فصلنامه مشکوه
پیاپی 136 (پاییز 1396)

Shukr (giving thanks) and shirk (ascribing partners to God) are two of the most frequently used terms in the Qur’an. At the first glance, these two have only a contrasting relation of an opposition type between good and evil. However, a study of the verses of the Holy Qur’an shows that these two concepts have other relations, as well. Conducting a comparative study of the two concepts of shukr and shirk, the present research attempts to further elucidate their relations. To this end, after describing and analyzing the verses concerning the two concepts, it is concluded that the conceptual contrasting of shukr and shirk is in such a way that shirk can be substituted with the negative of its opposite (non-gratitude); that is, where the verse is implied as mentioning “you do not give thanks”, it is substituted with “you practice shirk” and vice versa. Furthermore, the negative-affirmative relationship between the causes and preventers of shukr and shirk are to such an extent that the causes of shukr have been introduced as preventers of shirk. In conclusion, it is to be said that according to the verses of the Qur’an, so long as man commits shirk, the real shukr, which is the same as monotheism, would not actualize.

One of the most basic ideological principles of the Muslims is belief in the Hereafter and understanding this sphere is possible by using the definitive and convincing proofs; therefore the Holy Qur’an is the most important source for understanding the world after death. The Holy Qur’an has in many instances talked about the status of the inmates of Hell and mentioned their status with the term gates (abwāb), of which the interpreters have given four probabilities: 1. deeds and sins; 2. door; 3. group; 4 levels and dungeons. The chosen view here is that the gates denote the levels of Hell and the status and place of the inmates of Hell are different depending upon difference in their degree of committing sins and each group of them will be placed in one level of the seven levels of Hell as per their degree of malfunction.

Studying the teachings of the Qur’an and traditions with an ethical approach and in a descriptive-analytic method will clarify that in this field no approved and comprehensive reason would be found for the necessity of obeying the parents in all states and affairs; and all that may be counted as the reasons for this claim would run into problem. What is indisputable in this field and one can present sufficient and substantial evidence for it is the improperness of being ingratitude to them, meaning that one should not treat one’s parents in such a way that it would disturb and hurt them.

The negative-sounding declarative attributes are one type of attributes that are employed in the Holy Qur’an for God. Evidently, such notions as trickery, cunning plot, magnanimity, compelling, vengeance, derision, and forgetting can be viewed as the most important and obvious of these attributes. Drawing attention to the fact that applying the apparent and human-centered meanings to these attributes for God is not appropriate, Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī and ‘Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī have explained the acceptable meaning of these attributes and why God possesses these attributes on the basis of meanings, lexical functions, rational principles, and the Qur’an’s unequivocal verses on the subject of theosophy.

Priority and posterity are one of the expressive styles of the Qur’an and among its means of brevity, which denote the inimitability and beauty of style of the Holy Qur’an. Nevertheless, some of the orientalists have claimed that the Qur’an’s priority (taqaddum) and posterity (ta’akhkhur), especially the priority and posterity of jar and majrūr (a preposition and the word it governs) have caused confusion among the addressees. Accordingly, examining various types and evidences of priority and posterity of jar and majrūr in the Holy Qur’an shows that this would result in understanding most of the verses and familiarization with style and art of rhetoric and eloquence and finally better understanding the Qur’an’s inimitability. In addition, all the prepositions do not have the same functions; rather, some of them have become prior over others due to their superior role and status and a number due to their conformity with the context of previous verses.

Traditional medicine in Iran developed and thrived by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Jurjānī, and Zakariā Rāzī with reliance on Islamic-Iranian epistemic and civilizational roots. Given the revival of traditional medicine in Iran and other countries in recent years, some questions are asked such as: What is the role of traditional medicine in civilizational field? What advantages civilizational functions (in the fields of economy, culture, science, etc.) can traditional medicine have in Iran? Can the plans and strategies of other countries be employed in this respect? How can the revival of traditional medicine play a role in uplifting the society’s health rate, which is among the indices of sustainable development? Our region of study is Iran. Our method in this research is deductive-inductive based on library sources, in which we have benefitted the outcomes and the statistics of the national and international bulletins. It can be concluded from the findings of this research that the revival of traditional medicine alongside displaying the outstanding features and scientific growth of previous periods would help the thriving of new Islamic civilization. In the meantime, the traditional medicine has numerous backgrounds, opportunities, and visible and invisible advantages in different civilizational fields, which by utilization of these capacities along with reinforcing the perspective of resistance economy a sustainable development can be achieved much faster.