The Qatari Forum for Authors held the thirteenth episode of “Qatar Public Speaking” within its YouTube channel as part of the activities of Doha, Capital of Culture in the Islamic World 2021.
The initiative was presented from the House of Wisdom at the headquarters of Ministry of Culture and Sports by the linguist Professor Ahmad Al-Janabi who confirmed that the initiative is one of the activities of the Doha Capital of Culture in the Islamic World pointing out that this session is the third round of the “Critic Preacher and Critical Sermons” in which the preachers listen to a typical sermon and then criticize it constructively and criticism in this round will focus exclusively on body languages.
Professor Ahmad Al-Janabi announced the names of the winners in this round of public speaking as the preacher Ayat Hamad won the first position followed by the preacher Hafsa Rekrak in the second position while the awarding committee withheld the third position.
The episode was opened by Mr. Abdullah Al-Khalaf by delivering one of the sermons of Qas bin Saeda Al-Ayadi, the famous preachers of the Arabs. This sermon comes as a revival of the immortal Arab heritage. On his part, Mr. Mohammad Al-Shabrawi, the language partner of the initiative, gave an introduction to body language to prepare the preachers when their turn comes by employing it in their sermons describing the body language as a universal language. Pronunciation differs from one to another. One of them speaks in classical Arabic and the second speaks in dialect and some of them speak Arabic and others speak other languages; however, the body language is the same and it has many indications.
He said, “The Body language may be expressive and it may be confusing and this is evident by examples as we see some of them master the body language, express it and increase the strength of its effectiveness using the language of his body and others stand idle and sometimes they don’t move from their place at all.
Abu Shammer, one of the pre-Islamic preachers, used to stand in front of people without moving a finger throughout his sermon and they criticized him while others enjoy good speech and expression such as Al-Jahiz, Al-Mubarrad and others who mastered the use of body language and if its use was recently restricted to some people, others don’t know how to use body language and others are afraid to use it for fear of being distracting to the audience.”
In turn, Professor Ahmad Al-Janabi introduced the preacher Ghiyath Al-Khayami who gave a model sermon entitled “The Hurdle Race” and the preachers criticized it. During his sermon, he spoke about the family, the fathers care for his children and that in case the father is good his children will be good and that each father should care for bringing up his children in the best way.
As about the preacher Ayat Hamad who also participated for the first time in the public speaking, she described the model sermon as being distinctive and included harmony between movements of the body and words of the sermon and this made the preacher excel in the selections of words and this was reflected in her excellence in exploiting the space available to her on the stage and looks of the audience that were directed to the right place and she was stopped by some of the phrases used by the model preacher in addition to his movement and rotation on the stage once to the right and another to the left.
As about the preacher Hafsa Rekrak who participated in the last round of the public speaking, she said that the model preacher was able to transform the sports topic which is jumping over barriers into a social topic with distinction and focused on the points related to the body language that was compatible with the topic raised and this attracted the audience.
Professor Al-Janabi presented the awarding committee to achieve balance between the criticism of critics and standards of Qatar Public Speaking in the field of critical sermons. Did they perform their role according to these standards or not?
In turn, Abdullah Al-Khalaf, member of the permanent awarding committee at Qatar Public Speaking, said that preachers provided what delighted the heart and this reflects that Public Speaking is moving on the right path to the best and he thanked Professor Ghaith Al-Himi, who gave an exemplary sermon that fully aligns with the aim of this round of sermons. In this sermon, he employed the body language properly and he was a role model and preachers tried to reach this model.
In his decision about the sermon of Mr. Yasser Al-Wakeel, Al Khalaf stressed that his voice was very low and this is the flaw of the sermon and the preacher must communicate the idea to everyone clearly and focus on body language that will be reflected on his performance as a critic of the sermon. Also, he said that the preacher used the third person form instead of the second person form in his analysis to the sermon of the model preacher. Also, he said that the preacher faced some linguistic difficulties and thus he needs improvement to rise in other fields in case he strives and continues development.
As about the reviewer Mr. Ahmad Al-Hazam who is also member of the permanent awarding committee in the Qatar Public Speaking, he confirmed that body language is one of the components of communication with others and it is a major component for expressing ideas, conveying feelings and sometimes it is a substitute for verbal communication.