The law of discretionary punishment being lower than legal punishment is one of the most famous laws in Shiite jurisprudence that is really functional in Islamic penal jurisprudence. This law is basically based on tradition and narrations from which this rule can be deduced. Some narrations directly mention that discretionary punishment is lower than legal punishment. Others present certain amount for discretionary punishment which is lower than legal punishment. Some other narrations deny legal punishment for some particular acts and instead suggest discretionary punishment for that. Although there are disputes over these narrations, they all share one thing: the law of discretionary punishment is lower than legal punishment.In order to interpret this law, some issues have been taken into account. Some jurists define eighty lashes of standard legal punishment for a free man and forty lashes for a slave. Others believe that discretionary punishment should be relevant. For instance, in acts which can be compared to "false accusation of adultery", the standard legal punishment is as mentioned above. However, some others suggest seventy five lashes as the standard legal punishment. This essay reviews various attitudes and presents a theory.There are some cases in Shiite jurisprudence that discretionary punishment has been the assigned as legal punishment and the author reviews whether this matter is an exception to this law or not. The final part of the essay is the relation between this law and the Islamic penal law.

Many philosophers and logicians have contemplated the relationship between ontology and logic. The author of this paper, working within a Bolzanoan-Husserlian tradition of studying both ontology and logic, considers ontology as the science of the most general features of beings and the most general relations among them. He considers logic as the science concerning the most general statements of all (natural or artificial) languages and the most general relations among them from an inferential point of view. It is possible to see logic in a broader sense as the science of all kinds of relations among all kinds of entities, acts, and processes stating some (objective, subjective, artificial, or conventional) reality. These entities, acts, and processes are not individual, rather, they are idealized, such that their universals may be instantiated at all times and in all places. In formal ontology we search for the properties of those structures of the reality that are formally similar. So we may find some formal truths applying to all things and/or properties and/or processes in different areas of objective/subjective/fictional reality.Surveying briefly the most important relations of logic and ontology in both analytic and phenomenological traditions, the author focuses on this central point: If reality is one as the unity of more or less interconnected and interactive beings of all physical, nonphysical and artificial types, the system of inference too may be one as the unity of more or less interconnected statements of all natural and artificial types. The universal system of inference may be divided into several relatively separate subsystems (having a more or less degree of connection) just as the unified reality has divided into several relatively separate fields (having a more or less degree of connection and interaction). According to such a model for corresponding realities and sciences within the unified reality and the unified science, the author assumes the possibility of beginning to construct both the comprehensive system of reference and the comprehensive formal ontology, both covering all possible members of their own field and being parallel and correspondent to each other, a long-run work, of course, very difficult to do.

In recent decades, alongside increasing in rate and changing in types of crimes in Iran, the rate of formal related punishments or special crimes by penal system, have also increased. These punishments which sometimes had been performing publicly have different reactions in society and public opinion which are qualified for scientific and empirical inquiries. The aim of this survey is the assessment of formal punishments’ effect on public attitude toward crime through “ Deterrence principle” and “ reinforcement of social integration” . The research population consists of all citizens above 18 years old in Khomeini Shahr, Isfahan. 171 people were selected from total population as the research sample by cluster sampling technique. Findings show that generally, Khomeini Shahr citizens have a negative attitude toward the spectrum of studied crimes. Furthermore, there is a relationship between awareness and assessment of execution of formal punishments with deterrence principle and reinforcement of social integration. Results were explained by theories of social control, social integration and deterrence.

Four important ways of religious education in the field of beliefs are inferred in this article through the nature of religion in the Holy Quran. We have examined two categories of “nature of religion” and “methods of religious education” for this purpose. All verses including the root of “د ـ ی ـ ن” (religion) have been investigated in order to properly understand the nature of religion in the Holy Quran. Then, we have benefited from the inference method to find the ways of religious education in the Holy Quran. In the inferential method, we have reached the “conclusion”, which is the method of religious education by using two premises, “normative” and “realistic”. The solutions of the Holy Quran to achieve the methods of religious education are explained in the following. For example, using the Scriptures directly to know the right actions is one of the solutions of the Holy Quran to reach the way of believing in the punishment of deeds. The achievement of religious education methods through discovering the nature of religion and explaining the purpose of education on the one hand and using the inferential method as a research method on the other hand is one of the innovations of this research. The achievements of this paper can be used to provide an educational theoretical model for formal and public education system.

