THEOLOGICAL- DOCTRIANAL RESEARCH (THE ISLAMIC SCIENCE QUARTERLY)
Year:2012 | Volume:2 | Issue:5|Papers Count:8

Mahdaviat and the issue of the last Savior’s emergence are very important in religious beliefs. All divine religions believe in and wait for the last Savior of the world. In Islam, there is a special consideration regarding this topic and a lot of verses and narrations are allocated to it. However, the main questions of this paper are why he has been absent and whether we, as his believers and followers, have any responsibilities due to the promotion of his emergence. There are different ideas. Some of the views disclaim any responsibilities, but such is not the correct approach. This paper attempts to examine the verses, narrations, and logical reasons to prove that the main reason of his absence is the lack of people’s readiness. Then, it specifies our duties to promote our readiness and the emergence of the Reformer.

In this paper, there is an attempt to explain some ethical and extra-ethical issues as the basis for resolving ethical disagreements. In this regard, the issues of good and bad, applied and relativity, and some of the basic rules as governing and controlling laws are discussed by using the views of scholars in theology and methodology. By referring to the verses and narrations, the obtained result is that literally there is no disagreement in the ethical rules and it may happen when there is the practice of some ethical actions. This study also mentions some examples of verses in the Quran which clarify the priorities and the general rules regarding the elimination of disagreements. And according to some scholars’ viewpoints, the priority of some rules and actions are explained. Finally, since the unendurable duty is logically wrong, forcing the man to perform some actions at one time is an example of unendurable task. So man is only obliged to perform an act which promotes his closeness to God.

Toshihiko Izutsu, the popular Japanese scholar of Islam, has based his work on semantic knowledge in his two valuable and famous books: God and Man in the Quran, and The Moral and Religious Concepts in the Quran. He has made a major breakthrough in the field of Quranic studies specifically the semantics of words and concepts in the Quran. In his book, The Moral and Religious Concepts in the Quran, Izutsu has extracted semantic relations of the major concepts of the Quran in a methodical manner using Saussure’s concurrency semantics. It is based on the acceptable scientific criteria such as, equivalence, substitution, antonymy, synonymy, morphology, derivations of words, and the meaning of each derivation in the Quran. He has further analyzed some of the most important moral concepts, particularly the concept of faith. In this paper, first, the principles of Izutsu in understanding of moral concepts in the Quran are identified. Then, the definitions of moral concepts and the fundamental dichotomy of morality in the Quran from Izutsu’s point of view are presented. Next, the definition of concurrency semantics and Izutsu’s methods of understanding moral concepts are explained. Finally, for the clarity of his method, his analysis of the word, faith is discussed as an example.

The features of Quran have always been the issue among commentators and Islamic theologians. This topic has attracted different commentators with various interpretations which are under verses. One of these features is the comprehensiveness of The Quran which is one of the fundamental beliefs of Muslims and it has particularly been considered by commentators and the contemporary scholars of the Quran. The identification of the comprehensiveness of the Quran is very important since it is one of the basic elements in understanding of the Quran and its acceptance or denial affects Quran’s interpretation. This paper first investigates the views of Islamic scholars and commentators about the scope of Quran’s comprehensiveness, and then presents the best viewpoint in this regard and discussed the quality of Quran’s expressiveness.

Razavi shrine has been the focus of attention since the third century AH for the Islamic community, both Sunni and Shiite, especially the Sunni scholars and their followers who seek continuous devotion and pilgrimage to the holy Imam for their wishes and the healing of their diseases. While holding the thoughts and legal decisions of Ibn Taymiyyeh and his followers as Mohammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, visiting the graves of prophets and resorting to them is unlawful and forbidden and pilgrims to their graves are called Hajari (Stone lovers). By assigning the pilgrimage to Shiite and such a claim of lack of this faith among Sunnis or not among Sunni clerics, they try to create a dichotomy of faith and act or behavior between Sunni and Shiite. The aim of the present study is to explain the virtue of Imam Reza’s pilgrimage in Sunni sources, reports, and historical texts, and to discuss the common behavior of Sunni clerics and their followers, and critical analysis of the beliefs of Wahhabism about pilgrimage according to credible and primary sources of Sunni which all will result in Muslims unity more than ever.

The background of Good and Evil is a very old issue. The ancient Greeks considered the rational Good and Evil as the basis of moral values. Some Islamic theologians also considered these two as the underpinning of theological issues. Scholars have raised this issue in the assets of jurisprudence and even some believe it as the fundamental rules and principles. In the discussion of divine justice, the issue of research is the intrinsic goodness and ugliness of actions. Speakers in this debate are two groups. The first group of pro-inertia and urgency is known as Asharites. The second group of pro-reason and authority whose followers are headed by Mutazilites and Shiite are known as Judicials. Beside these two sects, there is the third one named Matoridyeh. The three sects have the same belief about Good and Evil. In the semantics of Good and Evil, they sometimes mean agreement and disagreement with the objectives and expediency, and sometimes as attributes of perfection and defect, and sometimes as Evil if they refer to something which is blamed in the world and is punished in the hereafter and as Good if they refer to something that is praised and encouraged in the world and is rewarded in the hereafter. The hypotheses of this study are, first the Good and Evil are rational, and second, if there is support of Good and Evil as being rational, the acceptance of this theory will have important and novel effects which are addressed in this paper.

The discussion about the emergence and improvement of human society from turmoil, which is the belief shared between communities and religions, is closely linked to the issue of the Savior of humanity. Most of the schools and rituals have commented on the character of the Savior. Muslim scholars, including both Sunni and Shiite interpreters, have also discussed about it and expressed their views and sometimes brought some accounts about such issues as” Whether born or not, What his origin is, What his characteristics and spiritual features are, What his status and similarity to prophets is.” Among the attractions in this article are different opinions in Islamic sources which are quoted in this regard and their similarities and differences are examples of proximity of Islamic schools of thought. In spite of the traditional method of interpretation, they are mainly considered as theological discussions.