ENSANPAJOOHI-E DINI (RELIGIOUS ANTHROPOLOGY)
Year:2019 | Volume:16 | Issue:41 |Papers Count:12

Family is the most basic social institution and the most fundamental element of the community and the context in which values are fostered. In his treatises including “ Wujub al-Siyassah” and “ Al-Ha’ jat ila al-Siyassah” in particular as well as other writings in general, Avicenna has penned about family and adopted a religious-philosophical approach to delve into the necessity of the institution and factors and barriers toward its secure establishment. The present study, first, investigates the position of family n Avecenian philosophical system and then probes the fundamental elements associated with it including marriage, cooperation of man and wife in house management, family law and the principles ruling housing affairs. Concerning marriage factors, Avicenna lays stress on sexual, psychological, social and economical motivations and calls attentions of managers and rulers of the society to economical welfare, job creation, couples’ intellectual maturation, preventing from hidden marriages and chastity of the family aimed at strengthening the establishment of the family institution. Besides, regarding the rights of wife and duties of husband, Avicenna underscores the duty of paying subsistence alimony to wife and her rights for respect and support while knowing he man as the pillar of the institution. However, concerning the right of divorce, he believes that such a right should not be held by someone who is morally instable and rationally ill. Therefore, in some conditions, man might become deprived of such a privilege.

Supplication is one of the deepest kinds of Man’ s communication with God. Depending on his level of understanding about his inherent destitution, Man has delved into the semantics of supplication and issues associated with it. Sadra’ s adopted view toward issue of supplication is not detached from his anthropological principles. The substantial ascending motion of soul toward perfection, the quality of human perfection, perfect Man, human inherent destitution and principle of human authority are among fundamental issues discussed by Sadra in explaining the issue of supplication. So, the current research has analyzed the issue of supplication in the light of these anthropological principles. Thus, after explaining the concepts and principles, the research shed light on the relation between these principles and the issue of supplication and then puts forward a new analysis of the issue on the basis of Sadra’ s anthropological principles.

Religion is a social reality and for explaining social realities a number of individualistic and pluralistic theories are employed. Critical realism is amongst these theories which studies and explains human deeds. In the current research three reasons behind the causality of human behavior are propounded. Critical realism paradigm believes that Man is of social nature. Critical realists also believe that practical adequacy (sufficiency) is one of the pillars of methodological judgment which is on the basis of peoples’ agreed-upon assumptions. They believe that for collecting data a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative methods are required while believing that none of them is enough by itself. In dialectic anthropology of Roy Bhaskar, the position of God is in a quality that, the fundamental structure of Man and of universe is God and the main duty of Man is to attain at and perceive this sublime or absolute reality. According him, God is the ultimate source of existence and possibilities. Also, he believes that Man, more or less, perceives God because human nature is endowed with the possibility of recognizing internal and external God.

Mulla Sadra believes that Soul, at very beginning, is material in nature which become spiritual through substantial motion and then ascends through levels of spiritual perfection, arrives at absolute immaterialism and become free from want of body. In fact, soul is newborn of natural universe and fails to exist prior to corporal manifestation. However, in some traditional sources and quotation from immaculate Imams-which some narrators believe that are quoted through successive witness-the creation of souls is prior to creation of bodies. Since, Mullah Sadra is a Shiite philosopher, to interpret the issued narrations and Hadith from the holy prophet and Immaculate Imams; he relies on logical evidences and tries to explain them through logical reasoning. Accordingly, concerning the existence of soul before corporal manifestation and universe, he provides two interpretations; logical collaborative existence and spiritual human existence.

Anthropology is amongst most important issues in any worldview. A perfect Man is a medium between creator and creatures and a symbol representing universe, God and self. The theory of perfect Man is amongst is a fundamental issue in Gnosticism. Though some researcher believes that this theory had come on the scene before ibn-Arabi, he was the first one who developed this theory similar to other subjects of theoretical Gnosticism. Imam Sadiq (a) believes in the impossibility of recognizing divine nature and states that God can only be known through its divine attributes. He also believes that the holy prophet and his household encompass all divine attribute and they are unique in universe in their creation. According him, a perfect human enjoys the right of authority and is the successor of God on the earth. In addition, a perfect human is the medium of divine will, enjoys the position of decree and decisive reason from the side of God. This article has employed the method of content analysis.

Incorporeity of Soul is amongst important issues in Islamic theology and philosophy. Seyyed Morteza and Allamah Helli, two prominent Shiite theologue, adopt different views concerning the nature of Soul. Seyyed Morteza rejects the incorporeity of soul and denies the substantial immateriality of it. His main reason is dependence and coherence of intellectual and logical deeds to corporal affairs. However, Allamah Helli accepts the incorporeity of soul. The current research is an attempt to inquire into the reasons of Seyyed Morteza for rejecting the immateriality of soul and submit evidences for the position adopted by Allamah Helli. Allamah has investigated and criticized the views of the opponent theologues in his treatises and asserted that their views on rejecting incorporeity of soul, in spite of some advantages, suffer from some deficiencies. Though skeptical in his position, Allamah cites the incorporeity of perception as the major reason for incorporeity of soul. Yet, as a theologue, he adopts the approach of incorporeity of soul.

