ماهنامه معرفت
سال بیست و چهارم شماره 1 (پیاپی 208، فروردین 1394)

This article is an exposition of Imam Sajjad’s whispered prayer of the abstainers. We should show the spirit of unity of God in our deeds, behavior and speeches and believe that we can’t do anything without Gad’s will. Indeed God Almighty helps us to carry out things by providing us with the means and factors. Similarly, when using the available material means, we should try by seeking help of God Almighty.We should know that man’s involvement in worldly material facilities brings pleasures to him and these pleasures are intended to satisfy his worldly material needs. Yet, we should be contented only with the required worldly desires and not be strongly attached to them. Among the ways of reducing one’s attachment to this world are: considering the deficiency of this world, realizing that this world is an abode full of sufferings, asceticism and detachment from this world is well suited to the friends of God and signifigance of seeking divine mercy and enjoying the pleasure of one’s love for and intimacy with God.

The history of epistemological issues, just as the case in most disciplines, are attributed to ancient Greece and they were first dealt with by Plato and Aristotle in their philosophies whereas according to Qur’anic verses, the educational issues coexist with man, and the first teacher of man is God Almighty and then comes the role of angels. It is the fundamental teachings of God that deepen the roots of man’s values and moral norms. These fundamental teaching are either ontological, epistemological, anthropological or axiological.Citing documentary evidence in an analytical form, this paper which seeks to deepen religious insight and broaden the realization of Shia's values worldwide, introduces a brief account focusing on the epistemological principles. The person who, in addition to senses and experience, believes in the possibility of acquiring knowledge and certainty through different ways, such as innate disposition, universal intellect, revelation, intuition, inspirations, differs in attitude, manner and behavior from an empiricist person and accept instrumental intellect; because these multiple channels pave the ways for man to foster the values which experience and instrumental intellect fall short of achieving. Consequently, the outcome of a committed Muslim is different from that of an empiricist or an empirical rationalist.

Education is the most important factor of developing individuals’ personality and identity. In order to have decent education, it is necessary to focus our attention on the content and instructor. Therefore, giving special attention to the content represented in the values extracted from a reliable source, like the Quran paves the way for achieving this important goal. The first and main instructors who contribute to fostering these values are families because a person spends the most and best time with his/her, Furthermore the Quran, as a guide-book, pay attention to the role of family. Hence, this paper seeks to understand the Qur’anic viewpoint about the role of family, using a descriptive-analysis method. The necessary material was collected from the Quran, and then it was analyzed according to Qur’an commentaries and relevant books. Apparently, the family which plays a fundamental role in education, can make a major contribution to using the Qur’anic ordinances and putting them into practice in all the stages of life in order to have an Islamic family and strengthen family ties.

Cognitive guidance is a sort of divine guidance and has a variety of decisive factors. Referring to many Qur’anic verses, Allamah Tabataba’i deals with the various aspects of this topic in his Al-Mizan commentary and investigates the effective factors of cognitive guidance. This paper, which is based on this valuable commentary, uses an analysis-descriptive method to investigate the kinds of divine guidance and the role of faith and righteous deeds in cognitive guidance in a logical order and vivid demonstration.The Holy Quran present two kinds of divine guidance: ontological guidance and legislative guidance. Ontological guidance is divided into cognitive and practical. Cognitive guidance refers to the success in realizing divine knowledge and practical guidance and success in the practical application of this kind of knowledge. Cognitive guidance is also divided into two kinds: particular and general. General cognitive guidance is attainable through reason and innate disposition, whereas particular cognitive through faith and righteous deeds.

Most linguists define the word education in terms of its root i. e «رب يرب» which means training, guardianship and leadership, reaching the desired goal, being beneficent, and attaining perfection. Like the other facts relating to the values of man’s agreeable lifes, there are disagreements about the definition of religion. In presenting a precise definition of religion, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli considers religion as a set of beliefs, morals, rules and regulations, and all of these can be trust or falsehood or a combination of the two. If they are truth, they are referred to as true religion. Otherwise they are falsehood or a combination of truth and falsehood. According to Islamic worldwide, religious education is a kind of education which regulates man’s behavior in relation to God, society, oneself and nature in conformity with Islamic standards. Like any other activity, education, which is one of the most important aims of creation, cannot be pointless. However, religious education is said to have various purposes, but we can conclude that the ultimate goal of Islamic education is to have individuals who are very obedient to God in personal and, social matters and humanity issues. After explaining the concepts of education, religion and religious education, this paper elucidates the aims of religious education from a Qur’anic perspective.

Education which represents one of the important social foundations has been the special concern of different religions and schools for centuries and ages. Presenting a comprehensive view of education, theorists divide it into different categories, the most important of which is social education. This paper seeks to investigate Allamah Tabatabai’s views about the effective functions of social education in society and define the principles and methods of social education by referring to Allama’s books. We can arrive a comprehensive and effective solution in the light of Allamah Tabatabai’s view. Using a descriptive and analytical method, this paper aims to answer the question as to what functions and aims are suggested by Allamah for having decent social education. The research findings show that the ultimate goal of decent social education in society is to achieve happiness and proximity to God and build a society based on divine rules.

Man is a social being who needs to establish close relationship with others in order to achieve peaceful coexistence. Building up good social relationship with others depends on providing social education derived from the culture of that society. The Iranian culture is founded on Islam, therefore, the followers of this school ought to know the right way of establishing social relationships based on Islamic principles. Therefore, the Infallibles (peace be upon them) are the best educational examples and presenting their education policy is an undeniable necessity. Meanwhile, the educational views of Ali (pbuh) the Commander of the Faithful, adds to such necessity. This descriptive-analytical study, which is based on documentary evidence, aims to establish the superiority of the commander of the Faithful’s educational system over other educational systems.No sampling is used in the research. In other words, all the related sources and references have been examined.

Man is the central issue of education and having sound knowledge of man has special importance in the field of education. It is impossible to consider this subject without having through knowledge of man. Divine books which were revealed for the purpose of guiding man pay especial attention to the guidance and happiness of man. Referring to these divine texts provides us with a real insight about the knowledge of man. This research expounds the viewpoint of the Quran and the Bible about anthropology. To this end, a comparison is made between the viewpoint of the Quran and that of the Bible with regard to human characteristics, and the common characteristics are identified and analyzed. The necessary data based on documentary evidence. The research findings show that the Quran and the Bible share common views with regard to human characteristics. The emphasis on these common views can contribute to the setting of a common educational pattern and development of mutual understanding between the followers of the two religions.

This research seeks to examine the cultural contexts for the inclination of the youth to attend mosques to identify the effective factors and strategies for encouraging the youth to attend the mosques and take part in mosque activities. This is a field study in which a descriptive method is used. Data is collected from a 30-item questionnaire designed by the researcher. The statistical population of the research includes all Payam Noor University students in Aligudarz, 200 of whom were randomly selected for the research sample. The research findings show that lack of knowledge of the importance of mosque and congregational prayer, low performance standard of mosque, lack of the appropriate way of treating those who attend prayers, and inattention to the tidiness of mosque' have meaningful effect on the disinclination to attend mosques.