LEGITIMIZING BELIEF IN GOD THROUGH SCIENCE, REASON, AND REVELATION: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED LECTURES BY PROF DR MUHAMMAD TAHIR-UL-QADRI  

Abstract

This study examines how belief in God is linguistically legitimized in Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Urdu lecture series Khuda Ko Kyun Manain, Mazhab Ko Kyun Apnain? Lectures1, 4 and 6 were selected through criterion-based purposive sampling for qualitative analysis using van Leeuwen's legitimation framework. These lectures demonstrate sustained treatment of invisible realities, embryology, natural law and cosmic order. . It examines the linguistic realization of these strategies through reporting verbs, rhetorical questions, epistemic modality, presupposition, analogy, evaluation and scriptural intertextuality. The analysis of 14 extracts is based on the categories of authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation and mythopoesis. Findings reveal that the most prominent recurring strategies in the selected texts are theoretical rationalization, expert and conformity authorization, and moral evaluation. Instrumental rationalization and mythopoesis do not appear as independent patterns in the selected data. The study contributes to research on contemporary Urdu religious discourse by demonstrating how scientific, rational, and scriptural resources are selectively combined to construct religious certainty.