Journal Of Religious Thought
Year:2008 | Volume:- | Issue:25|Papers Count:7

French famous sociologist, Emile Durkheim, founded socialism and studied ethics and religion in a sociological method. In his thought, man qua man is interactive without any identity and responsibility; he arrives at his personality through living in a group or a party and takes the position of a man. Religion, furthermore, is regarded only as a social symbol that its function is restricted in gathering people of common believes and rituals. In this way, we can argue that it is a product of society. Fundamental and metaphysical propositions will generally be of authority only in regard to popular agreement.In this paper it is argued against socialistically interpretation of ethics and religion. Agreeing with common tendencies of a group which in many cases contradicts the other tendencies, surly leads to religo-ethical pluralism and relativism without any right and permanent fundamental propositions in the field. Since every group has its own desires and demands, there cannot be found universal judgments in ethics and religion. Durkheim's lack of agreement with majority, in addition, leads to a self-contradictory and opposes socialism.

One of the important discussions in moral philosophy concerns the origins of morality or, in other words, the foundations, on which morality is based. There have been different theories in this regard that have based morality on natural law or human nature or human need or agreements made between the persons. Some of these theories, such as the agreement theory suffers from fundamental problems and cannot explain many of our moral experiences. Others such as the human nature theory are faced with difficulties, but it seems possible to develop a version of them that can answer to all the objections. The theory developed here has similarities with the human nature and the human need theories, but tries to avoid their problems. In this paper, in addition to the explanation of the nature of morals and the difference between them and customs, origins of morality are studied and the idea that morality is simply based on self-love is criticized. Genuine needs of human beings are emphasised on and their role in the process of decision making is discussed. The paper also studies the way moral concepts such as "good" and "bad" are abstracted from the relation between human nature, voluntary acts and their positive or negative effects upon the agent.

A large quantity of the interpretational treasure of Quran is limited to the ordinal interpretational style. In the past the thematically interpretational style is used in the internal Quranic themes. Martyr Seyyed Muhammad Bagher Sadr, the initiator and the sketcher of external thematically interpretation could increase in the extent of interpretation of Quran. This article tries to move ahead in these points:1: To derivate different stages of the external thematically interpretation and making a hierarchy of them for revealing the particular logic which is used in this method.2: To pay attention and to emphasize that the external thematically interpretation proposed here (contrary to the ordinal and the internal thematically interpretational style) is designable as a method of understanding (not only as an interpretational style). 3: We try to set forth for discussion the external thematically interpretation method through the interpretational bases of Quran. But this method has been beard in mind as a method of understanding in all of Islamic texts, including traditions.4: Martyr Seyyed Muhammad Bagher Sadr, didn't pay attention to the most important result of this method, the possibility of accessing to Islamic sciences. Perhaps we can say he denied the possibility discovery of Islamic science through of Islamic literature. This article discusses about this possibility.

Interpretation rules have been posed in the different books of interpretation and sciences of Quran among the two great sects of Islam for a long time. One of these rules is the "currency" (Jary) rule whose application in interpretation of Quran's verses is one of the techniques for keeping permanency of Quran's life and eternity. We will try to prove this rule using rational proofs, Quran's verses and the traditions of Ahl-al-Bayt. In this course the chain and implication of the traditional ground if this rule is investigated. Then its border is differentiated from other congruent rules and mentioning Quranic and traditional examples, the applications of this rule is clarified.In this article we have used the views of Shi'ite and Sunni scholars to do a comparative study on this rule.

Contrary to what some say, Ibn Sina has not presented one single view on the structure of emanation. Rather it can be found six contradictory in his different works concerning emanation: justifying the structure based upon a dual or threefold structure using conscious or intellection, arguing for self-disclosure as an alternative view for emanation, different views in attributing a kind of causality to the Divinity, active intellect and firs emanation, and finally ambiguity on the number of intellects.One can propose six explanations for finding these contradictions in Ibn Sina's works: 1- These are can be emanated from unity. 2- One can justify and harmonize his different views. 3- One can say that his final and accepted view is what one can find in al- Isharat. 4- His views are contradictory and cannot be harmonized. 5- He had an evolutionary line of though from the theory of creation to the theory of self- disclosure. 6- His tendency toward a new looking and his lacking of successfulness in the field.This paper considering the faults of the first five views and some strong position in the last, has agreed with the last.

This paper deals with the epistemological status of the mystical intuition. After preliminary remarks on the meanings of Irfan (mysticism) and Tasawof (Sufism), the key mystical concepts used as the essential tools for the study of cognitive status of mystical intuition are explained in details. Different views of Muslim scholars on the cognitive structure of mystical intuition are discussed and assessed in the light of the Noble Quran and Hadiths.Finally the infallibility of mystical intuition is dealt with and rejected as such.

This article is a critical examination of The Book of Happiness (sa'adat..name),which is one of the works of Sa'd aI-Din Mahmud ibn 'Abd al-Karim ibn Yahya Shabistari (d.720 A.H.), the composer of the well known The Rose Garden of Mystery (gulshan-e raz). In particular, the present article analyzes Shaykh Shabistari's criticism of philosophers and theologians, and compares the contents of The Book of Happiness and The Rose Garden of Mystery.The author of the present article wishes to establish that, contrary to the predominant scholarly opinion, The Book of Happiness must have been written before The Rose Garden of Mystery. The preoccupation with theology, philosophy, and philosophers which is to be found in The Book of Happiness is unbecoming of the lofty station of (the later) Shabistari.