The Mechanisms of Rhetorical Argumentation in Responding to Certain Claims of the People of the Book.

Abstract

Argumentation is considered a pivotal rhetorical tool for persuading the audience and influencing their attitudes and opinions. It is based on presenting evidence and proofs according to a logical progression known as the "argumentative hierarchy," which organizes arguments according to their strength and weakness, thereby granting argumentative discourse its distinctive persuasive character. Given that the People of the Book were known for reprehensible traits and false claims, the Qur’an confronted these claims with refuting arguments and decisive proofs that expose their falsehood and invalidate them. Accordingly, this study seeks to explore the rhetorical argumentative mechanisms employed in responding to some of the claims of the People of the Book, by selecting representative examples of such claims for descriptive and analytical examination, without aiming for exhaustive coverage, and drawing upon a set of Qur’anic verses and interpreting their argumentative dimensions in light of several exegetical works and specialized references related to the subject of the study.