ISLAM PIZHUHI
Year:2006 | Volume:- | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

Writer of the present essay holds that Muslim historians, like other classic historians, considered only political issues, causes, and dimensions in their analysis of historical events and rarely paid attention to cultural, social, economic, and especially emotional dimensions and motivations. Such an affair created a collection of histories absolutely governed by political discourse. Hence, most of contemporary Muslim historians still avoid dealing with non-political factors in their analyses is spite of appearance and prevalence of new traditions and discourses in historiography. Taking an objective example into consideration, writer of the present essay compares political analyses of some old and new Muslim historians concerning Imam Ali’s absence from the Tabuk battle with an analysis of Abdolhosain Zarrinkoub who, despite all others, has contributed human emotions of the Prophet to the subject more.

The present essay deals with investigation of circumstances of Imam Ali’s rulership and their influence upon actualization of Imam’s plans. Changes in insight and method of Muslims, disturbed social circumstances caused by general rebel rebellion against the third caliph and his killing, weakening of institution of caliphate after two successive killings of two caliphs, disputes caused by vengeance for Uthman’s bloodshed, radical enmity among tribes of Quraish, disobedience of major cities and districts, and lack of adequate obedient companions and officials are among most significant factors which made circumstances of Imam’s rulership and of proceeding his plans difficult and associated them with failure.

When through trick of Amr b. As and by command of Muawiya Qurans were raised by spears in the Siffin battle and Iraqi army was summoned to the Quranic arbitration, dispute in Imam Ali’s army commenced. Those who opposed the plan of arbitration via motto of “there is no command but Allah’s” have rapidly changed into a political-theoretical current. Although almost all of them were killed in the Nahrawan battle, the main current was not destroyed; it developed more after Imam Ali had been killed and caused more occurrences in three initial Hijri centuries. The present essay investigates the grounds for forming and raising of khawarij in the Iraqi, and not Syrian, army as well as their political-theoretical themes and social nature.

Having a history of over one thousand years, jurisprudence is among Islamic sciences which has preserved its dynamism all the time and has been able to satisfy needs of the society. Sometimes, however, it suffered from relative stagnancy and standstill due to some specific causes and factors reducing speed of its development. Among such factors, the charisma and influence of personality of jurists is a major one taken less into consideration. The present essay expounds role of that factor in the relative stagnancy and delay in dynamism and development of jurisprudence and ijtihad in the era of imitators – one hundred years from death of al-Shaikh al-Tusi to Ibn Idris al- Hilli – emphasizing that, while benefiting from opinions of their predecessors, jurists should never be influenced by their name, fame, and majesty. They should not be overshadowed by them leaving their own fundamental thoughts in order to respond to the needs of society in the frame of temporal, spatial conditions; for the gate of ijtihad is always open to those who are knowledgeable of this art. Any jurist, even though very skillful, is jurist of his time and not future.

Deliberation upon explanation(bayan)s of allamah Muhammad Baqir al- Majlisi concerning some hadiths of Bihar al-Anwar indicates that he insists on the text of hadiths and avoids anti-appearance ta’wils. Based on some traditions, he emphasizes necessity of taking texts of traditions and surrendering to them and, holding that position, he sometimes criticizes ta’wils of earlier scholars. Hence, in order to avoid attributing an authentic hadith to weakness despite observing some conceptual problems in it, he explicitly asserts that facet of issuance of that hadith is hidden and explains some probabilities in this connection avoiding entrance into realm of denial of hadiths. Interestingly, the compiler of Bihar al-Anwar believes in multiplicity of facets of hadiths on the one hand and impossibility of understanding all words of infallible Imams on the other holding that undertaking such crucial beliefs is not contradictory to belief in the necessity of avoiding anti-appearance ta’wils. However, al-Majlisi has made some ta’wil and has justified some hadiths in accordance with his own theological perspectives or on the basis of some other hadiths in a limited realm and thereby has manifested his persuasive perspective concerning acceptance or rejection of hadiths of Bihar al-Anwar.

Prayer (salat) is the greatest ritual considered and emphasized in Islam. Hence, Muslim mystics have emphasized that category too much and presented various interpretations in its concern having put more emphasis upon its mystical facet. Mawlawi is a mystic who has paid notable attention to that category and investigated its corners thoroughly in his works. In his opinion, prayer is a window to the metaphysical world through which the wayfarer can go beyond the material world and can experience God’s attainment or the principle of unity. As prayer is emphasized in Islam as the pillar of religion, it is also considered as the most significant way for achieving goal of attainment/unity in the Islamic mysticism. The present essay intends to re-read Mawlawi’s thought concerning prayer and investigate his opinion phenomenologically.