A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GESTURES AND BODY LANGUAGE IN CONSTRUCTING SUFI IDENTITY IN PAKISTANI MUSIC VIDEOS

Abstract

This study presents a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis of gesture and body language in three contemporary Pakistani Sufi music videos: Sultan Ateeq Rehman's Asaa Ik Din Sab Nu Yad Araan, Ramzan Jani's Aj Aakhan Waris Shah Nu, and Muhammad Samie's Maikada 3: Bus Ik Nigah. Adopting a case study design, the analysis integrates McNeill's (1992) gesture typology, Kress and van Leeuwen's (2020) social semiotic visual grammar, and Halid’s (2022) framework of spiritual performativity to examine how gesture and body language function as semiotic resources in constructing Sufi identity within the digital media context. Systematic gesture coding and multimodal discourse interpretation reveal a shared and culturally specific gestural vocabulary across all three performers, encompassing the upward gaze encoding hal (spiritual absorption), the bilateral open-palm gesture encoding dua (supplication), the deictic arm extension encoding munajat (petitionary invocation), and the raised index finger encoding tawhid (divine unity), alongside significant performer-specific variation that constructs distinct Sufi subject positions. The analysis identifies three principal mechanisms through which gesture encodes Sufi theological concepts: spatial metaphor organised along the body's vertical axis, semiotic synchrony between gesture strokes and key Sufi vocabulary items, and performative embodiment whereby the body enacts rather than represents spiritual states. The findings establish that gesture in Sufi music video is constitutive of theological meaning rather than supplementary to it, and that the performer's body functions as the primary site through which centuries-old devotional traditions are sustained and communicated to contemporary digital audiences. The study advances a replicable methodological model for applying gesture analysis to mediated religious performance in non-Western contexts, contributing to multimodal discourse studies, Pakistani media research, and the broader study of how spiritual traditions maintain coherence through algorithmically mediated content.