directives in the Qur'anic Verses

Austin [15] explains that arising commands, requests, or suggestions, doesn't mean only saying things, but doing things which means arising directives. The achievement and force of these illocutionary acts based significantly on three circumstances: the context, the speaker's social role, the setting, and the accepted conventions.

Searle [16] clarifies directive as a kind of speech act which denotes the addresser's trial to get the addressee to do something. The illocutionary force of directives differs according to various elements, like (speaker's authority, the social situation, and the linguistic form). 

He divides speech acts into five divisions: (Assertives, Directives, Expressives, Commissives, Declaratives).

Al-Tabatabaei (1994:31) mentions that illocutionary purpose in directives is represented in directing the addressee to do certain thing and affecting it. The addresser must be sincere with his desire and present with his will. This division has groups of speech acts as: invocation, command, prohibition, interrogative, offers, etc. These acts vary in its illocutionary force according to the context and situation of discourse and according to the relation between speaker and listener.

Directive acts mean acts that are used by the addresser to direct addressee's behavior to do something. Directives can vary in politeness, directness, and force based on social and contextual factors [20].

Yule [8] explains directives as types of speech acts used by speakers to make someone doing something. They are suggestions, order, requests which are either positive or negative as in:

• A cup of tea

• Could you lend me a book, please

• Don't drink this

The addresser tries to make the world fit the words by the addressee 

Levinson [4] denotes that directive acts are ones of the speech acts which make the addressee perform something. Directives show how people use language to influence others' behavior. The social context and evidence are very important in interpreting directives as in (can you open the door?) which is understood as a request, not merely a question about an ability. Directives come with many linguistic forms as follows:

• Commands (Do)

• 2.Orders (Don't do)

• 3.Request (Can you….?)

• 4.Suggestions (It's better to…)

• 5.Warning (Don't do this). These acts differ according to obligation degree, so command is more obligatory than suggestion

Verschueren [19] indicates that directives, a distinctive category of speech acts, are intended to urge the listener to perform a specific action. They often appear as commands (e.g., "Close the window") or requests (e.g., "Can you please pass the salt?"). The speaker’s goal is to impact the listener’s behavior, and the effectiveness of the directive depends on whether the listener follows through.

Mey [21] confirms that the strength of a directive speech act is formed by the addresser's authority, the institutional or cultural context of  situation, and the linguistic form ( imperative, interrogative, or suggestive) 

Al-Shihri [22] calls this the “directive strategy,” which comes from the authoritative relationship between the interlocutors within a discourse. Its basic illocutionary goal is to enable the speaker (the sender) to direct and influence the hearer (the receiver) toward the successful achievement of the intended act. This strategy focuses on the principle of politeness. The mechanism of the action is moving from the world to the words, and its condition of sincerity is fulfilled through genuine intention and a sincere desire to guide. 

The directives are the acts a speaker directs toward the listener with the aim of guiding or urging them to carry out a specific action in the future. This indicates that such speech acts are inherently directive or imperative in nature, regardless of their grammatical form [23-24].

Sadiq [25] mentions that directives have two types: direct whose action is explicit (command, prohibition, request), and indirect whose action is implicit as in (diligence is useful) that means the action (strive). 

A-Imperative (Command) 

Al-Alawi [26] indicates that (the imperative) is a linguistic form used to urge an action from the addressee. This urging implies a source of authority characterized by superiority and obligation, whereby the request is issued from a position of dominance, compelling the recipient to comply as in the following ayahs:

التوبة: 2

"So, travel freely (O Mushrikun) for four months (as you will) throughout the land, but know that you cannot escape (from the punishment of) Allah; and Allah will disgrace the disbelievers" [27].

The verse contains two performative verbs (travel freely) and (know), both carrying a performative force directed at the disbelievers. This performativity is binding, especially given that the surah opens with a declaration of disavowal from them. The performative act is realized through the command to travel, that is, to move about the land aimlessly and tend to one's affairs in safety, free from the threat of the sword Al-Tabarsi. 

