Directive Discourse and the Construction of Moral Authority in Sūrat Hūd: Language, Power, and Social Reform

Abstract

This article examines the linguistic construction of moral authority and directive discourse in the Qur’anic narratives of Sūrat Hūd, framing them as discursive interventions aimed at societal reform. Engaging concerns central to social anthropology—authority, legitimacy, moral order, and community transformation—the study adopts a discourse-semantic approach to analyze how prophetic speakers mobilize language to confront corruption, negotiate resistance, and reconstitute collective norms. Drawing on selected narratives of Nūḥ, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Ibrāhīm, Lūṭ, and Shuʿayb as a coherent reform-oriented corpus, the analysis focuses on imperatives, vocatives, modality, conditionality, and evaluative lexicon. It demonstrates how these linguistic resources construct epistemic credibility, deny material self-interest, and frame compliance and rejection within a moral economy of accountability. By situating Qur’anic directive discourse within broader debates on social change and ethical authority, the article contributes to anthropological discussions of how language functions as a mechanism of moral regulation, communal boundary-making, and transformative social action.