JOURNAL OF ISLAMIC STUDIES
Year:2008 | Volume:- | Issue:80 (QUR'ANIC AND HADITH STUDIES)|Papers Count:8

The real beauty is perceptible but indefinable, and its expanse encompasses the world of nature and the sensible and beyond that as well as the spiritual; and by incorporating a part of scientific and philosophical studies, it has created "aesthetics" with its various tributaries and discourses. With a search into the Holy Qur'an, which is a manifestation of beauty, we can arrive at highly valuable aesthetic Qur'anic concepts and outlooks. In this line, after studying the aesthetic terms in the Qur'an, the present article follows up the aesthetic phenomena and the tokens of beauty in it, and on the basis of the holy verses of the Qur'an proves that God is the source of all beauties who has taken beauty into account when creating of the world and its blessings. Similarly, in religious law (shari-،a) beauty is regarded as praiseworthy. Nevertheless, beauty is a means by which God puts human beings to the test in order to select the good doers for Final Abode.

Chronology of the thinkers and scholars bears many benefits. Among the benefits of such a task is that it can help the researcher in examining, analyzing, and tracing back the roots of their viewpoints. As, during various periods of their scholarly life and following stages of maturity and perfection, the scholars usually express different and sometimes incoherent views on a scholarly issue. This will be unveiled by means of delving into their works and finding out determining indications of the date of writing their books or the priority and posterity of each one of them.In this vein, examination of Shaykh Tu-si-’s work and dating them is an attempt that can be effective in accurately comprehending the opinions and views of Shaykh and resolving possible contradictions as well as revealing to us the developments and deepening procedures of his intellectual foundations over time and space. What is so appealing to the researchers in this respect is that most of Shaykh's works have been written during his stay in Baghdad, especially during the years between 436/1044 and 448/1056 which signifies his great efforts in elucidation of the principles of Shi-،-sm in an atmosphere of disturbances and disparities among the Shi-،a and Sunni- communities.The present article is authored with the aim of determining the priority and posterity of Shaykh's books and the chronology of his works so as to provide an introduction to a deeper analysis of his works.

Among the issues raised in semantics and analysis of the vocabulary of the texts is giving significance to the "relative meaning" of the words along with their "basic meaning". In this issue, some have preferred the relative meaning and regarded the context of the text and its internal and external elements as playing an essential role in analyzing the meaning. Others have restricted the context to the specific area and socio-cultural situation of the emergence of a discourse or text, considering the social context as the principal element of the meaning. As it is obvious, orientation in this issue and the type of its assessment has an impressive impact on the interpretation of religious texts, the Qur'an, and tradition (sunna). The present article addresses this issue. Taking some of the new viewpoints into consideration, the research attempts to evaluate with a balanced outlook the intra-textual and para-textual elements effectual in relative meaning. Accordingly, the meaning producing lingual and para-lingual elements are searched into from the viewpoints of the Muslim scholars, which at the same time, is a kind of comparative outlook between the viewpoints of the Muslim scholars and the new approaches in semantics.

Muhammad b. Hasan Tu-si- (d. 460/1067) is the author of three significant and principal books in the science of rija-l (scrutiny of transmitters) of Shi-،a, of which the tow volumes named Fihrist and Rija-l are his own writings and the other one is literary dictations (imla-,) and selections from Kashshi-,s Rija-l which Shaykh Tu-si- has named Ikhtiya-r al-Rija-l.In each of these works, given the writer's objectives of writing them, the kind of presentation of biographical information concerning transmitters of hadi-th, scholars of usu-l, and the written works, is different from the other. The writer of the present article intends to find out Shaykh Tu-si-,s methodology in presenting information on naqd al-rija-li- (disparaging and declaring the personages as trustworthy [al-jarh wa al-ta‘di-l] and the validation of the their works) according to his two books Faihrist and Rija-l.The conclusion drawn in this research is that adopting an expedient procedure explains away part of Shaykh's conservative methodology and function in reflecting his rija-li- (biographical) opinions. For some reasons examined in the article, Shaykh has not presented much of the rija-li- information.

This article reviews the validity of the interpretation ascribed to ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm. The extant Tafsīr of Qummī is a collation of the traditions of Abū al-Faḍl al-‘Abbās from ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm and Abū al-Jārūd and the traditions of other masters. On the other hand, Shaykh Kulaynī has related various exegetical traditions on the authority of his master, ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm, in his Kitāb al-Kāfī. The writer has adopted ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm's exegetical traditions in Kitāb al-Kāfī and while comparing them one by one with Qummī's exegetical traditions, he has encountered only one conformed example.With a research made into the chains of transmission of ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm's exegetical traditions, it was clarified that there are weak narrators in the chains of transmitters who are accused of falsehood, exaggeration, and fabrication of ḥadīth; and it is clear that ‘Alī b. Ibrāhīm's authentication is not applicable to these people.With an examination of the textual criteria and quality of the exegetical traditions of Qummī, it was made clear that some of Qunnī's exegetical traditions are not compatible with the legal and rational standards, among which are the traditions that have violated the infallible status of the Prophets. Furthermore, fabrication of ḥadīth and superstitions are clearly evident in many of them.Accordingly, it is concluded that the tafsīr that has been at Shaykh Kulaynī's disposal is different from the tafsīr which now we have in hand.

A reading (qarā’at) of Sūrat al-‘Aṣr, which is in contrast to the credible readings of the Holy Qur'an, is ascribed to Amīr al-Mu’minīn (A.S.). Since it contains additions to the Sūrat al-‘Aṣr, its acceptance means omitting some parts of the Holy Qur'an. Examining the sanads of the two traditions that ascribe this reading to Imam ‘Alī (A.S.) indicates that these traditions are among the āḥād traditions (those transmitted by a single narrator), that except for an unknown narrator, no one else has transmitted it. Abū Isḥāq Sabī‘ī is the only person who has related the tradition from that narrator. As for Abū Isḥāq's narrations, the biographers and tradition experts have raised objections to them because of their nonconformity to the samā‘ (hearing), taḥdīth (transmission of ḥadīth), as well as his fraudulence. In addition, toward the end of his life, Abū Isḥāq suffered dementia and the aforementioned reading has also been transmitted in disagreement, to the extent that this disturbance and the disruption in its sanad invalidate its acceptance. 

Study of the discourses on epistemology of the Qur'an is among the present century's epistemological trends which only few of the Qur'an experts and authorities have dealt with. Cognition of the procedures for achieving knowledge (ma‘rifat) about the Origin (mabda‘) and Return (ma‘ād) in the Qur'an, or in other words, the cognition of guiding procedures of the Qur'an requires to recognize the instruments that the Qur'an has provided for man's [achieving] knowledge.This article addresses two issues: "the Qur'an's approach to the instruments and ways to ma‘rifat" and "their relation to the principles of Qur'anic worldview". First, it proceeds to prove, with the examination of the instruments of cognition in the Qur'an, that the Qur'an has provided man with two ways to ma‘rifat. In the first way, some instruments of human components are his guide in cognition of the Origin, but due to the restrictions of these instruments in the material world and the possibility of their being flawed, another way for achieving ma‘rifat has been recommended to man which is beyond human faculties and senses, and secure from any flaws and quite reassuring, so that man may achieve cognition about the reality of the Origin as well as the existence of the Return and how it is accomplished. This way to ma‘rifat, which people achieve through the Prophets, is the firmest and most essential way and a touchstone for verifying human epistemic instruments. The second issue studied and explained in this article is the sovereignty of the three principles of the Qur'anic worldview over cognition instruments.