Ayeneh Ma‘refat
Year:2010 | Volume:8 | Issue:22|Papers Count:8

The ultimateness of creation has been one of controversial issues upon which conflicting viewpoints have been expressed by Asha’ireh and Adlieh as the two competing schools of thought. Asha’ireh theologians, as the ones who deny a rationale and ultimateness for all deeds including the divine deeds, have been criticized by Adlieh (Imamieh and Mo’tazeleh) as well as other Islamic theologians who assume a rationale and ultimateness for all deeds including divine deeds. The present article is an attempt to reconcile this long-standing dispute by referring to authoritative sources and considering the reasoning provided by the two competing schools.

God, in Plotinus’ thought, is something ‘wholly other’ to the extent that neither can He be named nor be described by any language. Abdol-ali Sabzevari, as an intellectual from the Islamic world, especially among the contemporary Shiite Moslem scholars, with multi-dimensional erudition in religious studies including Islamic jurisprudence, basics of jurisprudence, philosophy, mystics and Quranic exegesis has some thoughts on ‘the unique’ following his own religious leaders. The present article is a comparative review of negative theology of Plotinus and Sabzevari. In specific, it is an attempt to explore the views of these two theologians is search for the border between positive and negative theology and an understanding of the extent to which man’s intellect is capable of making an affirmative judgement on the essence and attributes of God.

The issue of free will is influenced by religion as by science. The two religious doctrines of ‘infallible divine foreknowledge’ and ‘divine providence’ are threatened by fatalism. If God foreknows all future events including man’s actions and everything which occurs is under His control, how can we do other than we actually do? Human freedom requires the ability to do otherwise. If we lack the power to do otherwise, then we are not free. The issue has been debated extensively in the history of western philosophy. Some philosophers have denied divine foreknowledge, some have argued that free will is an illusion, and yet some have tried to show that they are compatible. The present article intends to study the issue of fatalism and the western philosophers’ answers to the questions raised in this regard.

Oneness of being is one the most important issues of theoretical mysticism. It means that there is just one being and the pluralities are His self-manifestations because His infinity leaves no space for others. On this basis, mystics’ proposition about the degrees of existence including the essence, the cognitive determination of the world of God and the entification of the world of creation has no contradiction with the oneness of being; they are rather considered as the states of God. The pluralities are related to God in two ways: hierarchy and specific face. Hierarchy refers to the mediators of divine grace and the specific face, which was specified by Mohie El Din for the first time, to the direct relationship with God. The basis of the mystics’ analysis of this relationship is the oneness of God and the quality of its attribution based on which He has presence in all pluralities which are His restricted manifestations. On the basis of special face, God has relation with everything in proportion to its capacity. Nevertheless, for the majority of people this door is closed due to the limited capacity of this world but it may be opened with special efforts and through gaining internal purity. With special face, God is closer to man than himself and, because of the predominance of laws of obligation, has more truth than him. In fact the relation of every entity with God is through its existent entity. The present article is an attempt to explore the relationship between man and God on the basis of the principles of mystic ontology in a careful and comprehensive manner.

Annihilation is one of the most important issues in Islamic mysticism, and a great number of mystics have dealt with this concept in their mystical works and have explored it from different perspectives. Annihilation has appeared in the works of many mystical poets such as Faridudin Attar. Annihilation has been implicated in some parts of Attar’s works including The Book of God (Elahi-Name), The Book of Secrets (Asrar-Name), The Book of Sufferings (Mosibat-Name), and The Conference of Birds (Mantegh-o-Tayre). The present article explores those stories and parables in which Attar has dealt with this concept in different ways.

Immortality is a concept as old as human history. Attar is among those who have dealt with this fundamental concept in their works. He has attributed several aspects to immortality including residing in others’ memories, reproduction and descendants, etc. However, he considers perishing and being united with God as the most important manifestation of immortality. Attar, like most other Islamic mystics, consider human being as consisting of two dimensions, body and soul, and believes that the one which is of the highest value is the soul not the body. Thus it is the soul that must be purified and exalted in this world. Notwithstanding, in some of his works, he seems to believe both in corporeal and spiritual resurrection. Also, in accordance with his religious tendencies, he believes in the world to come and divine judgement expressed through such terms as paradise, hell, intermediary world, the secret bridge, and etc. Attar denies incarnation and states that any human being coming to this world has but one chance to live and will not come back to this world in any form and under any conditions.

The western civilization is based on the epistemological and intellectual developments in secularism, humanism and liberalism as well as the use of scientific methods of acquiring knowledge. It has persisted through the establishment of relevant social structures and institutions as the dominant civilization. Based on its worldview and its definition of the 'perfect human being' consistent with its worldview, the western civilization has succeeded to establish an efficient social system which can be considered the outcome of the social order resulted from that consistency. Due to this success, some other societies with completely different ontological assumptions, especially through university education, willingly or unwillingly have taken the same route, yet they are facing the problem of underdevelopment based on western standards and indicators of course. In some cases they have encountered social disorders which have probably been caused by the inconsistency between the social structures and the philosophical principles of those societies. Without being intended to criticize the principles of western civilization, the present article is aimed at investigating the degree of students' belief in liberalism compared with Islamic beliefs. The results, based on a survey of 1470 students from the top five universities in Tehran, show that 5.9% of the respondents at an extremely large extent, 15.5% at a very large extent, 25.4% at a large extent, 22.1% at a small extent, 20.9% at a very small extent and 10.2% at an extremely small extent believe in liberalism. The degree of belief in liberalism on average is 3.2 out of 6 with the standard deviation of 1.48 which is between a small extent and a large extent. The results also reveal that the higher the degree of belief in liberalism the less is the belief in work ethics, commitment towards the revolution, social commitment, social trust, and the preference of Islamic identity to national identity. On the other hand, the level of individualism, utilitarianism and the preference of national identity to Islamic identity is at a higher level among the participants. Also an increase in the degree of belief in liberalism correlates with a decrease in scientific success, scientific efficiency, socialization for other roles, creativity, human development, and finally scientific development index. All the results of the analysis of data collected from the sample are statistically significant and can be generalized to the whole population.