The Qur'anic imperative is characterized with clarity and the pragmatic feature shows that the imperative carries a high obligatory power in the following ayah:

الحجر: 94

"Therefore proclaim openly (Allah's Message-Islamic Monotheism) that which you are commanded, and turn away from Al-Mushrikun (polytheists, idolaters, and disbelievers) [27].

البقرة: 144

"So turn your face in the direction of Al-Masjid-Al-Haram (at Makkah). And wheresoever you people are, turn your faces (in prayer) in that direction.

This ayah contains an imperative or command to every Muslim in every place to make the Kaaba his qibla.

The directive act in the following ayah is an advice and the pragmatic feature appears in the imperative that carries the characteristic of moral and behavioral direction:

البقرة: 83

"And speak good to people [i.e. enjoin righteousness and forbid evil, and say the truth about Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم"") [27].

يس: 6

"In order that you may warn a people whose forefathers were not warned, so they are heedless [27].

The command is expressed using the imperative lam (lam al-amr), which denotes a request for the performance of an action in a manner implying authority. However, the imperative expressed with lam al-amr may convey other meanings that are understood from the context, such as invocation, Al-Iltimas (Begging), permission or threat.

B-Interrogative

Interrogative means a request for knowing something un known before with a special article. The interrogative form may move from its denotative meaning to convey various figurative senses or non-literal interpretations which are derived from the context of the discourse and the surrounding situational cues [28].

Muhammed explains that interrogative form in this state does not need explicit answer, but it is used by the speaker to express his intention indirectly in order to achieve indirect rhetorical functions, including affirmation, negation, rebuke, and the evocation of curiosity as in the following ayah, where the following interrogative performs the function of rebuking the Jews and denying their actions:

البقرة: 85

"Then do you believe in a part of the Scripture and reject the rest?" [27]. 

آل عمران: 99

"Say: O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Why do you stop those who have believed, from the Path of Allah, seeking to make it seem crooked?" [27].

Allah Almighty orders his Prophet to rebuke people of scripture for misleading the believers. The interrogative form (لم)(why) is an indirect speech act, it's illocutionary force is rebuking.

C-Prohibition

Al-Syuti  expresses the prohibition as a request to stop doing something and its form is (don't do it).

The prohibition is just like the imperative in use, i.e. it is based on superiority from the speaker. As in the following ayahs: 

• الإسراء: 32 "And come not near to unlawful sex" (Al-Hilali and Khan,1996:372) [27]

• الأعراف: 205 "And remember your Lord within yourself, humbly and with fear and without loudness in words in the mornings, and in the afternoons and be not of those who are neglectful” [27]

The uttering form (be not of those who are neglectful) discovers a direct speech act which is a prohibition of neglecting the remembrance of Allah Almighty as well as an implicit reference and an indirect perlocutionary force which is warning from neglecting the remembrance of Allah Almighty [29] 

The form of prohibition moves from its denotative sense to other indirect rhetorical functions understood from context of speech, like Begging or Iltimas if the ranks of the speaker and the listener are equal, invocation as in the saying of the supplicant in the following ayah: 

آل عمران: 8

"They said: Our Lord! Let not our hearts deviate (from the truth) after You have guided us [27]

C- Vocative

Vocative is one of the directive speech acts, it is directed from the addresser to the addressee to come by the vocative article (الياء). 

Al-Farabi  indicates that the force of one type of speech acts i.e. vocative, is the force of asking about something.

Vocative urges the listener to react the speaker. It is connected with the imperative and prohibition and it is the first action done by the addresser to be able to highlight his intentions. The mechanism of vocative in the Qur'anic discourse fulfills various functions as temptation, warning, wonder and regret [30].

'Aalyan [30] states that a vocation, moves from its direct illocutionary act, which is paying attention to (what will be said) an indirect illocutionary force represented with incapacitating and terrorizing comes to warn mankind and jinn as in the following ayah:

الرحمن: 33

" O assembly of jinn and men! If you have power to pass beyond the zones of the heavens and the earth, then pass beyond (them)! But you will never be able to pass them, except with authority (from Allah)!" [27].

