SHIITE STUDIES
Year:2007 | Volume:5 | Issue:3 (19)|Papers Count:9

Love and respect for the household (ahl al-bayt) of the Prophet (peace with him and them) and acknowledging lots of their virtues is common among Shi'is and Sunnis, but there are some differences about the meaning and the individuals of the household. Most of the Sunnis consider all the Prophet's relatives and wives as his households, but the Shi'a believes that according to some Quranic verses and many traditions, just thirteen people of his noticeable relatives are his households, and this concept does not include the Prophet's wives and other relatives. In this paper, by literal and vocabulary analysis, the literal possibility of this meaning for the concept of household is explained, and by referring to traditions, the Shi'i viewpoint is verified.

Nowadays the Iranian national interests are deeply related to the new geopolitics of Shi'ism, so that Iran always desires to play a role among the world's Shi'a, especially in Iraq. The later world and regional changes brought about this chance for Iran. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and examine the situation of the Shi'i new geopolitics and to determine the regional and meta-regional threats and their consequences in the present world, especially Iran's role in this relation. It is supposed that in the present conditions, given to its specific situation, Iran may change to a regional superior power.

Legalization of the personal affairs (ahwale shakhsiyya) of the Shi'a on the basis of Shi'i Fikh in the legal system of Afghanistan is a new phenomenon entered the legal literature of Afghanistan by writing the Article 131 of the Afghan Institution in 1382.Prima facie, it may seem unjustifiable to separate Shi'a personal affairs from Afghan civil law; but by studying the Afghan Shi'a conditions in past and present, one can find that such a separation is interpretable in terms of government tolerance with the followers of other religious groups that have their own religious rituals. This legal pluralism is based on both religious believes and human thinking.Using philosophy of law and legal-sociological approaches, the present writing has found scientific and theoretical bases for judicial independence of Afghan Shi'a in personal affairs, and on the other hand, by an inter-religious view, from the sources of Islamic rich Fikh, has provided strong bases for the Shi'a personal affairs.From the perspective of comparative law, Shi'a independence in personal affairs and, as a result, entrance of the Shi'a rich Fikh in legal system of Afghanistan would promote its scientific richness. This fact is fully evident in family law, especially in the chapter of "marriage and divorce" of Afghanistan civil law.

The verse Mubahala is one of the most controversial Quranic verses. The mubahala tradition was traditionally common among the Semitic tribes and there are some references to some cases of it in scriptures other than the Honorable Quran. The mubahala mentioned in the glorious Quran, belongs to the story of Najrani Christians' dialogue and debate with the Holy Prophet (peace with him) which finally, because of the Christians refusal of accepting the Prophet's call, the two sides agreed to mubahala and to pray God to distinguish the truthful from the liar. This mubahala did not occur, for the Christians withdrew; but the Prophet's household accompanying him in this occasion, provided a vast field for kalami polemics and disputes between different Islamic sects. Most Quranic exegeses used this verse to prove the virtues of the Prophet's households (p.w.h.t.) and the Shi'a, additionally, used it to prove other believes such as infallibility and immediate imamate of Imam Ali (peace with him).In this paper, the kalami viewpoints about the verse Mubahala are examined. At first, the word "Mubahala" is vocabulary and terminologically, defined. Then, the historical story of the Prophet's Mubahala with the Najrani Christians is reported on the basis of authentic historical and traditional sources. The main part of the article takes on to examine the kalami understandings of the verse about Shi'i viewpoint to prove the virtues of the Prophet's household and Imam Ali's priority to caliphate. The rival viewpoints also reported and examined.

Mazendaran is an old land in Iran which experienced various cultures during its history; but what is maintained is the Shi'i culture. In this concise paper, in addition to describing Mazendaran's human, political and natural geography, and explaining how the governors of Tabarestan confronted the Umayyad and Abbasid forces, some factors of Mazendarani people's tendency towards Shi'i culture is mentioned. Some of these factors consist of the people tiredness and exhaustion of Zoroastrian cast-based culture, the people reluctance towards the culture of Umayyad and Abbasid governors, preaching trip of Imam Hasan (peace with him), Malike Ashatar, some other companions of Imam Ali (peace with him) and the Alides to Tabarestan and etc.

A glance on Islamic history shows that no factor could bring about power, glory and progress of nations as unity and consistency. On the other hand, conflict and separation has been counted as the greatest factor which always prevents giving divine mercy and good to a nation; as Imam Ali, the Commander of the Believers (peace with him), says: "the Pure God gives no nation, not from the previous nor from the present, a good by conflict and separation. (Seyed Razi, sermon 176).Thus, this paper tries to examine the subject of Islamic unity from theoretical and practical dimensions. At first, it explains the necessities and qualities of unity from the viewpoint of Ali b. Abitaleb (p.w.h.) and comments the importance of this issue in order to gain further knowledge of its aim. Then rationally examines the necessity of Islamic consistency and mentions a comprehensive example which shows that unity, in addition to being a traditional mandate and commitment, is a rational principle and necessary. Advantages and consequences of unity are another important part that Imam Ali (p.w.h) explained it by reason, tradition and experiment. The paper continues to mention the challenges and obstacles of religious unity. These are examined in two kinds of external and internal and some cases of each one are noticed. In the end it suggests a practical way for unity - that is writing the Islamic unity manifest - and its key elements.

Knowing the sources of every scientific discipline is a basic necessity in its scientific usage. In the field of the knowledge of rejal, there are tens valuable and important works that each of them is written in a specific style. Knowing the characteristics of these sources is very effective in more knowing of the transmitters, analyzing and examining the chain of transmitters of a tradition and resolving their difficulties and problems. As an important and enduring work, the book Mu'jam Rejal el-Hadith, among rejali books, is of great importance in the arena of the knowledge of rejal and knowing the transmitters. Its Usuli, Jurisprudent and scholar author, that during many years was teaching and writing in the field of Fikh and Usul, and by using the traditions of the Infallibles (peace with them), was deducting the divine commandments, in his final years of life, by a great amount of scientific saved matters, written a book in the subject of the knowledge of rejal and recorded an enduring work iv his scientific past.In comparison to other Shi'i rejali books, this work has superior qualifications. Thus, knowing it is a necessity for religious students, especially for those interested in rejal.