Iranian Journal for the Quranic Sciences and Tradition
Year:2018 | Volume:50 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:8

One of the issues related to the i'jaz (inimitability) of the Holy Quran is dividing miracles into two categories of intellectual and sensual. But how this category was created? What did Muslim scholars mean by “intellect”, and to whom did they refer? Based on a historical survey carried out in this regard, this study has achieved the following result:This category was first introduced by Jahiz (death: AH 255) in response to the question of how the only book as a miracle, namely Quran, is allocated to Muhammad (PBUH) among all the prophets. Answering this question, Muslim scholars have followed three different approaches throughout history:1. Some considered it ethnically and claimed that the superiority of Arabs’ intellect among whom Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) appeared, was the reason why Quran was revealed to him.2. Others referred to the religion of audiences and believed that the intellectual superiority of the Islamic Ummah over Jews and Christians was the main reason.3. The rest, considering the mankind as a whole, believed that the growth of human intelligence in the era of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) was the reason.

In Nahj al-Balagha, people have been invited to rationality, and some roles have been identified for intellect and rationality. These roles are not expressed explicitly, but implicitly in the words of Imam Ali (PBUH). This study aims to investigate and organize these items and, also, consider the functions of rationality and intellect through applying a descriptive analytical method in four categories: 1) the Relationship of human and God: the functions of intellect to know God and His commands and to set the scene to have relationship to Him; 2) the Relationship of human to himself: the functions of intellect to recognize good and bad behaviors; 3) the Relationship of human to other people, and 4) the Relationship of human to the nature and world: the functions of intellect to know the world to think about the power of  God. In general, the functions of intellect in Nahj al-Balagha are divided into two categories: The first is “theoretical intellect” that leads to the growth of human knowledge and the second is “practical intellect” which leads to the growth of society.

The production of science rather than its distribution depends on determining the boundaries of knowledge in the subject matter under study. In the context of interpretative narratives, first of all, the condition of the commentary must be examined in terms of the extent of the audience's persuasion and the frequency of narratives. The present study, first, compares the interpretations with the comparative-historical method and then describes and analyzes the results. The statistical community of this study consists of 94 interpretations of the ones in Jami al-Altafasir Software and some other important ones such as al-Bayan, al-Jawaher, Tasnim and Ahl al-Bait's interpretation. The selection of these sources has been dependent on the abundance of narratives and the adoption of other sources from them. Studies have been conducted on a case-by-case basis (around 175 verses from Surahs, Nisa, Maidah, and 'Al'Imran). According to the studies, two important difficulties regarding interpretive narratives were incomplete research and the dispersion of narratives in the sources. In the study period, we found 529 new narratives from the narrative sources (more than 60% of the total new narratives of the 15th century).

Submission to the knowledge expressed by Shi'a Imams is an issue that has been accentuated by many Shi'a traditions. These traditions imply absolute submission and obedience to the orders and prohibitions expressed by the Infallible Imams (a.s.). In the light of the pivotal role of reason in Shi'a thought regarding the assessment and acceptance of religious issues, lack of a correct specification of the aforementioned traditions intensifies a seeming contradiction between submission and intellectualism that leads to a reduction in the status of reason. Therefore, it is an inevitable necessity to discover the true meaning of submission and illustrate its accurate boundaries through a sound knowledge of some essentialities and a comprehensive analysis of the religious teachings. In addition to provision of the typology of submission traditions, the study at hand explicates the content of each type through a descriptive-analytical method. The results of this study reveal that submission to the Infallibles (a.s.) is not equal to undue obedience, suspension of reason, or ignorant acceptance. Rather, the favorable submission is a voluntary act that is based on intellectual explorations and is a product of intellectual arguments.

The course of the evolution of the art of decoration of Holy Quran and its translation traversed its natural process till the Seljuk period. This process accelerated in the Seljuk period twice, quantitatively and qualitatively, to such extend that, at the present, there are 1,084 precious manuscripts of the Quran In book treasure of Astan Ghods Razavi attributed to the Seljuk period; Quran 77 is one of these precious works of art. The present article investigates the characteristics of the art of decoration of Holy Quran in the Seljuk period, and aims at finding out which of these characteristics Quran 77 is compatible with, regarding the art of book decoration aspect. It also studies the reasons why Quran 77 belongs to the Seljuk period. The results demonstrated that the type of paper and cover, the existence of the dots and diacritics in writing, Kofi calligraphy in the evolutionary period, interpretive translation under verses, the existence of the margin of the work, as well as the method of writing the words and vocabulary in translation are among the reasons why Quran 77 is estimated to belong to the Seljuk period and the place of its writing is predicted to be in Khorasan (Transoxiana) due to the syntactic properties and accent features of Khorasan (Transoxiana).

The purpose of codification of divine rules and religious laws, based on the philosophy of religious law, is to pave the way for the growth and perfection of human beings. From the point of view of the Holy Qur'an and Ahl al-Bait (PBUH), jihad, considered as one of the main principles of religion, a defense against enemies, and an idea overcoming the obstacles of guidance, has a certain philosophy. According to these issues, the decree of Jihad is by no means an anti-human issue. Similarly, from the point of view of the Holy Qur'an and Ahlul-Bayt, the capturing of the enemies, occurring as a result of the war, does not have its roots in the worldly goals, but it is along with such goals as: "overcoming the obstacles of human growth", "destroying the glory of enemies", "glorifying of Muslims", and so on.

In Nahj-al-Balagha, there are words and phrases which indicate a later theological and philosophical meaning, not consistent with the historical conditions of the first century AH. Not accepting this inconsistency, Some scholars believe that Imam Ali (as) has made these words and phrases. While others have tried to provide evidence justifying its consistent with the appropriate historical context. Nevertheless, these evidences can simply support the possibility of such a usage, but are not historical evidences. Others have tried to show that some of the suspicious cases are the words of later religious figures, including Shiite Imams (from the second century onwards). However, in this way, the context of the discussions has not been reconstructed and has not provided satisfactory evidence for the origin of the phrases and its developments. In the present article, an attempt is made to investigate the historical origins of the subject (Existence and Nonexistence) in the Quran, narratives, theological and philosophical sources and Muslim discourse with followers of other religions (In the 2nd and 3nd centuries AH) and give a better answer to this problem.

Nowadays, one of the main elements of taghanni (vocalization) and beautiful reading of Quran, which is so important to the reciters of Quran and their audiences, is the usage of  tajweed rules along with other effective components (such as voice and tone and observance of waqf and wasl (stopping and continuing in Quran recitation). Some historical evidences have confirmed the validity of the use of audio arts in Quranic recitation; however, there is a disagreement with the position of tajweed instructions in beautiful reading of Quran, and some, especially Sunni  scholars, based on The “Haidth of Sab’ato Ahrof” (Seven Letters), along with sanctifying various citations, believe that both the differences between farsh al-ḥuruf (lexical differences) and  reciting principles are driven from instructions by Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), followed by famous reciters (ghuras) since then. Through historical and case study evidences, this study suggests that the majority of tajweed rules, have been driven by factors such as Arabic dialects, and these rules have been sanctified gradually; hence, it is not possible to establish a religious status for most of its rules, such as idgham, imala and … .