He  adds that vocative is not intended for itself, but the pragmatic intention for discourse is for the imperative and prohibition that follow it.

D-Negation 

Al-Makhzoumi [31] mentions that negation is a linguistic method decided by speech occasions, as it is a denial method used to move away what the addressee thinks of.

The following ayah is an example of negation:

آل عمران: 99

"Say: O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Why do you stop those who have believed, from the Path of Allah, seeking to make it seem crooked, while you (yourselves) are witnesses (to Muhammad صلى الله   عليه وسلم   as a Messenger of Allah and Islam (Allah's religion, i.e. to worship none but Him Alone)? And Allah is not unaware of what you do” [27].

The method of negation is functioned here to achieve indirect illocutionary purpose of threatening and intimidation for the people of Scripture for their misleading of the believers [32].

Muhammad mentions that the following ayah is an example of negation where the speech act comes in the form of negation, but behind this negation there is an implicit speech act means divine care and observation, which requires gratitude and leaving disbelief:

المؤمنون: 17

"And indeed We have created above you seven heavens (one over the other), and We are never unaware of the creation” [27]. 

Indirect Directives 

The indirect directives are speech acts, in which the speaker direct his request or question or advice indirectly, i.e. They are said with the styles called (performatives). 

Searle presents key ideas about indirect acts as follows: mentioning that indirect acts convey meaning and achieve directive function, where its understanding depends on context, shared knowledge and rational inference, defining the double-layered illocutionary structure as literal act (asking about ability) and the intended directive (requesting action),clarifying the way of indirect directives based on fulfilling felicity conditions, indicating that the indirect directives is a category through which, the speaker aims to affect the listener's action as in (requests, hints, or suggestions) [17]

Brown and Levinson [6] regard the indirect directives as a politeness strategy for mitigating face-threatening acts(FTAs) by appearing less forceful and reducing the imposition on the addressee. They suggest "off-record" (the most indirect form of politeness depends on hint or ambiguity to avoid the direct responsibility) that is used more in the sensitive addressing situations and high context communication.

The indirect acts come with various linguistic forms as questions and conditional clauses as in the following ayah:

الشرح: 1

"Have We not opened your breast for you ( O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم" (Al-Hilali and Khan,1996:841).

This style is a performative interrogative not uttered to have an answer, but an indirect direction for the prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم to feel reassured [27].

النساء: 66

"But if they had done what they were told, it would have been better for them, and would have strengthened their faith” [27].

The use of (لو)(if) in this ayah indicates wishing a certain act to happen and it is indirect expression of request or advice, so it is indirect direction to do good or avoid evil.

The following ayah is a conditional clause used to express indirect direction as it encourages benevolence and piety: 

النساء: 128

"But if you do good and keep away from evil, verily, Allah is Ever Well-Acquainted with what you do [27].

The study shows that the directive illocutionary acts in the Qur'anic texts are characterized with a pragmatic linguistic variety that reflects the depth of the Qur'anic discourse and its rhetorical richness. The directive acts are not limited to direct commands and prohibitions only, but they include indirect methods, like conditions and wishes that achieve impactful directive functions.

The pragmatic analysis shows that understanding these acts needs paying attention to the relationship between the addresser and addressee and to the context of saying them, so these directive styles are used in the Glorious Qur'an in a way guides the audience to the intended behavior.

So, the study of the directive illocutionary acts pragmatically opens new horizons to understand the Qur'anic discourse and the interaction between text and addressee achieves the communication.

This study contributes in renewing the Qur'anic studies as well as deepening a pragmatic understanding for Qur'anic text as a communicative text addressed to a different audience across the ages.

