The Poetics of Islamic Literary Discourse: From Theoretical Formulation to Narrative and Dramatic Realization in the Works of Imad al-Din Khalil and Naguib al-Kilani

Mohammed Abdulkareem Yaseen

doi:10.61850/lij.v6i2.171

Mohammed Abdulkareem Yaseen

Yozgat Bozok University, Faculty of Theology, Arabic Department

This study examines five interrelated dimensions of literary theory—narrative, dramatic, poetic, linguistic, and rhetorical—as articulated in the Qur’an and elaborated by al-Jurjani, al-Qazwini, and al-Sakkaki, and how these dimensions are reconfigured in the fiction and theatre of Naguib al-Kilani and Imad al-Din Khalil. Using these two writers as case studies, the article explores their respective contributions to the theorization of “Islamic literature” and traces the correspondences between their systematic definitions of the term and the aesthetic, linguistic, and intertextual procedures through which these definitions are realized in selected novels, plays, and short stories. Employing a comparative descriptive–analytical method, the research combines close reading with lexical, stylistic, and intertextual analysis, foregrounding each author’s conception of literary function, the organization of their lexical fields and stylistic patterns, and their deployment of Qur’anic and historical intertexts as dynamic, dialogic resources. The findings indicate a shared commitment to literature as an art form through which an Islamic worldview is articulated, while also revealing marked divergences in narrative practice: al-Kilani’s corpus is characterized by realism, social embeddedness, and didactic clarity, whereas Khalil’s writing is more symbolic, historically inflected, and formally experimental, often tending toward meta-narrative. The article concludes by arguing that their oeuvres should be read as sites of vibrant interaction between political ideology and artistic practice, thereby positioning them as significant interlocutors in ongoing debates in Arabic stylistics and Islamic literary criticism.

Keywords: Islamic literature; Islamic theatre; the aesthetics of narrative and drama; the Islamic novel; comparative Islamic literary criticism.

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Published: Dec 15, 2025

https://doi.org/10.61850/lij.v6i2.171

Issue: Vol. 6 No. 2 (2025): December 2025

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Yaseen , M. A. (2025). The Poetics of Islamic Literary Discourse: From Theoretical Formulation to Narrative and Dramatic Realization in the Works of Imad al-Din Khalil and Naguib al-Kilani. مجلة قضايا لغوية | Linguistic Issues Journal, 6(2), 137–159. https://doi.org/10.61850/lij.v6i2.171

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