Mitigation of punishment and alterante punishment are among the institutes of criminal law available in different countries' penal code systems.These two institutes emerged and gained support from legislators and judicial authorities after the advancements of criminology and the needs felt. Such institutes are at work in the armed forces crime act system too.This paper elaborates on the theoretical disciplines of mitigatiion of punishment and alternate punishment, gives a short history of the functions of them in Iran's Islamic penal code and performs an analysis to present certain comments to erradicate the defects in the system.

The concept of punishment is one of the most important concepts of Plato’s philosophy, which is achievable through dialectic, using the ordinary concept of punishment. By denying the basis of revenge view of punishment in his own time, Plato establishes his philosophy of punishment on basis of rehabilitation of the criminal. The criminal, Plato says, is primarily a man who is ignorant of the good and the evil and a sick man who suffers from instability of his rational faculty, i.e. his reason cannot take his anger and his lust under its control. Thus the punishment must make the criminal aware of the true good and the true evil, and like a painful treatment endues him the ability to control his anger and lust. So, logically, there are two possibilities: we must either fortify the superior power, i.e. the reason, or we must debilitate the inferior power i.e. anger and lust. Consequently, the Platonic punishment would be executed in two ways: on is to fortify the reason by means of education; the other is to lower the power of the inferior desires. The first is containing the wide realm of education, while the second includes the wide range of weakness; Therefore, Platonic punishment includes a range, from education to weakness, containing practical exercises, restriction, coercion and even murder. Finally, with categorizing and character recognition of the criminal, Plato determines the rehabilitative method and goal of the punishment.

As a kind of indefinite punishment, the discretionary punishment is the most. pervasive reaction to criminality in the Islamic penal policy. The efficacy of the discretionary punishment depends on how we use it to adjust the foregoing reaction to the guilty personality. Some Shi'a jurisprudents believe that just like Prohibition of the Evil, the discretionary punishment should be used by observing gradation. That is, it should be started from low grades such as warning, reproaching, etc. in petty offences, and in case the wrong deed is repeated. the more severe punishments such as imprisonment can be used. In other words, if the judge knows that deterrence can be attained through slighter punishments like reproaching, he/she should not issue the whipping, imprisonment. or suchlike severe punishments in the first occurrence of a petty offence. With regard to the extensive reliance on the imprisonment and physical punishments in criminal laws and the widespread use of imprisonment by judges, even for the first-time offenders-which has led to the increased density of convicts' number in prisons - specification of the discretionary punishments can be of great use. The article explicates the viewpoints of those Islamic jurisprudents who believe in the discretionary punishment gradation, presents the benefits, positive effects, and challenges facing this kind of punishment, and provides a clear-cut, practical, and effective proposal that can be applied in the penal policy. In addition to the Sunni jurisprudents, some early Shi'a jurisprudents such as Sheikh Tusi (May he reside in God's paradise) and some contemporary ones such as Mirza Javad Agha Tabrizi (May he reside in God's paradise), Fazil Hendi (May he reside in God's paradise) - the author of Kashf al-Letharn-and Allameh Helli (May he reside in God's paradise) are the main adherents of this viewpoint. whose respective opinions will be examined in the article. Acceptance of the discretionary punishment gradation theory in the penal law can bring about several positive consequences, including reduction of the convict's number in prisons. the possibility of better planning for the fewer remaining prisoners, and the possibility of adopting rehabilitation programs for those who have committed an offence due to ignorance and obliviousness.

Penalties that are based on principles that can be applied in all punishments should be respected whik corporal punishment is one of the types of sanctions that has been divided according to the nature of the punishment. This type of penalty follows certain principles that distinguishes them from other punishments. Although these principles can be also be seen in some other punishments, despite this corporal punishment is placed under question. Inflicting pain, causing stigma, being severe, vindictiveness and retribution are certain principles governing corporal punishments. What do these principles mean and what is their basis? What aims do these principles follow? In today's social situation and according to Iran's penal system, how is corporal punishment and what place does it have? This set of issues is investigated and discussed in this paper.

Definition, as the logicians say, is a mechanism for getting the unknown part in imaginations. For knowing something truly, there is no way except resorting to definition. Now the question is where and when definition can have such a usage. Finding a part of the answer will derive us to discussion about the conditions of definition, some of which are the formal conditions. Among the most important formal conditions of definition are the composition and the way the elements of definition are formulated. However, accepting these conditions necessitates more discussions; this shows the complexity of this discussion and leads us to the fact that definition is not just a logical discussion; rather, it has a philosophical and epistemological identity as well as linguistic dimensions.