PAZHUHESH-DINI (RELIGIOUS STUDY)
Year:2012 | Volume:- | Issue:23|Papers Count:7

The late Dr. Abu' l-Qasem Gorji is among the superb men of science in the contemporary history of Iran and is of towering standing in the academic and seminary communities. Thanks to the potent scholastic credentials he gained from such great masters as Ayatollah Khoee in Najaf-e Ashraf, he was an absolute mojtihid (Islamic jurisprudent) and an authority in seminary studies. He was prominent in academic studies as well and was considered a unique lecturer in theology, fiqh, (Islamic jurisprudence), law and literature. Undoubtedly, it is highly important to introduce the works of this great scholar to the academic community. Hence, the present article introduces and explicates the two works Ayat al-Ahkam and al-Zaria'h ela Usul al-Sharia'h the second of which was corrected and annotated by Dr. Gorji.

The current article is a translation, research and semi-criticism on the paper Assessing the Isra' iliyyat: An Exegetical Conundrum (1998) written by Professor McAuliffe of the Center for Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington. Given the special approach taken by Orientalists toward isra' iliyyat and the interaction and relationship between Islam and the pre-Islam divine religions and narrators from among the Followers of the Book, familiarity with their views and ideas is necessary and inevitable. Taking a critical-analytic approach, after the views of some Sunni exegetes, particularly ibn-e Teymiyya', the author presents a linguistic and psychological explication of a Quranic story (sacrifice of bani-Israels cow) in verses 67-73 in Surah (chapter) Baqarah, and finally, referring to numerous disparities in exegeses, the author resorts to a hermeneutic interpretation of them and attempts to interpret and explain different commentaries of exegetes in one way or another.

Hebry is among the Zaidiyyah hadith scholars and exegetes (3rd century A.H.). Based on the Zaidiyyah theological-doctrinal principles, he strongly believed that Imam Ali (a.s.) was the immediate successor of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.). The most important documents utilized by this exegete are the text of the Quran and the narrations with which Shiites agree unanimously. Based on the narration ‘Hassan (a.s.) and Hussein (a.s.) are Imams regardless of the course of action they follow', he considered them to be Imams.Based on the views of the scholars of ilm-e rejal (the discipline which studies the biography of hadith transmitters) from among both Shiites and Sunnis, it was found out that most of the chains of transmitters are reliable ones, of course, a small number are not. Among these narrations, some are marfoo' (their original transmitter is missing), some are moqoof (neither acceptable nor deniable) and others are moanan (with a long chain of transmitters). In tradition to the narrations that originated from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the other Infallibles, most narrations have been narrated from ibn-e Abbas and since he is not infallible, his narrations are considered neither acceptable nor deniable.The content analysis of this exegetical work indicates that the hadiths mainly deal with the virtues and glorious deeds of Imam Ali (a.s.). A small number of hadiths are related to the 'cause of revelation'.Hence, a high frequency of ‘nazal fi' (revealed about) in this exegetical work mainly concerns 'the occasions of revelation', not the 'cause of revelation'. Since 'cause of revelation' narrations are alsopresented to highlight Imam Ali's virtues and glorious deeds, they cannot be assessed on the basis of the common principles offiqh al-hadith(the discipline which studies hadiths). In general, the contents of these narrations are only acceptable within the framework of Shiite beliefs and Imamate.Hebry's exegetical narrations have been cited identically or with slight differences in wording or documentation in narrative sources of Twelvers and Zaidiyyah and even Sunni sources among which he following exegetic works are the most outstanding: Forat-e Kofi, Tafsir al-Borhanand Shavahed al-Tanzil.

Exegesis was flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries (A.H.) and some outstanding exegetical works on the Holy Quran were written then. Amin al-Islam Fazl ibn-e Hassan Tabarsi is one of the many characters who has left behind several exegetical works. He wrote three exegetical works on the Holy Quran, one of which isTafsir-e Vasit. This work is also called Javameh al-Jameh. The present article gives a detailed account of the characteristics of this exegetical work and discusses Tabarsi's approach in it. A discussion on the advantages of this work over Majma' al-Bayan and Zamakhshary's al-Kashshaf constitutes another part of this paper. At the end, different editions of this work are reviewed and various features of the late Professor Abul-Qasem Gorji's edition are discussed.

Dr. Abu'l-Qasem Gorji (1921-2010) was among the scholars who spent the whole course of his life on studying, teaching, and writing about Islamic sciences. The outcome of several decades of his endeavors in the field ofusul-e fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence) are several outstanding works on Islamic jurisprudence and its principles. The present article attempts to explicate Dr Gorji's role in illustrating the nine periods ofilm-e usul, innovated by himself, and to compare his works with other scholars who have contributed to this field.

This paper reports the credibility rate ofResaleyeh Zahabiyyah from Allameh Majlisi’s viewpoint based on what has been said to describe and explain the terms of this work. Majlisi had doubts about the credibility of this work and with a little deliberation we can perceive this doubtfulness in his statements. Hence, this paper underlines his doubts and discusses some of them in brief.To begin with, although Majlisi refers to the reputation of this work in the opinion of scholars and at the end traces it back to Imam Reza, he points out in between his statements that the content of this work is in conflict with the relevant traditions and the popular statements of physicians, there are numerous similarities between the terms of this work and statements of physicians, and it uses citations from statements of physicians to delineate ideas.Doubts about the authenticity ofResaleyeh Zahabiyyah is among the obvious doubts mentioned by Allameh Majlisi and underlined in this article.