The Emotional Plot of Grief: Affective Pedagogy and the Trajectory of Sabr in Qur’anic Historical Narratives

• MUHAMMAD WAQAR ASLAM

  Author

The field of emotional history provides a novel lens through which to examine the dynamics of religious texts, facilitating a richer and more nuanced understanding of human action and belief systems across disparate epochs. This essay undertakes a critical investigation of the language of emotion, focusing specifically on the expression and management of grief (ḥuzn or ghamma) as conveyed through the historical narratives embedded within the Holy Qur’ān. While existing scholarship has acknowledged the rhetorical deployment of emotion in religious practice and general textual aesthetics, there remains a significant gap concerning the structural function of these feelings within narrative pedagogy, particularly the concept of the "emotional plot". This research argues that the Qur’ān systematically employs distinct emotional plots, which are fundamentally rooted in the profound human experience of grief, in order to cultivate a morally disciplined and ethically cohesive community. This methodology demonstrates a striking and powerful emotional resonance that successfully transcends historical and geographical boundaries, clearly influencing both the 7th-century Arabian audience and the interpretive traditions of modern Muslim societies, most notably the 20th-century Subcontinent. The essay employs a rigorous Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of primary source narratives—including the comprehensive emotional trials of Yusuf, the physical and spiritual devastation of Ayyub, and the existential grief and fear experienced by Maryam and Musa’s mother—to establish that these ancient stories serve as sophisticated, divinely sanctioned lessons in faith. These lessons are delivered through the explicit acknowledgement, theological validation, and ultimate transcendence of intense human emotional suffering, thus affirming the absolute centrality of affective experience to Islamic piety, historical memory, and continuous spiritual development.

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