The ontology of the power of imagination and confirming its perceptual functions is one of the major scientific intricacies in philosophical psychology. Therefore, each of peripatetic, illuminationist and transcendental schools of philosophy has adopted a different approach toward abstraction or immaterialism of imagination, perceptiveness of imagination and nature of imageries. This study investigates the ontology of imagination from the viewpoint of Allamah Hassan Zade Amoli. According to Allamah, imagination is not merely an inward power which saves images but, affected by the principle of individual unity, goes beyond limits of common peripatetic and Sadra definitions. Too, the substantial dimensions of imagination and functions of this power go under the effect of this principle and become distinct from common accepted point of views. According to Allamah, the agency of imagination bears meaning in its creational position which is not attained save through intuitional perception. Explaining the onomastic creational position of this power is amongst fundamental functions of imagination in his views. Allamah believes that the images in spiritual imagination establish a bilateral relationship with the beyond world.

Analyzing Health of soul and characteristics of a pure soul has been an important anthropological issue for Muslim thinkers. In his moral treatises, Nasir al-Din Tusi has developed a particular model on human soul`s health. The current research tries to depict this model and then give a comprehensive analysis of the issue on the basis of his writings. In the view of Tusi, purity of soul is a preliminary step toward human transcendence. In the transcendence-based theory of Tusi, decontaminating soul from vice and rascality exerts an important effect on the purity of soul. According to this thinker, virtue is a critical component for this purity. In this model he employs flexible indices aimed at a righteous Man rather than an ideal perfect or Gnostic human being. Such an analysis is different from other theories put forward on the issues including the view adopted by Zakariyyā al-Rā zī . Maintaining a spiritual therapeutic stance which is adopted from the moral theory of Tusi, the current research has depicted the spiritual disorders of soul and suggested remedial solution. Furthermore, considering the weight of “ virtue” in the purity of soul, the nature of the concept, as well as faculties of soul, is explained and different interpretations are given.

A key issue in philosophy of Sadra is probing into the origination and destination of Man and its relation with natural Man. The current research is an attempt to delve into Sadra’ s method and instrument of psychology to shed light on the logic behind superiority or distinction of transcendental philosophy over/from other philosophical schools of thought. Studying treatises of Sadra through documentary research and analysis shows that in studying soul and psychology, in addition to logical reasoning, Mulla Sadra has employed Quranic verses and traditions, personal experience, intuition, principles of faith, quotations, critiques, assimilation and metaphor, interpretations, metonyms and etc. Sadra has not used an interdisciplinary methodology in his anthropology. However, immersed in religion and Gnosticism and adept in contemporary philosophical schools of thought, he has given birth to a hermeneutic that is a blending of news and old philosophy and therefore resulted in a distinct interpretation of Man. Sadra’ s anthropology is manifestation of human truth in the light of human reason and order of transcendence which is endorsed by sublime understanding of perfect human. So, though anthropology in transcendental philosophy enjoys revelation and intuition, it is still an authentic logical and philosophical method.

Today, due to the development in experimental science of nutrition, emergence of news feeding styles and qualitative and quantitative expansion of foods, the necessity of studying human nutrition from a philosophical and religious point of view is spontaneously aroused. This research had adopted an applied philosophical method to explore nutrition as a critical dimension associated Man and provide a philosophical explanation on the relationship between nutrition and human soul and thought through philosophical and logical reasoning. According to this approach, though associated with the bodily (material) dimension of Man, nutrition affects spiritual dimension of Man because soul and body are interrelated. Thus, nutrition, as a non-epistemic factor, determines human thought and belief in a way that some human thoughts are absolutely determined by nutrition. Explaining and submitting evidence on this relationship has applied contributions and leads to ethical and instructional implications.

The position of Man in political system and political rights is amongst most important issues which has attracted the attention of different thinkers and served as the standard on the basis of which they have categorized governments. Leaving the political rights of man unexplained in religious or religious-based governments has resulted in viewing these governments as despotic. For the same very reason, the current research was an attempt to investigate the political and governmental practice of Imam Ali (a) in Nahj al-Balgha to shed light on the political right of Man in Islamic government which can be served as an adequate standard for Islamic governments and groups throughout the world of Islam. The findings show thaton the basis of instructions of Nahj al-Balagha, human being enjoys some political rights including the right to select his ruler and his own destiny, political freedom, supervising authorities, consulting authorities, advising authorities, being generally satisfied (of the government), knowing about governmental issues, secured and equal rights and secured individual property and sephere. In other words, Islamic governemtn is charged with a duty to secure and fulfill these basic rights.

Human is perfectionist in nature. Exerting excessive care in choosing lexical items and their targeted usage in the texts as well as moral and instructional emphasis on employing proper discourse are manifestations of human perfectionism and integration of aestheticism and perfectionism in language. A perfectionist man not only selects best and most proper lexical units for use but also naturally craves for hearing them. Respecting human dignity and observing etiquettes of respect and morality are logic behind language euphemism, language aestheticism and language excellence. Hebrew as the language of a divine book which enjoys historical and linguistic value is full of proper and good lexical items. Too, both Persian prose and verse (that is affected by holy Quran) have same feature and adopt rhetorical and technical techniques to beautify Persian worth and suit the audiences’ taste.