Persuasion within a moral tradition depends on shared background assumptions

Evidence

What is important to note in this account is that none of Abir’s arguments would have had an effect on J amal had he not shared with her some sort of a commitment to their underlying assumptions-such as belief in the Hereafter, the inevitability that God’s wrath will be unleashed on those who habitually disobey His commands, and so on. Abir’s persuasion worked with J amal in part because he considered himself to be a Muslim, albeit one who was negli.. gent in his practice and prone to sinful acts. As an example of this, even when he did not pray in response to her repeated enjoinders, he did not offer a rea.. soned argument for his refu in the way an unbeliever might have when faced with a similar situation. Certain shared moral orientations structured the possibilities of the argument, and thus the shape of the conflict, between them. … The force of Abir’s persuasion lay partly in her perseverance, and partly in the tradition of authority she invoked to reform her husband, who was equally-if errantly-bound to the sensibili.. ties of this tradition. In other words, Abir’s effectiveness was not an individual but a collaborative achievement, a product of the shared ·matrix of back.. ground practices, sensibilities, and orientations that structured Jamal and Abir’s exchanges. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1198

What is important to note in this account is that none of Abir’s arguments would have had an effect on J amal had he not shared with her some sort of a commitment to their underlying assumptions-such as belief in the Hereafter, the inevitability that God’s wrath will be unleashed on those who habitually disobey His commands, and so on. … Certain shared moral orientations structured the possibilities of the argument, and thus the shape of the conflict, between them. … In other words, Abir’s effectiveness was not an individual but a collaborative achievement, a product of the shared ·matrix of back.. ground practices, sensibilities, and orientations that structured Jamal and Abir’s exchanges. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1198

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that moral persuasion is collaborative, not individual — an effectiveness built on shared background practices and orientations.
• DEEPTHINKING: Resists the liberal picture of argument as free-standing rationality: the force of persuasion derives from shared moral orientations the interlocutor cannot easily renounce. A potentially paradigm-shifting point about how persuasion actually works within tradition.
• XREF: Corroborates the Spivak/Ahmad postcolonial cluster: agency and critique operate within, not outside, tradition — mirrors the reader’s existing claim that epistemic frames limit critique. — connects to: Agreement in judgments stems from shared human nature, not just shared beliefs — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 419; Anti-rationalist epistemology links respect for tradition with market advocacy — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 284; Accepting the other as adversary is a conversion, not rational persuasion — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 460
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 1198