نوع مقاله : علمی- پژوهشی
The Travel Prayer as a Religious Speech Act: A Comparative Study in Abrahamic Religions Using Hymes' SPEAKING Model
Mostafa Mahmoudi
Assistant Professor, Department of Tourism, Faculty of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
The present study aims to conduct a comparative examination of travel prayers in the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—based on Hymes’s SPEAKING model. This study analyzes three prayer texts: Tefilat HaDerech in Judaism, the sending of the disciples in Luke 10 in Christianity, and the travel prayer in the Islamic tradition, and reveals their structural, functional, and semantic differences and similarities. The research method is qualitative, analytical-interpretive, and based on documentary analysis of religious texts. The findings indicate that although all three religions view travel as an arena for experiencing human dependence on a transcendent power and for reproducing meanings of trust, reliance, and divine protection, their understanding of the nature of travel and the mode of communicating with God through prayer differs. In Judaism, prayer has a ritual and community-centered nature, with physical safety at its core. In early Christianity, travel is primarily a divine mission, and prayer serves an instructional-educational role, preparing the disciple to face social and spiritual threats. In Islam, the travel prayer has a personal and emotional form, and in addition to protection, it emphasizes the complete entrustment of one’s being, family, and faith to God, as well as the pursuit of closeness to Him. Unlike the two previous texts, the Islamic travel prayer is not a formal ritual prayer or discourse, but a personal supplication with mystical roots. It is suggested that these findings can be used in designing travel rituals, travel psychology studies, and expanding interfaith dialogue. The innovation of this research is the first use of Hymes’s SPEAKING model to examine travel prayers in Abrahamic religions
Keywords: Testaments, Islamic prayers, Travel rituals, Travel anxiety, Divine protection, Collective farewell
