Ma`rifat-e Kalami
Year:2013 | Volume:4 | Issue:1 (10)|Papers Count:6

Corporealization which means attributing corporeality to God as the creator of the universe is one of the contentious and most-debated concepts in Islamic theology. It should be said about the historical background of corporealization and penetration of these types of thought that there has been more room for corporealization to be manifested in the views of other sects. However, early Mu'tazilites have attributed the belief in the corporality of God to Hisham Ibn Hakam, the great theologian of the time when Infallible Imams were present. This attribution has been taken into consideration by Non-Shia historiographers of sects and some Shia traditionists and mentioned in their works. Taking into consideration previous theological works, Mu'tazilites can be regarded as the first scholars who have proposed this attribution. With regard to the reasons of this attribution, some researchers have referred to Mu'tazilites' motives, competition and revenge-seeking. Mu'tazilites have exerted influence on both non-Shia and Shia works and sources. Such an attribution has certainly led to Hisham's ambiguous personality. For instance, there are at least five hadiths is Usool Kafi (the Book of sufficient principles) and some others in Sheikh Sadooq's book, Towhid and Kashi's book, Rejal (authorities of hadith), about the attribution of corporealization to Hisham. There are very few articles and research on Hisham, in which this idea is not affirmed or rejected.

One of the most important theological issues in theology and philosophy is the question of relationship between divine attributes and essence. The question is whether real divine attributes are the same as His essence or added to it? Among Sunny scholars, Ash'arites believe that God's attributes are added to His essence while Mu'tazilites hold that essence is the representative of attributes and consider the effects of the attributes of perfection as constant for essence. Setting forth these two views is due to inability to perceive the view of identification correctly and it can be referred to the necessity of emptiness of divine essence from perfective attributes, limitation, possibility, and multiplicity of ancientness, etc, among most important defective requirements of these two views. Rejecting the view of addition and representation, Imamiyyah Shias, philosophers, Maturidies, and some of the Mu'tazilites believe in the sameness of real divine attributes with divine essence. Inspired by Quranic verses and traditions, the Leader of Theosophers, while interpreting and proving the view of identification intellectually, criticizes philosophers' most important proofs. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper elaborates on the relationship between divine attributes and essence, based on the Leader of Theosophers' thoughts.

One of the common researchable issues between Imamiyyah and Catholic Christianity is the necessity of divine "grace" or "effluence" for man to achieve felicity and salvation. In this regard, these two sects pay complete attention to the principle of God's grace, with, no doubt, different presentations. While proposing the principle of grace, Imamiyyah emphasizes on man's choice and free will to achieve felicity. On the contrary, Catholic sect, along with an all-comprehensive scheme of the doctrine of grace, emphasizes on the weakness of man's will- who has descended due to the Original Sin- with regard to achieving felicity, and holds that divine effluence is the decisive factor in salvation. Using a theoretical-documentary approach, the present paper seeks to comparatively reanalyze the relationship between the principle of "grace" and man's "choice" from the view of Imamiyyah and Catholic sects. The most important research finding is that the last element of perfect cause of man's volitional acts is "choice" and " divine "grace" from the view of Imamiyyah and Catholic sects, respectively.

The fundamental core of religiosity is faith the formation of which is contingent upon different circumstances and components. One of the constituent components of faith is its affective dimension, which can be reviewed in religious text and studied from the view of psychology. The present paper seeks to elaborate on the role of affection in faith from the view of religious texts and psychology. Using a documentary analysis method, this paper tries to answer following questions: what is the relationship between affection and faith? Can affection have a role in the formation and strengthening of faith? Can faith be influential in strengthening affection, as well? The findings obtained from the analysis of religious texts (Quranic verses and traditions) show that there is a two-way relationship between faith and affection. On the one hand, affection, with such instances as love and fear, has a role in the formation and strengthening of faith. On the other hand, faith directs and stabilizes affection. As a result, man's love towards God is formed in the light of initiative knowledge and according to self-love towards absolute perfection, and faith is strengthened as knowledge increases.

If there is a contradiction between religion and modernity, how it can be resolved? In this contradiction, some propose the priority of religion; others propose the priority of modern culture and still others propose a middle way. In the view of Mr. Malekiyan, religion is applied to religious texts, men's understandings of these texts and religious men's deeds. Traditional understanding of religion is a fundamentalist and history-based understanding, which contradicts modernity. Therefore, he defines spirituality as rationalized religion and proposes modern interpretation of religion instead of its traditional understanding. Traditional understanding of religions contradicts with some of the components of modernity. Since these components are inevitable, we should propose an understanding of religion in order to resolve its contradiction with modernity. To criticize this view, it should be said that some of the components of the religion- the one claimed by him- which contradict modernity do not essentially exist in religions or at least in Islam and the others which are regarded as components of religion enjoy intellectual and epistemic support. A descriptive-analytical-critical method is used in this paper.

Although the idea of soul's substantial motion results in many achievements in intellectual and narrated discussions and solves many unsolvable problems, some basic problems has made previous philosophers to reject this idea. Having proved this doctrine and showed the results of its acceptance and rejection, Mulla Sadra tried to solve some of the problems posed on the idea, including "impossibility of motion in non-material objects" and "the conception of soul's persistence and constancy while moving". He provides a particular conception of soul's non-materiality and motion in spiritual substance to answer the aforementioned questions. Analyzing and evaluating Sadra's answers to these problems, the present paper seeks to provide and review other possible answers which can be offered by using the principles of transcendent philosophy itself.