The Narrative Structure of Ashab al-Kahf Story

Abstract

This paper examined the narrative structure, language style, and chronology of Aşḥāb Al-Kahfi story in Al-Qur'an. The research data were obtained from Al-Qur'ān. The Qur’anic verses which told about Aşḥāb Al-Kahf were collected in Surah Al-Kahf (18) verses 9-26. The results showed that the narrative structure of this story consists of orientation I, sequence of events I, coda I, complication, orientation II, sequence of events II, orientation III, coda II, orientation IV, and resolution. These structures are interrelated and form a logical, holistic, and beautiful story unit that fulfil all elements of Mark Anderson’s and Kathryn Anderson’s narrative-structure concepts. Meanwhile, the dialogue style dominates in the presentation of stories that are in accordance with the journey of the Prophet’s da’wa. The dialogue style used in the presentation of the story is calm and acceptable. This style is intended to defend the call of the prophet's da'wa and refute people’s rejection in the middle Meccan period through the theme of monotheism value and the mention of Allah’s powers. This study contributes to putting the theory of stylistics and narratology in the reading of story verses. Hence, this paper suggests a further study of the story verse covering the narrative structure’s meaning and function as well as aspects of the beauty of pronunciation and story verse meanings.

Keywords

• complications
• dialogue
• monotheism
• middle meccan period