Iranian Journal for the Quranic Sciences and Tradition
Year:2011 | Volume:43 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

The tradition attributed to the prophet that he said: «انّ الله خلق آدم علی صورته» (Verily God created Adam in his visage) is one of the bases of Sufis ideology and Ibn Arabi (Abu 'Abdillah Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn 'Arabi), the founder of theoretical Sufism (irfan nazari), often refers to it in his works. In his most famous work named: The al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah, he attempts to show the correlation of this tradition and the doctrine of the unity of being (vahdat al-vojud). So in different themes of the doctrine, he cites that tradition «انّ الله خلق آدم علی صورته». He believes that the pronoun  «ها» in «صورته» refers to God and so all his description of this tradition is on the base of Adam being created in God's visage and likeness. While according to “Sabab Wurud al-Hadith” mentioned in old authorized literature, the pronoun cannot be referred to God and the coherency of “doctrine of the unity of being” and this tradition is seriously challenged by Quranic thoughts and other traditions.

One of the most important and famous sciences in the field of tradition studies is the study of Rejal (Narrators of Hadiths) which dealss with the narrators’ status to ensure that the narrated traditions (Hadiths) are issued by the infallibles. Mohammad Taqi Shoushtari was an outstanding contemporary biographical evaluation scientific who had critical viewpoint in this field. His Qamoos al-Rejal, in fact, was a criticism to Mamaqani’s Tanqih al- Maqal. Shoushtari criticized the mistakes done by Mamaqani in applying and referring to the former Rejali sources which led to other misunderstandings. For instance, Mamaqani without noticing the differences between the former sources has equally applied all sources while noticing the differences plays an important role in applying them. This article studies the principles and methods of applying the Rejali sources to discover the narrators’ religion and status, narrating from the infallibles, methods of recognizing the common points, the unity of the differences, and the authority of the sources.

Among the questions under consideration on the subject of the influence of Quran over the shaping of literary sciences, is the subject of the influence of Quran over the shaping of lexicography. In this case, two distinct viewpoints have been explained: the first viewpoint is that the source of all lexicographic studies is undoubtedly the very Quran, and the second viewpoint is that it is nowise acceptable that such accurate rules and clear and judicious definitions existing in the lexicographic and linguistic topics in the works of al-Khalil and his counterparts, could attain such grade of perfection without any preceding background and sample. According to this viewpoint, Moslems imitated the methods of other nations in compiling lexicons and were impressed with them. The assessment of the arguments of both viewpoints demonstrates that the proofs of the second party is not convincing of their claim, and the historical study of early lexicographic works indicates that the first lexicographic topics begin with the vocabulary of Quran, and the principal factor in the shaping of this science is the very necessity of the understanding of Quran.

Besides the necessity of gaining the prerequisites of tafsir, the views of the early scholars about these prerequisites also had to be considered. The present article is to make clear that most of the exegetes did not really meet the prerequisites mentioned in their own preface. It also discusses about the preliminary sciences to tafsir which may be classified into seven general groups with some subdivisions which are as follows: Arabic grammatical sciences including: al-lugah (language/lexicon),at-taṣrif (morphology),an-naḥw (syntax), al-balagah (rhetoric); Science Of Hadith; Science Of Uṣul al-fiqh (the principles of jurisprudence); 'Ilm al-Kalam (Muslim scholastic philosophy; (Quranic Sciences; the Science of History; the Science of qiraat (reading).

Occurrence of ambiguity in Quranic verses and narratives is incontestable, and it depends on demand of words and the nature of Arabic language. The subject of ambiguity in verses has been discussed in Quranic sciences, but the ambiguity in narratives, its quality and its reason of being have not been attended in Hadith sciences; whereas, based on narratives reasons, cleavage of narratives into "ambiguous" and "substantial" narratives is incontestable. Moreover, the reasons of essence of ambiguous narratives and the ways for right understanding them are noted in a lot of narratives. So, "ambiguous" and "substantial" narratives are relative terms that concern on men's knowledge and ignorance steps. The reasons of essence of ambiguity in narratives are: difference of men's understanding steps, demand of words and eloquence of Imams' words. At the same time, the role of metaphor in appearance of ambiguity, as the most important tool for explanation of purports, is grand. Again because of confederacy between the metaphor and ambiguity, it has an effective role in obviation ambiguity from narratives.

The present article deals with the position and features of Imam Ali's instructions to Malik al- Ashtar in Islamic sources. It studies the sources of Imam Ali's instructions to Malik including Sunni and Shiite ones, their position in jurisprudential and exegetical sources, and their popularity in different parts of the Muslim world. Furthermore, taking the chain of transmission of these instructions into careful account, different views are stated in this regard. The article finally discusses the contents and main points of the instructions. The sound chain of transmission and the sublime teachings of these instructions have given rise to the high prominence of this letter among other letters of Nahj al-Balagha, and to its specific position in Islamic sources.

Research on the “Super sensory perception” has acquired a share in the ongoing study in the branches of psychology and experiential sciences for the two recent centuries. Novel results have been achieved as to the possibility and the course of formation of such perceptions. Having assumed an analytical-documentary approach making use of library books, this paper goes to deal with the issue in the light of the Quran. In the first part, the author focuses on issues on perception such as kinds of perception, the quiddity of perception, and the kinds of super sensory perception in order to pave the way for the second part. In the latter part, some verses of the Quran are applied to some kinds of super sensory perceptions concluding accordingly that the Quran confirms the possibility and the occurrence of those perceptions. Viewing the fact that revelation and the course of receiving it is one of the most evident cases of super sensory perception-and Quran being revealed in such a course-, the expected conclusion would be of more strength and soundness.

People's allegiance to Imam Ali (AS) is one of the interesting scenes of history which has had a critical role in political life of Islam. People's enthusiasm for allegiance to Imam Ali (AS) and also, supporting of Imam's companions had prepared everything for a public allegiance. But contrary to expectation, Imam Ali (AS) in a speech refused to accept the caliphate. This speech that has been reported in the Speech 92 of Nahj ul Balagha, has created many questions. Hence, this article has tried to prove veracity of relation of this speech with Imam Ali (AS) firstly and to explain wisdom of Imam Ali's refusal of the caliphate secondly.