THEOLOGY JOURNAL
Year:2020 | Volume:7 | Issue:12|Papers Count:12

The topic of Attributes is one of the important topics of Theology and Hakim Sabzevari, based on philosophical principles, has explained and elucidated its content according to “ Objectivity of Attributes and Essence” , “ Gradation of Attributes” , and “ Content Participation of the Attributes” , answering various theological groups and the People of Hadith. He also has answered the theory of Essence’ s Deputyship of the Attributes, and the criticism of Kulayni on the excess of Divine will from the Essence. According to Hakim Sabzevari, the mentioned principles are based on philosophical principles such as the “ بسیط الحقیقة کل الأشیاء و لیس بشیء منها” , and “ واجب الوجود بالذّات واجب الوجود من جمیع الجهات” , and the principle of Higher Possibility. He answers the critic of Kulayni based on gradation of the Divine Attributes. Also he uses the principle of Higher Possibility in criticizing the theory of Essence’ s Deputyship of the Attributes. In doing so, he finds the Essence the inventor of the Attributes in the utmost perfection and highest level. According to Hakim Sabzevari lack of complete understanding of such philosophical principles and rules will lead to miss understanding of relation between the Essence and the Attributes.

The topic of faith is among the important theological and challenging topics within the theological books, especially those of the early centuries of Islam. One of the figures who has researched the reality of faith and expressed his view in this regard is Hakim Muhammad Hussein Isfahani. This view has been reviewed and evaluated after elucidation and analysis using descriptive – analytical method in this research. According to this view, theoretical knowledge and logical affirmation are exactly like faith and the commitment and submission of the heart are considered as effects of that. It has been concluded that this view, just as it is not defendable according to semantics, is not proven by rational reasons and religious texts. Therefore it must be said that the reality of faith consists of commitment and submission of the heart, and theoretical knowledge or logical affirmation is not like the faith, nor part of it, and not its adequate cause, rather it is the necessary condition. Meaning the faith that brings everlasting prosperity of human is built on a certain knowledge.

Burqa‘ i is among those figures who have distanced themselves from true Shia beliefs by exoteric interpretation of the Qur’ an, and have criticized the beliefs of Shi’ ism with an extreme Wahhabi approach. This research, using analytical – descriptive method, has analyzed and criticized his reasons in rejecting Tawassul (invocation) of the Ahlulbayt (peace be upon them). He considers Tawassul as a clear baseless innovation using some verses of the Qur’ an and hadiths as his base of argument like: “ Any request or focus on other than God being an act of polytheism” , “ Lack of God’ s need on a successor” , “ Prophets and Imams’ lack of information on the people of the world after their death” , “ Lack of Qur’ an’ s command or the Ahlulbayt on Tawassul” , “ Lack of connection between example and content of the term ‘ Vasila’ in verse 35 of chapter Al-Ma'idah” , and “ Tawassul not having the capability of being tested” . However his methodological mistakes include “ lack of comprehensive view and lack of complete research on the views” , “ lack of focus and complete understanding of the context” , and “ lack of thorough understanding of technical terms and setting baseless equal meanings” , which has made his view unacceptable according to reason and narration.

The Realm of Zar (Mending World) and the pre-creation of human is among the important theological topics that has gained the focus of the Islamic scholars with various views. Sheikh Ahmad al-Ehsá 'í , the founder of Shaykhism, claimed enlightenment and an answer to resolve this topic. Analytical – critical review of his view has been done in this article using documentary and rational analysis. This research finds some of epistemological basis of the Sheikh as none-trustable according to the views of majority of Shi’ a contemporary scholars. Sheikh’ s claims have more of a personal taste to it, and has little or nothing of scientific or rational references, and they are un-authentic according to the narrations. Such claims entails invalid effects that the Sheikh, himself, does not correspond: 1. Pre-creation of souls entail invalid matters like: “ union by species” , “ lack of personification” , and “ ineffectiveness of the faculties” . 2-Semi-material description of the Mending world entails invalid prerequisites such as: “ guidance being conditioned to the Mending world” , “ human’ s action becoming predestined” , “ promise of punishment & reward becomes pointless” , “ preaching of the Prophets becomes pointless” , and “ potentials turn to actualities” . Last point, Sheikh’ s claims such as “ era being hundred years” , “ existence of Tarā ’ ib” , and “ Messiah’ s lack of return to the lion of Adam in the Mending world” lack any sort of base or narrative documentation.

