Iranian Journal for the Quranic Sciences and Tradition
Year:2011 | Volume:44 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

There are some verses in the Quran that treat death as being restricted to "the first death." On the other hand, some other verses speak of "dying twice." In their commentaries on such verses, Muslim Quranic commentators have presented various opinions, which not only are not confirmed by other Quranic verses, but are contradictory with their other opinions. Since, as has asserted bythe Almighty, Quranic verses confirm and support each other on the one hand and contradiction of the divine speech is absolutely impossible on the other, the present essay analyzes that paradox by referring to the Quranic verses and hadiths, surveys different commentaries, and discovers its relation withthe Return to Life (al-Raja(.

Allama Amini was among outstanding, diligent Shiite scholars of 14th Hijri century whose efforts on the inquiry into Ghadir event wereunparalleled. There are a lot of notable points in his al-Ghadir fi'l Kitab wa'l Sunna wal 'Adab on the defense of "Shiite hadith" and rejection of accusation of privilege of forged hadiths in Shiite books-a part whose writing was motivated by reaction to the accusation made by some Sunni scholars that forged hadiths are abundant in Shiite works.Allama narrates names of over seven hundred Sunni liars and hadith forgers and mentions some samples of their forged hadiths on the praise for or vilification of leaders of their four-fold sects on the one hand and reveals their prejudicial consideration of Shiite Imamson the other. He surveys the chain of transmission and text of 145 hadiths in order to reveal some efforts of them in order to conceal Imam Ali's virtues on the one hand and forge some virtues for the three-fold caliphs and some other companions on the other.

The verse on “the world of primal covenant (‘Alam al-Zarr)” is among difficult Quranic verses whose difficulty can be discovered by consideration of different opinions, which are sometimes opposite to one another, presented by Quranic commentators. Having accepted the existence of “the world of primal covenant,” Mulla Sadra has interpreted and expounded that world in accordance with his philosophical views mentioning it in his various works when dealing with philosophical discussions and hadiths. Referring to Mulla Sadra’s works on the philosophy and Quranic exegesis, the present essay attempts to discover his explanation of “the world of primal covenant.” Investigation of Mulla Sadra's works reveals that in his opinion, “the world of primal covenant” is the very world of divine knowledge. That perspective has remained unchanged in Mulla Sadra’s whole works written in different times of his scholarly life.

Throughout history, Muslims have approached Quranic exegesis in various ways among which being a persuasive, intellectual way on the basis of proofs from the Quran, hadiths, and intellect. Although they benefitted from hadiths up tothe third/fourth Hijri centuries in their commentaries, they did not ignore intellectual method–as will be proved in the present essay. Overshadowing other methods, the intellectual method manifested itself more and more from the fourth century onwards, for thinking independently on the basis of intellect in various dimensions commenced to play a role in benefitting more from Quranic concepts and objectives-something to be expound in length in this essay.

Zayd b. Wahb al-Juhani (84 A.H.), was a companion of Imam Ali andwas among the first ones who gathered Imam's sermons. He composed a book entitled "Imam Ali's sermons on the pulpit on Fridays, festivals, and the like." Being considered among the oldest sources of Nahj al-Balagha, that book existed till al-Shaikh al-Tusi's time (460 A.H.) referred to by Muslim authors. Like a good number of Islamic written heritage, however, it was destroyed and lost after the fifth Hijri century. That is why recognition of that old work, which is among the first Shiite heritage in hadith, should be considered a notable task. Survey of various dimensions of personality of Zayd b. Wahb al-Juhani as well as bibliographical analysis of his book is among topics dealt with in the present essay.

There is a disagreement among scholars over the meaning of Abraham’s leadership mentioned in the Quran, 2, 124. In this connection, AllamaTabatabaee presents an innovative opinion and interprets leadership as guidance by the command (al-Hidaya bi’l Amr) since Imam is qualified by guidance by the command as if the qualification is to describe the meaning of leadership (imamat). In Allama’s opinion, guidance by the command is the very inner, existential guidance mentioned in some other verses. That theory is based on the commonness of meaning of the word “command (amr)” in those two groups of Quranic verses. However, no proof can confirm that commonness. On the contrary, there are some proofs which negate that.

In order to discover the chronology of hadiths, orientalists have adopted such various methods as text analysis, analysis of chain of transmission, and Synthetic Method of Analysis of Chain of Transmission and Text. In the third method, all various forms of a hadith are collected from different sources first, and their texts and chains of transmission are compared with one another then. Through precise analysis, all inner relations of texts as well as chains of transmission are extracted. Some information concerning the origin and transformations of the hadith in question as well as primary elements of its text can thereby be gathered. In this method, analysis of chain of transmissionis chiefly dependent upon finding the primary common connection and the secondary common connection.