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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Lectures On Ashura Sermon and the Pulpit (1) Ustaz Murtaza Mutahhari I seek refuge in the Hearer and Omniscient Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful The Beneficent (Allah) has taught the Qur'an (to Muhammad (P)). He created man and has taught him intelligible speech. The subject of todays speech is Khutba and the Pulpit'. As Khutba' also means speech, the subject of this speech is "speech" i.e.

it is its own subject. In the literary sense delivering a speech is called oration. The logicians have mentioned five kinds of speech which are called the 'Five Arts' One of these is oratory. This division has been made by Aristotle. This is not the occasion to narrate the history of oratory or to discuss what has been said about the technical merits of oratory. Some logicians have mentioned it in detail.

A voluminous book can be prepared only if we take into account the details given in Avicennas' book 'Shifa'. However, it is not proposed to discuss here these matters, because I wish that discussion should not take place only from the theoretical point of view. As the subject of our today's address is 'oration and the pulpit' and pulpit means speech on religious matters, our today's talk is about religious oratory and we are not concerned here with oratory in general and other kinds of speech.

Today I wish to throw light on the relationship of oratory with Islam. Oratory is connected with Islam in many ways. Firstly, oratory is an art and any art or craft can be used to strengthen a view or belief as well as to weaken it. As regards the difference between an art or a craft it is altogether a different matter. If you go to Masjid-i-Shah in Isfahan and look at the Dome of Sheikh Lutfullah, you will see how art, craft and artistry have assisted religion i.e.

how religious feelings and artistic talent have helped each other and how a religious slogan has assumed the shape of art and craftsmanship. Calligraphy is also an art. Exquisite Quranic writings e.g. the one written by Baysanqar in the hall of Maqsurah-i-Mashhad go to show how art and skill can become the means of strengthening religious feelings.

Oratory, too, is an art and a skill, and art and skill have their effect on the society and they are reckoned to be social factors; therefore, oratory is also one of the social factors. As a matter of fact no other art has as much effect on the society as oratory has.