Many of the Western theists consider the argument of Order not practical for proving the existence of God, however the majority of the Islamic philosophers and theologians have not used it to prove the existence of God, rather they have mentioned its mission to only prove some of the Divine Attributes. This research has done its studies regarding various arguments in terms of the mission of argument of Order and tries to answer these questions: Is the argument of Order responsible to prove the existence of God or some of His attributes? Or is it the only convincing argument that plays a major role in elevating the faith of a believer? Is this argument results in certainty in proving God’ s existence? How functional it is in proving some of God’ s attributes? The outcome of the research indicates that despite of Islamic scholars using this argument to prove some of God’ s attributes, and still some of the western critics consider it as being unpractical for such matter, still the different exposition of this argument is capable of proving God’ s existence although it may not result in logical certainty, still it can bring about subjective certainty.

Among the important topics within the Shia narrations is the cursing of the enemies of the Ahlulbayt (peace be upon them). Meanwhile some have used such narrations and concluded permission of cursing the sacred things of the Sunnis, especially the Caliphs by their names. This research, using descriptive – analytical and deductive method, tries to review the existence or none-existence of such narrations in Shia narrative sources. It has concluded that in the school of Shi'ism, there is not a single narration in which the curse of the Caliphs, using their names, has been mentioned. Additionally such view is in contrary with verses of the Qur’ an that calls for unity, behavior of the Ahlulbayt toward the Caliphs, which included criticism but away from false words and insult, principle of Taqiya and keeping secret, the method of the Ahlulbayt and their followers in treating the elite figures of the Sunni, and etc. In addition the one who started such a cursing was Mu’ awiya and the factor accusing Shia with such accusation were the Umayyad. Even if such narrations existed in Shia sources, one must say that such narrations are the fabricated narrations that have been always forbidden by the Ahlulbayt and they are not authentic.

The topic of caliphate and successorship of the Prophet (and his duties and scope of power) is among the important and major topics among the Islamic scholars. Abd al-Razzaq believes that: There is no narrative reason implying the obligation of appointing Imam and Caliph after the Prophet (and no rational reason and no consensus). According to him, the government of the Prophet also did not have a divine tone. Aytullah Javā di Ā moli considers religious government as the Divine Successorship (Khalifatullah) that the Almighty has granted the human kind with the knowledge of Divine Names being as its center, according to the 30th verse of chapter Baqarah. He relates the status of caliphate from the virtue of humanity and considers it to help him on his perfection. According to his view, caliphate is a real and analogical gradation perfection and it will never be subjected to removal or appointment, and the one who deserves to be the divine Caliph and leader of other humans is the one who contains the high levels of knowledge of the Divine Names and this stage or level is exclusive to the Prophets and Divine saints. This research, after elucidating the view of Ali Abd al-Razzaq and Ayatullah Javā di Ā moli regarding the topic of Caliphate, criticizes the view of Abd al-Razzaq using descriptive – analytical method, through the beliefs of Ayatullah Javā di. The conclusion of this research indicates that the view of Abd al-Razzaq regarding the Caliphate has influenced the principle of Islam.

One of the important teachings of Shi'ism that has been able to protect and save the roots of Shi'ism and the Shias from threats and dangers, is Taqiya (dissimulation). Taqiya is a religious verdict and all the Muslims, including the Sahaba & Tabe’ in (Companions and the Followers), have approved and practiced it. However the Shias, due to being the minority and being oppressed and being in danger, have practiced this divine rule more to a point that it has been placed as their moto. Some of those who have enmity with Shi'ism, using this moto of Shia, set equal this divine rule to a hypocritical action and justify horrible actions against the Shias. Nasir ibn Abdullah al-Qaffari is a teacher and elite figure of Wahhabi universities of the Saudi Arabia, who has devoted most of his writings to criticism of Shi'ism. Two books of “ Taqrib bayn al-Sunna va al-Rafidah” and “ Usul Madhab al-Shi’ a al-Ethna ‘ Ashari ‘ Ard va Naqd” are among his most important works. In the book of “ Usul Madhab al-Shi’ a al-Ethna ‘ Ashari ‘ Ard va Naqd” , Qaffari has criticized the teachings of Shi'ism including the topic of Taqiya based on Shia resources. He considers the verses that has been used by Shi'ism in permitting Taqiya exclusive to the infidels, and he rejects the topic of Taqiya by referring to description of Sheikh Mofid of Taqiya and Shia narrations. This research tries to criticize the dubious questions of Qaffari using library method and placing the Qur’ an and Shia and Sunni narrative sources and the method of the Wise as its base.

