JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES (UNIVERSITY OF ISFAHAN)
Year:2004 | Volume:- | Issue:38|Papers Count:11

Eloquence in Islam has a history over a thousand years. Many a different view are taken by scholars. Sakkaki is one of the scholars who, above all the others, has shown tendency towards innovation and quoting opposite views. The present paper attempts to explain the basis of Sakkaki"s view in as simple terms as possible.

The bird hoopoe is mentioned in Naml Sura whose longest part deals with the prophet Solomon in verses 15 to 44. First, it is stated that God taught Davood and Solomon knowledge and they both said: Praise is due to Allah who bestowed upon us superiority". Solomon emphasized that he was taught the language of birds. When Solomon reached the city of ants, he could not see hoopoe among the birds. Being angry, he said he would punish it unless the bird gave an acceptable reason. The hoopoe told Solomon what it had seen in Saba. To check hoopoe"s truthfulness, he ordered the bird to take a letter to Saba to check her reaction.

Adib Saber Tannazi"s divan has been printed twice in Iran. The first print appeared in 1334 on the behalf of Kolaleh Khaver and by Ali Ghavim"s attempt. This print is very erroneous and disorganized, because it is not clear at all which manuscript has been available to Ghavim and in what century. The second print of this divan was published by Mohammad Ali Naseh in 1343. Apparently, this correction was done without attention to Ghavim"s print and the text is the exact copy of manuscript which had been available to Allameh Ghazvini dating back to 714 Hejira. Recently, Ahmad Abdollah has based his work on Ghavim"s pnnt and has published another book which is full of errors in Termaz (Ozbakestan) in 1380. In this article efforts have been made to illustrate the necessity of recorrecting this poet"s divan.

Without doubt, the most important human intellectual system which is now accepted by majority of human beings is monotheistic system of thought. In this paper, the monotheistic thinking of Zaroaster has been investigated through "Gathaha" or hymns. Also included are "Vadaha", the views of Greek philosophers as well as Indian scholars and finally the political and religious events in Sasanid era. The reflection of monotheistic views of Zaroaster in Farabi and Sohrevardi"s thoughts as well as Farabi"s social pyramid and Sohrevardi"s philosophical pyramid are explained.

Jamal Ad-Din AbdorazzaghAI-Isfahani is one of the great poetsof the sixth century (A.H). Most of his poetry is devoted to the praise and encomium of the princes and dignitaries of his age. For this reason, he has been labelled a eulogistic lyricist. However, a close. examination of his numerous lamentations, composed with a view to criticizing the educational, social, and political conditions of his day, as well as a deep analysis of his odes written on wisdom and admonition, points to a characteristic world view which sets him apart from court poets totally given to panegyric. Such a world view attaches great importance to asceticism, renunciation of the world, seclusion, severence of connection with people, contentment, solitude, trust in God, and attainment of a voluntary death --all of which constitute the main ingredients of his conception of the world. Jalal ad-Din"s world views, which have traces of a mystical stance showing through it, and which closely resemble that of Nizami of Ganja (known for his ascetic and pious mysticism), can be said to have resulted from the perturbed socio-political conditions of the sixteenth century (A.H)., from his aversion to the morally objectionable state of the age in which he lived, and from his negative and rebellious reactions against the status quo.

The learned and deep thinkers of the world have not so far been in agreement about the incentive and outcomes of laughter that distinguish man from all other creatures. While learned Naaser-Khosrou Ghobadianid, the renowned poet of the 5 th century Hejira, considered laughter as the sign. of stupidity, thus, viewing it harmful, and while Baudelaire, the great French poet of the 19th century, repeatedly confirmed Nasser-Khosrou"s considerations about laughter, many other learned men have regarded moral and teaching significance for laughter. With due reference to the great position of the art of inducing laughter in the magnitude of literature, and through examining the view points of some scholars regarding laughter, I have tired to find out a convincing answer to the question, "Is laughter induced, as Nasser-Khosrou put up, by stupidity and foolishness and is then quite unjust?"

Each verb carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, person, mood, and aspect. Each marker has syntactic and semantic significance which refer to an action or state. Conjugation is the way in which a particular verb changes (conjugates) for tense, person, or number. Stem signifies the tense and action. Mood refers to a set of contrasts which are often shown by the form of the verb and which express the speaker"s or writer"s attitude to what is said or written. This occurs as a result of the factors included in the verb and in the sentence. Some of these factors are syntactic and some are semantic, and in grammar are known as the semantic and syntactic markers of the mood. Recognition of the mood depends upon the recognition of the verb, its meaning, and the factors that influence them Because of the extensibility of the semantic aspect of the mood. the definitions in this regard are varied. Scholars have defmed mood as verb, as an aspect of the verb, as grammatical derivation of verbs, as a method of verb"s usage, as the speaker"s attitude towards verb, as the speaker"s relation towards the form of the verb, etc. In the present survey, the nature of the subjunctive mood in Persian grammar is analysed.

The unity of religions holds a paramount position among mystical poets including Hafez and Ibn Farez. The current paper aims to investigate briefly how issues such as the unity of religions, religious pluralism and tolerance are discussed and understood in the literary works of two eminent Sufi poets from Islamic culture: Hafez from Iran and Ibn Farez from Egypt. The argument is that such modern issues can be traced back to their mystical works, too. This happens since these mystical figures had a kind of holistic and Gnostic view of thy world, human beings, and religions. This is why both Hafez and Ibn Farez go beyond a simplistic and narrow understanding of Islam, and consequently ignore all sectic interpretation of their religion. Nonetheless, Hafez takes a mystical and social view towards human sins, even sometimes he treats them from a deterministic perspective. In contrast, Ibn Farez deals with human sins in terms of pure mystical love.

One of the matters which Molana Jalaloddin Mohammad-e Balkhi,. the gnostic and poet of the seventh century has considered from different points of view in his invaluable work -- Masnavi-eMa"navi-- is the holy Qur"an and its associated teachings including ethical, social and gnostical ones. The author of this article has examined those parts of Masnavi which have introduced the Qur"an as a holy book. Throughout this book, the beloved gnostic of Balkh has referred to such topics as: description of the Qur"an, taking hold of the Qur"an, thinking in Qur"an and hypocrites (monafeqin), Qur"an and the blind hearted, the image of Satan in Qur"an, commentators as well as Qur"an messages including examination, commending to do good, not to commit what is unlawful, instigation, and humiliation. He has also used these topics as a basis for expression of his exalted thoughts on different subjects.

This paper attempts by no means at all to encourage "heroism" or "idealism" as such an attitude has frequently been the major cause of many an event disastrous in the history of Iran. Rather, the paper aims at describing as well as analyzing thoroughly the superior character of Rostam in Shahnameh, the universal, eternal epic of Ferdowsi. In Ferdowsi"s account, Rostam is not just a hero of battles but a wise, God fearing, and peace-loving Magi. As described in Shahnameh, Rostam is more an instance of a perfect ideal human being in old Persia than a typical hero. In short, this superman is the realization of the ideas and ideals of our ancestors.