1. K. Nelson, “The art of reciting the Qur'an,” Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2001.

2. Ibn-Jini, “Al khas’es,” Dar Al-Hilal and Egyptian Cultural Ministry, General Egyptian Book Authority, Egypt, 1952.

3. H.P. Grice, “Logic and conversation,” in Syntax and semantics, vol. 3, no. , P. Cole and J. Morgan, Eds. New York: Academic Press, 1975, pp. 41–58.

4. S.C. Levinson, “Pragmatics,” Cambridge University Press, 1983.

5. G. Leech, “The principles of pragmatics,” London: Longman, 1983.

6. P. Brown and S.C. Levinson, “Politeness: Some universals in language usage,” Cambridge University Press, 1987.

7. J. Dellash, “An introduction to linguistics,” Algeria: University Publications Office, 1992.

8. G. Yule, “Pragmatics,” Oxford University Press, 1996.

9. S. Istitiyeh, “The stations of vision (an integrative approach to textual interpretation),” Wael Publishing and Distribution House, Amman-Jordan, 2003.

10. M. Sehrawi, “At-tadawlyah ind ulmaa' al-arab,” Al-Tali'a House for Publishing and Distribution, Beirut-Lebanon, 2005.

11. M. Al-Mashta, “Linguistic fragments,” Dar Al-Saqi, London, 1st ed., 2008.

12. F. Hassan, “Pragmatics: An attempt to empirically regulate linguistic study,” Al-Aqlam J., special issue on pragmatics, 2008.

13. B. Birner, “Introduction to pragmatics,” Wiley Blackwell, UK, 2013.

14. Ph. Blanchet, “Pragmatics from Austin to Goffman,” Trans. Saber Habasha, Dar Al-Hiwar, Lattakia, Syria, 2007.

15. J.L. Austin, “How to do things with words,” Oxford University Press, 1962.

16. J.R. Searle, “Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language,” Cambridge University Press, 1969.

17. J.R. Searle, “Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech acts,” Cambridge University Press, 1979.

18. H.H. Clark, “Using language,” Cambridge University Press, 1996.

19. J. Verschueren, “How are speech acts mediated? A theoretical framework,” J. Pragmat., vol. 31, no. 1, 1999, pp. 111–124.

20. J. Thomas, “Meaning in interaction: An introduction to pragmatics,” Longman, 1995.

21. J. Mey, “Pragmatics: An introduction,” Blackwell Publishing, 2001.

22. A. Al-Shihri, “Discourse strategies: A pragmatic linguistic approach,” Beirut: Dar Al-Kitab Al-Jadeed, 1st ed., 2004.

23. M. Nahleh, “New horizons in contemporary linguistic research,” University Knowledge House, Egypt, 2002.

24. Y. Khalaf, “Speech acts in Nahj al-Balagha,” PhD dissertation, Al-Mustansiriyah University, College of Education, 2016.

25. K. Sadiq, “The pragmatic and rhetorical argumentative style: Theorization and application to the Meccan Suras,” Difaf Publications, Beirut-Lebanon, 1st ed., 2015.

26. Y. Al-Alawi, “Al-taraz containing the secrets of rhetoric and the sciences of the truths of intimitability,” Al-Muqtataf Press, Egypt, 1914.

27. M.T. Al-Hilali and M.M. Khan, “The noble Qur'an: English translation of the meanings and commentary,” King Fahad Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an, 1996.

28. A. Atiq, “Ilmul-ma'ani,” Dar Al-Nahtha Al-Arabiya for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, Beirut-Lebanon, 2009.

29. M. Ibn-A' Ashur, “Al-tahrir wal-tanwir,” Tunisian Publishing House, Tunisia, 1984.

30. H. Boufrouma, “The addressee in the Qur'anic discourse,” PhD dissertation, Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Mouloud Ma'amary University, Algeria, 2010.

31. M. Al-Makhzoumi, “In the Arabic criticism and direction,” Dar Al-Arabi, Beirut, Al-R'aed, 1986.

32. R. Aalyan, “Directive speech acts and their purposes in Surat Al-Rahman,” J. Sci. Res. Arts, no. 20, 2019, p. 7, Univ. Ain Shams.