According to orientalists, historical researches of Marshall Hodgson, who was a researcher focusing on Islam and history in mid of 1900s, has caused a new approach and method in historical studies of orientalists. The entry of “ Qulat” (extremists) is one out of twenty entries that have been written by his handwriting in the Encyclopedia of Islam in volume of about one page (two columns). Since one of the basic premises in historical topics is to understand the various groups correctly, their thoughts and practices must be taught correctly. Reviewing the entry of Qulat indicates that incorrect information regarding this group has been recorded and it faces various criticisms. From those is the critic on categorizing sects of Shia, relating the starting point of Mahdiism to the Qulat, believing in realm of mending (Zar) in beliefs of the Qulat, and etc. It seems like all of these problems are caused by the writer not referring to the Arabic sources.

The reality and human are concerns that have kept the minds of humanity busy for centuries. More than twenty centuries, religious and not-religious scholars have talked about this. The question is this: what is the relationship between the reality and the human and how are the two impact each other. What is the relation between the base of ontology and anthropology? How can they influence one another? According to religious views, one can consider the base of ontology as a netted or systematic ontology. In another word, our world is a systematic world. This systematic reality has a symmetrical relation with the human, which has been referred to as the Great and Minor realm. In such relation, elucidation and explanation of the world without human, and human without the world, will be an incomplete definition and meaningless. Therefore according to the relation between the ontology and anthropology, the theory of systematic anthropology can be deducted. In this theory, human is the center of the systematic reality, and the relations of human will be the center of living within the systematic reality. This research is conducted by the method of fundamental research, descriptive – explanatory approach, and library research method.

One of the most important arguments in proving God’ s existence among the materialistic and the theists is the argument of Order that has been explained with various structures till now. Some of those arguments are based on arithmetic possibilities, which has been faced with serious criticism of the Muslim theologians and scholars and from the fans of Darwin’ s Stochastic Evolution theory or simply the Evolution theory. This article by the use of arithmetic possibilities and designing a mathematical formula, in addition to responding to the critics, has criticized the Stochastic Evolution theory and random order in time. Accordingly it becomes clear that the series of events that lead to a particular result or system over time would not happen in any given time span, and for the complicated order embedded within the creatures to be formed according to random events like none-targeted genetic mutation, there is not enough time. Hence the possibility of creation of the current system of the world by accident is impossible and an existence of a wise element for it is a necessity.

The relation between evil and human’ s actions has been the puzzling question for the minds of scholars especially the Muslim theologians and philosophers for some time. This relation has been discussed through various aspects; however, in this article, the matter of how improper actions effect evil is been discussed, and since this topic is tied with the action of human in nature, the relation of human with nature has been reviewed as well. Since the materialistic do not believe in the principle of the Creation, they reject the role of human’ s actions in creating evil incidents and consider it as a religious theory. The Ashʿ arites, considering their doctrine of Occasionalism, relate every event to the Almighty and do not consider any role for the will of human. But the contemporary Shia scholars have chosen other views: ʿ Allā ma Sadr by his theory of Istikhlaf (appointing successors), believes that human is the one trusted with the world of nature and his actions must be according to the rules of the one being trusted, that the Almighty has placed. ʿ Allā ma Ṭ abā ṭ abā ī also by mentioning the theory of Istikhdam & Taskhir, considers the human as part of the world that follows the system of cause and effect. This system of causality, in addition to the Almighty (as the Real Cause), consists of material causes, as the first or close cause, and spiritual causes as the intermediary causes, which are formed by the effects of human’ s actions by his or her choice. Among these the sins, in addition to their final punishments, have material and immaterial effects embedded within them in this world that this article concluded through research and review of the views and reasoning that the first view has the priority.