SHIITE STUDIES
Year:2008 | Volume:6 | Issue:1 (21)|Papers Count:9

Bohra Davoodi, a Shiite sub-sect, has millions of adherents around the world. This sect is based on the principle of free choice and thus members of Bohra communities have chosen their religion freely and are free to get along with abandon it.In addition to assessing the general development of this sect, the paper tries to briefly assess some of its doctrines and rituals giving on the whole an overview about it.

The present article deals with superstition and the role the Holy Prophet of Islam played in fighting against it. Being of a wide domain, superstition can be divided into three divisions: doctrinal, legal and social ritual. Since the paper cannot give coverage to all these Issues, it has sufficed to throwing light on superstitions related to the realm of social rituals and practices. Fortune-telling wearing magical objects to prevent envy, good and bad days, sniffing and building fire to make the sky rain are among the most popular superstitious acts performed by people of ignorant societies in the past and to some extent by members of the present societies. The way the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) tackled the issue and the instructions he put forth to eliminate this evils, were very effective in this regard.

Being an international language used in reliable scholarly reference books, English enjoys a unique status among the world languages. The present article is an attempt to study "ashura" in a number of English reference books. The study shows that ashura is looked at more from a Sunnite perspective introducing it as a day of "recommended fast" rather that a Shiite one. Only few of these sources have handled the matter from a Shiite point of view.

This article studies the importance of the compilation of traditions from an Islamic point of view. It quotes prophetic traditions encouraging the prophet's companions to jot down traditions. As a result it elaborates on how the Shias contemporary with the infallibles, were compiling traditions. It concludes that Shias were recording traditions at the time of the infallible Imams

As a final religion, the religion of Islam, based on its theoretical and practical approach towards human life in this world and in the world to come, has established its own just legal regime in all walks of life including the status of women. It has regarded Qur'an and tradition as two obligatory instructions for Muslims. The present study, examines"..." which is one of the many verses dealing with woman's status in family as well as in society, on the basis of opinions expressed by Shiite and Sunnite scholars in areas such as Islamic exegesis, traditions, jurisprudence, history and law.

Being an important historic event in the history of Islam happening towards the end of the life of the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him), Ghadir began to become the origin of many other events, developments, tendencies, cultures and doctrines. During the last fourteen centuries, many scholars have tackled the issue analyzing and examining it: Is Ghadir an event forged by Shias? Is there anyone else other than Shias, who have dealt with the issue? Etc.The present study deals with one of these issues that are Ghadir from the perspective of Sunnite scholars.

Hilla, an Iraqi city, enjoys a peculiar status in Shiite turbulent history. It was a center of Shiite learning for three centuries and it was here where many influential scholars and theologians such as Ibn Idris, Muhaqqiq Karaki and Allama Hilli were educated and began to guide world Shias. As mentioned, once it was home to a grand seminary leading other Shiite seminaries, of which our knowledge is unfortunately very scare. The present writing is an attempt to study, though deficiently the ups and downs in the history of this grand seminary.

Being privileged with intellect and intellection, man is distinguished from other kinds of animals.Compared with other religions, Islam gives much importance to intellect and intellection, considering intellect and religion as two complementary harmonic parts. The encouragement by Qur'an of intellection and thinking logically is something related explicitly by many verses, admitting of no interpretation. Based on this, traditions have also paid particular attention to the matter. Thus intellection and logical thinking have a high position in the eye of great Shiite scholars and the Shiite sources are a clear witness to this effect.