Religious quotations as declarative speech acts of arbitrators in shariah-based reconciliation case proceedings

• Main Authors: Ado, Mohammed Ahmad, Bidin, Siti Jamilah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: BP Islam. Bahaism. Theosophy, etc
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/21598/1/AJMS%205%202%202017%2059%2068.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/21598/; http://www.ajms.co.in/sites/ajms2015/index.php/ajms/article/view/2329

Declarative utterances are the emphatic speeches officially uttered by speaker in giving information or announcement about something or its nature of being during Reconciliation Case Proceedings (RCP).This paper examines the use of religious quotation as a declarative speech act (SA) in Shariah-based RCP towards resolving family disputes on marital issues (FDMI).This study utilised 12 cases on FDMI and three Cases were found without a trace of this kind of illocutionary act.With the aid of Nvivo software and Searle’s declarative typology of SA, the data were coded and analysed.A total of 30 interactive turn-takings (ITT) of quotation utterances were being used by 14 participants.The paper revealed declarative act of quotation utterances as a sociopragmatic feature and monopoly practice of court officials in shariah-based RCP.The paper has also shown that court officials use verbatim quotes from Qur’an (the holy book of Allah), sayings of prophet and his disciples or the Islamic scholars during RCP in order to assert common ground, or give a hint on the position of Islam, shariah law, implication or meanings and decisions about a particular issue in dispute. The moderate use of the declarative act of quotation utterances court officials implies that it is not a mandatory SA in shariah-based RCP, yet it is a unique feature with significant impact in achieving success of dispute resolution.