JOURNAL OF IMAMIYYAH STUDIES
Year:2023 | Volume:8 | Issue:16|Papers Count:13

The principle of grace is one of the most important and influential beliefs among theologians and has a special place in theology. This principle plays an essential role in proving the necessity of sending prophets and appointing imams in the views of Shia theologians. There are various statements in theological works about the definition of the principle of grace, the reasons for the necessity of grace from the Exalted, and the proof of the necessity of sending messengers and appointing imams by referring to the principle of grace. Shia scholars such as Nobakhti, Sheikh Mofid, Sayyed Mortaza, Sheikh Tusi, Allameh Helli, and from among the later scholars, Sayyed Hashem Hosayni Tehrani, and Jafar Sobhani, have used the principle of grace in the debates related to proving the necessity of sending prophets and appointing imams. Some have considered the principle in accordance with divine wisdom, and some have treated it simply as God's grace and mercy. Some consider this principle effective in proving the issues of prophecy and imamate, and some deem it not worthy of reference. Finally, however, the words of Shia theologians all together prove the necessity of sending prophets and appointing imams using the principle of grace.

The term Ahl al-Bayt is one of the key meanings in understanding Shiite doctrines. This word has undergone conceptual development throughout history. The reason for this development is the influence of the cultural, social, and political functions of the term Ahl al-Bayt in historical events. In this article, the conceptual development of this term is examined in the first seven Hijri centuries and the four periods including prophecy, the first four caliphs, the Umayyad caliphate, and the Abbasid caliphate. It seems that in all periods, the term Ahl al-Bayt has been exchanged between literal, tribal, ideological, and religious meanings. Finally, in the seventh Hijri century, the true sense of Ahl al-Bayt was established in the meaning that the Prophet (S) explained.

Imami sources are full of narrations that can be used to interpret the Quran. But due to the chain of transmission's weakness or fakeness, it is impossible to use all these narrations. Therefore, it is necessary to separate acceptable narrations from other narrations with a correct method. The purpose of this article is first to examine the possibility of using interpretive narrations and then to show a practical example of a group of interpretive narrations about the torment of Noah's people. The results indicate the preference of the view of the permissibility of using wahed (single) narrations, quoted by a reliable person, in interpreting the Quran. By assessing the credibility of the chain of transmission based on the common method in the Shia Elm Rejal (the science of knowing men), the authentic narrations are determined from the non-authentic ones. For this purpose, the chains of transmission of six narrations are examined, and the information obtained from authentic narrations is added to the related Quranic materials and it is proposed as a practical method in narrative interpretation. The method of this research is fundamental and citational with interdisciplinary data analysis.

Matthew Pierce, a western researcher of Shiism, in the book Twelve Infallible Men discusses the role of five Shiite canonizer and their books in giving identity to Shiism.  These books include Ethbat al-Wasiyah by Masudi, Dalael al-Imamah by Tabari, Al-Ershad by Sheikh Mofid, Elam al-Wara by Tabarsi, and Managheb Al Abi Taleb by Ibn Shahr Ashub. In his book, Pierce mentions the main and effective role of these canonizers in giving identity to the Shia society, the sanctity and infallibility of the imams, the creation of the sacred history of Shia, the practical demarcation of Shia beliefs from non-Shia, and the formation of the oral and sacred history of Shia through the stories and anecdotes of the above-mentioned authors. The theme of Matthew Pierce's work is the history of thought, which tries to attribute the origin of Shiite thought to Shiite saints by using the historical method. The presentation of this point of view is rooted in the principles that the author has chosen for himself and based on which he makes those statements. The present research aims to examine and criticize the author's principles and methods based on the religious foundations of Muslims, using historical, traditional, and religious methods and principles.

