Morphological Forms and Pragmatic Functions of Imperative Constructions in the Qur'an: An Analysis of Verses About the Israelites

Abstract

The Israelites, as one of the communities most frequently mentioned in the Qur'an, received various forms of divine guidance and commands that reflected an educational and authoritative communication strategy. The imperative expressions addressed to them were an important form of speech act in communication because they contained meaning, directive influence, and profound pragmatic implications. This investigation seeks to categorize the morphological patterns of imperative constructions found in Qur'anic passages addressing the Israelites while examining their underlying pragmatic purposes through Al-Hasyimi's theoretical framework of imperatives. The methodology adopts a qualitative research design utilizing content analysis of textual materials. The corpus encompasses 17 Qur'anic verses, revealing 18 occurrences (94.74%) manifesting as fiʻil amr and 1 occurrence (5.26%) appearing as masdar. Classical and contemporary exegetical sources, including Tafsir Al-Misbah, Tafsir Al-Kasyāf, and Tafsir Al-Nasafi, provided analytical support for validation and triangulation purposes. Results demonstrate that fiʿil amr represents the predominant imperative structure. Pragmatically, these imperatives fulfill six distinct functions: supplication (al-du’ā’), request (amr al-iltimās), guidance (amr al-irshād), threat (amr al-tahdīd), reflection (amr al-iʿtibār), and reminder of divine favor (amr al-imtinān). Notably, (amr al-irshād) emerges as the most frequently employed function, highlighting the Qur'an's pedagogical emphasis on ethical and spiritual development. This research advances Qur'anic pragmatic scholarship by illuminating the communicative complexity of divine directives and establishing groundwork for subsequent comparative discourse analysis and Islamic educational methodology studies.