Prophet Muhammad’s character in modern Arabic Christian poetry from a pragmatic perspective

This study elucidates how modern Arabic Christian poets describe the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) through a pragmatic analysis (PA) lens. It shows how they foster cultural rapport and challenge preconceptions about the Prophet Muhammad’s Character. It draws on selected poetic texts from Arab Christian poets to show how these poets construct empathetic portrayals that transcend religious boundaries. Findings reveal that Christian poets use poetry as a humanizing tool to defy stereotypes and build cultural rapport. The selected illustrative verse shows their focus on PBUH Muhammad’s qualities, such as honesty, compassion, tolerance, and trustworthiness, as well as the difficulty of disseminating messages. In their poetry, the Arab Christian poets use pragmatic tools such as speech acts, presuppositions, conversational implicatures, and affectivity. This interfaith poetic engagement reflects a deep cultural and spiritual interconnectedness within the Arab community. The study demonstrates that linguistic choices, contextual cues, and intertextual references shape an image of the PBUH within a non-Muslim religious framework. The PA adopted in this study made it possible to enhance understanding of the communicative strategies in modern Arabic Christian poetry and of the harmony between Muslim and Christian communities in the Arab context.