PAZHUHESH-DINI (RELIGIOUS STUDY)
Year:2008 | Volume:- | Issue:16|Papers Count:9

Among common points in Abrahamic religions is appearance of a savior in the End of Time based on which we will witness the reign of pious people in the world. Investigation of traditions of Divine Religions would result in the realization of common signs of the time when that great event occurs among which being appearance of Dajjal in the Islamic and Anti-Christ in the Christian traditions. Although this concept differs in some cases in terms of background and consequence, common points can be realized concerning activities of Dajjal in the society the most important of which being confrontation with the savior in establishing justice-pivoted rulership. Investigating background of Anti-Christ in Christianity, this essay mentions his function in Islamic traditions in order to capture common and uncommon points.

Palestine is the cradle of great monotheistic religions and the intersection of civilizations. That sacred land is the tryst of Abraham, the cradle of Virgin Mary, the birthplace of Jesus son of Mary, and the place where the holy prophet ascended to heaven and where followers of three monotheistic religions including Muslims, Christians, and Jews are gathered. Should we have a glance at Palestine’s contemporary poetry, we would see that the religious color has always shadowed that land. In their poetry, Palestinian Muslim poets have constantly expounded their thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives on the world of existence, death, the Beginning, the End, hereafter, and so forth attempting to mix current events of their country with divine and sacred aspects. Being inspired by the Divine Speech, they prepare the necessary ground for achieving final victory and freeing their land from claws of occupiers.

The interpretation of explicit and ambiguous verses presented in this essay is through semantic method, in which meaning of terms and phrases are discovered through mode of their application in similar sentences. Key terms investigated here through semantic method are fitna, ta’wil, mutashabih, rasikhun, ‘ilm, iman, and zaygh. The result is that by fitna the chastisement in hereafter, by mutashabih verses those of the Resurrection, by their ta’wil their outwardly actualization, by rasikhun believers in the Celestial Book, and by za’ighun Meccan polytheists are meant.

Hadiths have constantly been a source for Quranic exegesis from early times, but Muslim Quranic commentators have not dealt with such hadiths at the same level. Some have merely narrated hadiths calling any other source invalid, while others have referred to some such other sources as literal, intellectual, and Quranic sciences as well. Some of Quranic commentators have used such hadiths in their commentary as merely complements and confirmers. In addition, those hadiths are not equally valid. What was mentioned are the most important points discussed in the present essay in detail.

Man is one of creatures of the world, with this difference that he is endowed with the faculty and power of intellect and thought while other creatures lack such an ability. In addition, being social is among most vital pillars of his life. Man did not tend to the social life from an individual one, but rather social life is a part of his nature. What made man undergo social life and exchange with others is natural needs of life and benefiting from mental achievements and attempts of others in order to  live better and develop both materially and spiritually. Those needs and attempts to satisfy them as well as other natural desires are the primary source of actualization of human society.In this essay, al-Allama al-Tabatabaee’s perspective on human characteristics, especially his social life, source of appearance of human society, and man’s tendency to establish social justice are surveyed and it is attempted to mention his innovations on Islamic anthropology as well.

Considering the definition and global criteria of development according to which Iran is treated as underdeveloped, the present essay mentions three theories concerning development of our country. The first theory holds that the obstacle to development of Iran is firmness of national and religious beliefs in the Iranian nation and predominance of national-religious identity of Iranians over their global one. The second theory maintains that the notion of development and its criteria are western based upon scienticism of post-Renaissance era and cannot and should not be advised for Iran, but rather Iran should find its own way of development on the basis of its tradition and its genuine cultural identity. The third theory, which is presented in this essay and is somehow the extension of the second one, asserts that our actual tradition cannot respond to the development affair. Thus, it is attempted here to derive notion, criteria, and essentials of development from the Quran and hadith first and then, since development is impossible without science, to investigate possibility of establishing Islamic sciences in the realm of experimental sciences and the like.

Observation of “context” and “causes of revelation” has always been considered very much by both Shi’a and Sunni commentators as two significant indications in the Quranic understanding. Those two indications, however, sometimes contradict one another. Explaining the rate of influence of those two indications on the Quranic understanding, the present essay deals with a comparison between Shiite and Sunni exegeses in some disputed verses in order to attain one criterion in solving that contradiction through investigation and criticism of various perspectives.

There is a deep, mutual relationship between quality of beauty and the set of other qualities of the Islamic city in such a way that manifestation of any quality of the Islamic city is a symbol of beauty. On the other hand, a city is beautiful in which other qualities of Islamic city are manifested both outwardly and inwardly. Nonetheless, in researches made on the Islamic city and its qualities no special attention is made to the quality of beauty. The main purpose of this essay is to investigate and expound analytically the mutual relationship of beauty and other qualities of the Islamic city. Hence, notion of beauty is surveyed first; synonyms of beauty, levels of recognition of beauty, source of beauty in the Islamic culture, and the said relationship are analyzed secondly; and an analysis is presented concerning the beauty caused by manifestation of some qualities of the Islamic city in traditional cities finally.