QURANIC & HADITH STUDIES
Year:2012 | Volume:5 | Issue:1 (9)|Papers Count:8

“Ghayyum” (Absolute Self-Existent) is one of Allah’s exalted names mentioned in the Holy Quran, and due to its occurrence in the popular and much-recited verse, Ayat-ol-Korsi, has become a catchword among Muslims. Meanwhile, various discussions about the literal and interpretive meanings of the term indicate the distinguished place it has had from antiquity among exegetes and the diverse meanings ascribed to it.In this article it has been attempted to offer an Arabic lexical model based on terms like Iblis and Ghistas, in order to provide a new suggestion about the structure of Ghayyum. Using an etymological approach, the lexical structure of various other words in Hebraic, Aramean, Syriac and Latin languages have been observed for discovering the lexical structure of Ghayyum.

Different viewpoints about man’s creation, according to various narrations, have created many issues inside and even outside the field of religion. Any attempt to understand all the aspects of this story and to get informed of the secrets of man’s creation, despite being very interesting, is very difficult.Recognizing the order of pivotal elements of this story and specifying its beginning and end is not simple. After an overview on the historical backgrounds of the Creation, this text is determined to work on the concept of reality and allegory in the story of Adam’s creation and its different parts like: God’s speaking with angels, Vicegerency, question of angels and God’s answer, teaching of the divine names to Adam and angels, angels’ prostration and Satan’s avoidance, Adam’s dwelling in heaven, the forbidden tree, Adam’s fall, perception of the divine words by Adam and God’s acceptance of Adam’s repentance and etc have been studied.It must be said that the study of context has a decisive role in perceiving the concept of each of the elements mentioned above, since the real meaning of that could better come out by considering the relationship of these parts. The conclusion obtained from this research expresses the fact that the Creation’s story and Adam’s adventures in the Quran contain many deep philosophical and mystical concepts and its style of explanation is allegorical, in a way that the internal structure of the story is representative of reality, but its composition and explanation is like an event and in allegorical form.

Hasan b. Salih b. Hayy is known as one of the heads and founders of Batriyya, a branch of Zaydiyya Shiites. However, referring to his traditions and quotations indicate that he had certain doctrinal principles not sticking completely to the religious foundations of Zaydis. On the other hand, Hasan b. Salih was in communication with Imam Sadiq and his jurisprudential questions from the Imam led to the prevalence of his traditions in the later Shiite Hadith collections. In spite of his accompanying Zayds sons in the latter part of his life, the claim of his being the founder of Batriyya is questionable.To investigate this issue, historical evidence and quotations of experts in biography of transmitters are taken into consideration, hence studying and criticizing his Islamic school and traditions in the Shiite works. The outcomes of this research indicate that he was a follower of the Shiite school and criticisms directed to him are due to the improper performance of Zaydis centuries after the death of Zad b. Salih.

Communication and propagation are the most important means of promoting thought, culture, values, and messages to others, hence the attempt made by all religions, schools and nations to spread their ideologies. To do this successfully, one needs to adopt correct, efficient and diverse methods.Today, the confrontation between the world’s oppressive system and the monotheistic and right Islamic culture is more prominent than before, resulting in a distinction between the believers and arrogant powers. The Quran’s life-giving verses which act as support for the monotheistic front are full of references to prophets’ and other great figures’ adopted methods of propagating faith. On the other hand, the oppressors, whose main endeavor is to resort to devilish schemes to deceive people, have at their disposal the most advanced means of advertisement and propagation.In the present article there is a comparative description between the two opposing trends, i.e. the Quranic way which relies on values, truthfulness, and comprehensiveness as performed by its depicted model figures, and today’s propagation methods that are far from righteousness and preach what they do not act and resort to illegitimate means to achieve their goals. The latter method will ultimately lead to no sustainable hope, good and felicity for mankind.

Semantics of Quranic terms is one of the pillars of accurate comprehension and interpretation of the Quran. To grasp the meaning of a Quranic term a mere definition does not suffice and it requires knowledge of etymology which can provide its historical background and contextual occurrence.Tabrasi, a distinguished Shiite exegete, in his interpretation of Section 27 of Majma-ol-Bayan, undertook an etymological study by analyzing derivations, syntax and word usage among Arabs, and at times the words’ evolutionary progression. In spite of attending to the etymology, he didn’t overlook the high importance of context and circumstantial and discourse-based evidence to interpret the holy Verses of the Quran.The article is to offer an explanation of semantics and its sub-categories plus its function in Majma-ol-Bayan, An Interpretation, and Tabrasi’s view about the issue.

In the past centuries, those who studied and interpreted the Quran used to apply different exegetical methods which been the process of understanding the divine speech and finding the meaning of the Quran. They presented valuable services in this field which proved to be a key to understanding the meaning of the Quran.On the other hand, contemporary achievements have put forward pretty new and different methods along with new functions including the methods of literary criticism, linguistics, and semantics. Although these methods are the outcome of the attempts of modern linguists, they can help interpreters to have a more exact understanding of the Holy Quran. What are these methods? What is the necessity of applying them along with the old, traditional, and classical methods in interpreting the Quran?The present article seeks to identify and introduce these methods by performing library research, analyzing the data, and indicating the reasons for the necessity of applying them in interpreting the holy Quran. We hope it to be a preparatory step towards more achievements.

In authoritative books of traditions there is a text from Imam Reza explaining principles and foundations or articles of Islamic faith. This text just like a comprehensive treatise introduces rules of God and doctrines of shia. Even though this treatise was written in response to the request of ma’moon the Abbasid but in its own right has a great doctrinal importance for Shiite Muslims.Content Analysis of this treatise indicates the high status of prayer and its related laws and virtues. The treatments can be classified as follows: prerequisites, integral parts, virtues, precepts of prayer and mentioning their roots presenting some prayer patterns.In fact the purpose of this paper is finding out the status of prayer in the treatise of Imam Reza through the content Analysis.