جو نظر نظر میں سما رہا ترا کون تھا
پسِ آئنہ جو کھڑا رہا ترا کون تھا
وہ جو جانتا تھا تمھارے خواب و خیال سب
جو حقیقتوں میں بسا رہا ترا کون تھا
یہ جہانِ وسوسہ ساز سارا گمان ہے
وہ جہاں نما جو بنا رہا ترا کون تھا
جسے حسرتیں تھیں اکیلے جینے کا روگ تھا
جو اداسیوں سے بجھا رہا ترا کون تھا
جو فضاؔ کو دیکھنے کے لیے بڑی دیر تک
سرِ بزمِ ناز کھڑا رہا ترا کون تھا
Maulānā Muḥammad Ismāʿīl al-Ūdwī al-Shikārpurī (1897-1970) was one of the very prominent scholarly personalities of Pakistan. His life and works are studied and analyzed in detail elsewhere. (See. IRJAH, Faculty of Arts, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Vol. 42, 2014 and Ma’arif Research Journal, Islamic Research Academy, Karachi, issue. 13, 2017). This paper mainly deals with al-Ūdwī’s theory of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān. With regard to the theory of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān, classical scholars including al-Rummani, al-Khaṭṭābī, al-Baqillani, al-Rāzī significantly emphasize the linguistic nature of iʿjāz as an argument to support the doctrine of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān. Al-Ūdwī on the other hand, after accepting the linguistic iʿjāz of the Qurʾān, proceeds to go further than his predecessors in supporting the doctrine of iʿjāz al-Qurʾān by emphasizing and situating iʿjāz in the content of the Qurʾān. Therefore, his book Nūr al-Īqān bi iʿjāz al-Qurʾān seems to be considerably different in its arguments from his predecessors’ theory. There is no exaggeration to say that al-Ūdwī has distinctly added several new arguments in his book, which, according to him, provide the certainty in the doctrine of iʿjāz, as he names his book as Nūr al-Īqān bi Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān, ‘Light of the faith through the inimitability of the Qurʾān.
Language use in academic discourse i.e. in classroom sessions and conference presentations is a controversial issue among linguists and academicians as they carry contrasting perspectives regarding use of language in academia. Some linguists believe that code-switching is an essential part of academic discourse while some other suggests that mutual intelligibility may not be possible if the learners switch their language during communication. The variation of the viewpoints creates a niche to explore the use of language in Pakistani classroom sessions and conference presentations. This study explores various purposes of code-switching in academic discourse including elucidation, giving instruction, translation, change/introduce the topic, asking question and building argument. Pakistan is a multi-lingual country and it has rich linguistic diversity where people use provincial and regional languages and medium of instruction in classrooms is a serious concern for academicians. Moreover, the study portrays present situation and describes future implications from students’ perspective.The second main objective of the study is to explore the contextual relevance, quantity of information and perspicuousness in academic discourse (classroom session and conference presentation). To conduct this study thirty classroom sessions and forty conference presentations were recorded and transcribed. Furthermore, this research highlights the issues related to contextual use of language, quantity of information and clarity of expression in academic discourse by giving examples of transcribed data. The findings reveal the purposes of code-switching and contextual uses of language in academic discourse with specific reference to pragmatic ideology. In the light of the findings of the current study I propose Relative Relevance Model of Communication which has potential to explore relevance and relative relevance in classroom sessions and conference presentations especially. Moreover, this model may also be employed on other genres in order to address pragmatic manifestations with special focus on relevance.