ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the rhetorical tools and strategies applied in Faḍlallāh’s argumentation for the necessity of empowerment. The use of rhetoric in his al-Islām wa-manṭiq al-quwwa, as well as in his other writings and sermons, are omnipresent, manifold, and predominant. They include arguments from scripture, necessity, virtue, and instrumentality. Faḍlallāh has recourse to rhetorical questions, antinomy, metaphors, and repetition to make his discourse convincing and effective. Moreover, he uses master narratives to frame his project of power within the ShīꜤī salvation history. His rhetoric constructs a religious ideology in which force is understood as virtuous, instrumental, and necessary to promote the interests of the ShīꜤa.