This article examines the practical method or in the scientific term "scientific research methodology" of Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, a Shiite scholar and orientalist of the Sorbonne University. Through studying and researching ancient Shiite texts and works, he mostly tries to present an image of the early Shia in the first centuries. The image based on his scientific approach, which emphasizes historical events, is different from that of his master, Henry Carbone, the great French scholar in Shiite studies. According to Amir-Moezzi, the compilation of Shiite works in the first century mostly arose from the political view of Shiite scholars, and in the second and third centuries A.H, they were the result of Shiite esotericism. The necessity of explanation and allegorical interpretation of religious texts, as well as following the esoteric concepts of verses and traditions, are the signs of the strong tendency of Shiites of that period to "originality of the inner" in understanding religious concepts.

After converting to Islam in the Transoxiana, the Turks retained much of their previous religious beliefs. The victory of the Seljuks over the Romans in the battle of Malazgerd (463 AH / 1071 AD) caused the Turks and Islam to find their way to Anatolia. There were two types of Turks living in Anatolia: the civilized and urban Turks of Central Asia settled in the urban centers of Anatolia and the nomadic Turks settled in the villages and summer areas. The Seljuk policy in settling the Turks led to clashes between the nomads and the settlers. The nomads were dissatisfied with the government due to being deprived of sources of wealth; therefore, they revolted against the Seljuks. The Babaian uprising is a clear example of these uprisings, which, despite its failure, weakened the Anatolian Seljuk government. Using the descriptive-analytical method, this research aims to investigate the factors that formed the Babaian uprising. Thus, the author seeks to answer the following two questions: What factors caused the Babaian uprising? What was the contribution of each factor to the uprising? In response, two hypotheses have been proposed: a) Economic, political and religious factors played a role in the Babaian uprising. B) Although this uprising had a religious form, it seems that the main motive of the insurgent was to achieve economic goals

Islamic theologians consider God's activity as volitional and consider volition as an attribute of action, not of knowledge. In the meantime, Mirza Mahdi Isfahani proposed the theory of verdict in explaining the formation of divine action and differentiated between verdict, will, and providence. Using the descriptive-analytical method, the present research has investigated the theory of verdict based on library sources. The result is that Mirza Mahdi Isfahani considered the verdict to be the first stage of the formation of divine action and to be the effective factor in the formation of providence, will, and predestination. He believed that divine knowledge only has the dignity of discovery, and this discovery includes existence as well as its opposite, non-existence. Hence, for the realization of the divine act, there must be a determining and special factor to choose one of the two sides of existence and non-existence. This factor is the verdict, which is one of the attributes of the perfection of divine action, and its place is after divine knowledge. God is the owner of the verdict, which is manifested in the various stages of the realization of divine action.

One of the most important ways to know sects is to examine their beliefs. In this century, many studies have been done on the beliefs of different sects. One of the researchers who have done a lot of research in the field of Ismailism and its history and thoughts is Farhad Dafari. This research aims to answer this question: Considering the importance of knowing the beliefs of the sects, what method or methods did Farhad Dafari use in examining the Ismaili beliefs? Of course, the purpose of this research is the doctrinal and theological teachings of Ismailism. By examining his writings and studies, it is concluded that Dafari has used many sources in his research of ideology writing of Ismailism and has presented the subject of ideology writing at the heart of Ismaili historiography. Furthermore, he has considered ideology writing along with the evolutions and developments of thought. This article is done by descriptive-analytical method and the data is collected from library sources..

In the Shia hadith sources, in addition to many traditions that introduce the number of Shia Imams (AS) as twelve, there are other traditions that seem to conflict with them, citing the number of Imams other than twelve. Adducing these traditions, an Arabic article entitled "The conflict of the Rafezi narrated significations; a case study of Imamate" written by Fawaz ibn Ahmad ibn Ali Rezwan has claimed that the Shiite traditions regarding Imamate are contradictory and irreconcilable. Therefore, the principle of Imamate is a place of doubt. Using the descriptive-analytical method, the present research aims to answer the questions of the mentioned article about the number of imams. First, it quotes the claim and categorizes the traditions into seven groups: narrations of one imam, two imams, three imams, seven imams, twelve imams, thirteen imams, and twelve Mahdis after Qaem (Riser). Then, by examining the chain of transmission and the content of each tradition, it concludes that all of the traditions are weak in terms of their chain of transmission, and they conflict with the correct traditions in terms of their content, indicating the existence of twelve imams. In addition, some of them are incoherent. Assuming the acceptance of the chain of transmission and content of the traditions, the significations of some of them do not support the claim. On the contrary, they can be reconciled with the traditions indicating twelve imams.

