RELIGIOUS RESEARCH (PAJOUHESHHA YE ADYANI)
Year:2018 | Volume:5 | Issue:10 |Papers Count:6

The creation of man, and the command of God to all angels to prostrate on him, and the devil refusal of this command (on the basis of Holy Quran and Islamic traditions) is the most important and challenging issue that has led to many doctrinal and theological views within Islamic religions to the extent that a great part of theological disputes between religions and different sects of Islam is related to the causes and effects of Devil creation and his seduction and temptation of man. It finally has resulted in philosophical/ theological discussions such as good and evil acts, determinism or free will, compensation and punishment for sins, theodicy, problem of evil and etc. In the sixth century, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim shahrestani in his popular book called "Melal-Va-Nehal", enumerates seven devil doubts in religious matters based on the views of commentators on Torah and Gospels. Then he states that each of these doubts is a base for the formation of Islamic sects such as Murji' a, Khawarij, Mu' tazilah, Ravafez (Shiite) and etc. Shahrestani by addressing some biblical or evangelical approaches and Israeli narratives involved in Islam, considered this issue as a means of proposing theological issues based on Ash’arites view (as he himself believed in it).

Traditional Jews believe that the Hebrew Bible is not merely a historical document, but it is legal to life. According to them, this book is alive because of eternal values and divine origin and purpose; and these are its differences with other books. On the other hand, the Quran reminds the Hebrew Bible and sometimes gives references to it. This study is trying to examine Quran and traditions of the Jewish about inspiration of Holy bible and its nature. According to traditional Jews, this book is revealed in the form of words spoken to Moses and other prophets that have written it. They believe that the Holy Bible is without any errors and there are no distortions in their holy book either. The Quran also speaks of the earlier scriptures and has taken a stand against them. According to Quran, Jewish Holy book has divine origin and is reveled to Prophet Moses, who also confirmed the Qur' an as well (Al-Baqarah 53, Al- Omran 3). In addition, the Qur' an confirms that the Torah has been reserved (Araf 144, 150). It should also be noted that the Quran declares that the Torah has been distorted semantically, not literally.

One of the basic pillars of Islam is the doctrine of the eschatology, which has raised some doubts concerning its root and details. The subject of direct impressibility of Islam from Zoroastrianism in this doctrine is among these doubts that includes two perspectives: one of them says that everlasting teachings of Quran have been impressed by the teachings of Zoroastrianism and the other says that everlasting teachings of Islam have been under the effect of the teachings of Zoroastrianism without reference to how they are adapted. The apparent similarities between the two religions in this doctrine and the historical precedence of Zoroastrianism over Islam are the main reasons of this claim. This paper describes and examines both aspects of the immediate Zoroastrianism influence on Islam, and provides the proper perspective on this issue.

"xwarsed niyayisn" is the first niyayisn of the five ones in the Khurtak Avesta. Khurtak Avesta or small Avesta is one of the recent Avesta sections, including the collection of short invocations of Zoroastrian people, read in special situations. Khurtak Avesta was collected by Adurpad i Mahraspandan, sahpuhr II ʼs Mowbedan Mowbed (309 379 AD.). In the sassanian period, Zoroastrian priests decided to translate and interpret Avesta, which was memorized verbally and was not apprehensible for people. These translations and commentaries of the translators of avestan texts are called "Zand". In this article, the Zand text of xwarsed niyayisn is written according to Mackenzie, D.N. ̓s transcription system, and its Persian equivalents is printed underneath. Then, Zand and Avesta texts are compared together and the differences are noted in footnote.

The ancient Persian root of the word waxs is wak- which means “to speak” and its Avestan root is vak- which means “to tell” and vaxs in Yasna 17: 44 has used as the singular female subject pronoun, but it has been used in middle Persian period as soul/spirit, and philologists have presented the latter meaning. The researcher believes that it can be defined as the talking soul, and based on Manichean texts, it should be considered as the soul in which the words of God have been planted. The word waxsur (prophet) has been used for Zarathustra in Zoroastrian Pahlavi text too. Even though this word is not found in Old Persian texts, its equivalent and associated meanings, speech and soul (The talking soul), can be found. Naser Khosrow considered speech as the food of soul and had spoken many times about the expression of the talking soul, the perfected soul, in Manichean texts. He described speech in a way that we can substitute soul for it, and they can be considered as one. Perhaps this has been derived from the word waxs.

Manichean religion is full of mystical teachings rooted in Gnostic, Iranian and Greek thoughts which has been enriched by the Christian and Buddhist beliefs. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons behind the rapid growth and development of this religion is its mystical properties. Yet, it is inherent in the teachings and religious concepts of Manichaeism and has less frequently been investigated separately. This mysticism strongly emphasizes that the survival of the human soul from the bondage of the material world is in acquiring knowledge. Attaining this knowledge is done through self-knowledge and heart intuition. Also, self-purification, piety, and asceticism are the significant parts of this mysticism. Through a review of the literature left by Manicheans, it is possible to find an abundant of elements which have much in common with the features of a mystical schools. These elements can be separately categorized to enable us to discover an independent cosmology, epistemology and theology for this mystical faith.