The followers of the Nematollahi sect believe that all their qotbs (spiritual leaders) are Shiites. Yafei (d. 768 A.H.) is one of these qotbs and the master of Sayyed Nematollah Wali. One of the prominent differences between Shiites and Sunnis is their different views on the succession of the Prophet (S). In his books, especially Merat al-Jenan, Yafei gave his opinions on these two issues. This research seeks to understand his religion by examining his views on the succession of the Prophet (S) and the first three caliphs. The findings of the research indicate that Yafei narrated eleven traditions on the virtues of the first caliph, sixteen traditions on the virtues of the second caliph, and twelve traditions on the virtues of the third caliph. Like Sunni scholars, he was silent about the succession of the Messenger of God (S) and the related events, and only narrated events that prove the succession of the first caliph. Therefore, according to the evidence, contrary to Nematollahi claim, he believes in the Sunni religion

Supplication books include an important part of Shia hadiths, and the compilation of this category of books has been the focus of scholars' attention since the very first periods. The comprehensive and valuable book Mesbah al-Motahajjed wa Selah al-Motaabbed is one of the most famous Shia hadith heritages on supplications, the author of which is Sheikh Tusi, one of the prominent hadith scholars of the 4th-5th centuries. This book is one of the oldest types of prayer writing that has reached us enjoying a special historical place. After Sheikh Tusi, it has always been the place of attention and reference by many scholars as one of the sources of supplications. The focus of this research is the analysis of the content of Mesbah al-Motahajjed, which is a collection of prayers. The analytical analysis is based on time, frequent concepts, and verses. The content analysis finally resulted in the fact that the prayers have educational and training goals and, therefore, the Imams' (AS) program was compiled in three stages of awakening and flourishing religious nature; strengthening religious beliefs and insight based on education and training; and guidance. .

There are ancient and exquisite codices of Mojmal al-Loghah written by Ibn Fares on Arabic literature, belonging to the 5th and 6th centuries. Examining these manuscripts shows that some of them were written and corrected by Shiite scribes and scholars. In the first part of the article, referring to the nine existing copies of this book from the fifth century, it is shown that some of them were written and corrected by Shiite writers and scholars. In the second part of the article, an ancient, exquisite, and Shiite copy of the book Mojmal al-Loghah is introduced, which was read and listened to in various circles (apparently in Qom and perhaps Ray), and it was presented to several Imami scholars namely Mohammad ibn Ali ibn Bondar, Hasan ibn Fadar Qomi, and Rashid al-Razi. .

The issue of government throughout human history has been one of the significant issues so that Muslims have sought to establish the political organization of the Islamic societies. Moreover, Shiites regard Imamate as a great example of the Islamic state and one of the pillars to administer the political system after the Prophet (PBUH), which is applied in the age of occultism in the form of Wellayat-e Fagih (authority of the jurist). This study, taking a descriptive-analytical approach, explores the Shiite imamate with regard to the structure of the Islamic government in the age of occultation through the lens of the opinions of Imam Khomeini (RA) and the results reveal that the authority of the jurist is the main pillar of the Shiite system in the age of occultation and the most fundamental institution in the structure of the Islamic Republic system that, while talking about the separation of powers, because of the prevention of illegitimate and corruptive concentration of power, these systems of power are not independent from the leadership. In the thinking of Wellayat-e Fagih (authority of the jurist), three theories were presented considering the boundaries of power: the Islamic nationalism, the absolute export of revolution, and the theory of Umm al-Qura (mother of all settlements). The opinions of Imam about the national and international boundaries of power are represented in various ways. Regarding the political activities of people, he believes that parties, communities, political associations, and religious minorities enjoy freedom as long as they do not conspire.