مجله تحقیقات علوم قرآن و حدیث
سال سوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 5، بهار و تابستان 1385)

Quranic linguistics is one of the new issues in the Quranic sciences, being considered as one of the most important branches among the methods of understanding Quran. Semantics, one of the branches of Linguistics, is concerned with the study of the key words of Quran. By key words, we mean those words which can play an important part in making evident the different meanings of the Quranic verses, if their meaning is studied in a survey. In this article, focusing on polysemy in Semantics, we have pondered over Mulla Sadra's view on this issue and examined his commentary on some of the Quranic verses, as an example. Analyzing Quranic key words in a polysemous method will open new scopes to the scholars of Quranic sciences and commentary and in considered a new method for the subject-concerning interpretation of Quran in order to reveal its miraculous aspects, literally and semantically.

After the Prophet's death, the differences in the oral transmission of Quran, variant dialects, the difference of codices, and the lack of orthographical signs in the text lead to the appearance of variant readings, qira'at, of Quran. The variant readings and arguments over the recognition of them and the respected criterion resulted in the establishment of the knowledge of Quran-reading. Using different sciences as grammar (syntax), hadith, jurisprudence and exegesis of Quran, readers all over the Islamic world innovated particular readings of Quran. Finally, Ibn Mujahid, using his position as the chief reader of Baghdad and applying his political power and authority selected the present seven readings from five important places as the canonical ones and declared others as deviant (shadh). Besides the scholarly feature of Ibn Mujahid, the cultural status of Baghdad, the reputation of kufa in this field and the special condition of the fourth century, were the effective factors which Ibn Mujahid by his intelligence and cleverness used to canonize the seven readings of Quran.

The family of the Prophet (SAW) are the highest authority next to the Noble Quran as the Prophet recommended at the last moment of his life, saying 'I leave you with two successors, Allah's Book - a long rope between the Heaven and the earth, or between the Heaven to the earth - and my family; they will not be separated till they return back to me at the Pool (Hawd)'. The Almighty God has chosen them for the guidance and leadership of the Muslim after the Prophet (SAW). (AS), the fifth Imam and leader after the Prophet (SAW), holded the control of the ark of guidance at the time when the social and political conditions had changed from that of the earliest Imams: therefore he was able to teach his knowledge to those eager and to open the doors of different sciences. In this article, we are about to mention some of his scholastic activities and his recommendations about recording, memorizing and writing hadith.

Deliverance, one of the promising words of Quran, is a manifestation of the Divine's mercy and grace in order to bring about the needed ground for deliverance from obscurity and for reaching the safe point, or to provide a new opportunity for guidance and to prepare the way to attain perfection. But man, due to the extent of his belief and attachments is sometimes grateful for this grace and sometimes not. The holy Quran has used the word 'deliverance' in three different meanings: 1- for whispering; 2- for throwing to a high place; 3- for release and relevance. In this article, besides the other meanings, we have focused on the third meaning and its characteristics in Quran. In addition we have inspected the factors and barriers of deliverance and the attitude of the saved after deliverance. The holy Quran reveals that all men know God as the true savior at the time of a disaster and that when disappointed from all causes, they return to their god-believing nature. Nevertheless, the saved may again fall. In other words 'deliverance' differs from 'salvation' and consists of different areas of meanings.

With the passage of time and developments of science, a change in the meaning of some words in Quran is seen. 'Alaqa' is one of these words which is mentioned in the verses related to embryo growth as the second phase of development. Surveying several exegesis, lexicons and translations of holy Quran, we come across a great variety of meanings in this regards. Developments in embryology have made embryo growth process clearer. Some exegetes have explained this process in scientific words. The pioneer interpreters have not given the meaning of this word or have limited themselves to the existing meanings in lexicons. Briefly studying the growth of the embryo in the preliminary stages, we are trying to recognize the scientific concept of this word. At the time Quran was revealed, people did not know about embryology and Quran used expressions that were intelligible for the common people of that era. 'Alaqa' means leech or something that attaches somewhere. Considering the characteristics of leech, the meaning becomes closer to human understanding. It seems that preliminary embryo can be appropriate meaning for 'Alaqa'. Blood clot, wet blood, red Object and leech also seem justifiable meanings. From the scientific point of view this phase corresponds to the beginning of blastocyst's sticking to uterine tissue and the rush towards it. In this stage blastocyst sticks to endometrium like a leech and starts to nest in it as deep as possible. The interior cell mass forms two layers; hypoblast and epiblast and continues to form the embryo and fetal membrane. The placenta the source of hormones secretion and embryo feeding remains attached to the wall of uterus until the end of pregnancy. The embryo remains overhanging of the placenta by umbilical cord.

Basmala', written by V.Graham, is one of the articles of the Encyclopaedia of Quran. We have translated this article into Persian in order to introduce our readers with the method of 'EQ' in analyzing Quranic concepts. In addition we have provided the reference for some of the informations given in the original article in footnote and made some corrections and annotated as regard to the following cl

1. The tripartite Allah, Al-rahman Al-rahim is a coalescence of Jewish Christian and Southern arabia beliefs. 2. The Shiite recite Basmala silently in ritual prayers. 3. All areas of knowledge are contained in «the four Shiite hadith books" and their science is in the Quran. 4. Ons hadith saying that 'I performed the ritual prayer with the holy Prophet, Abu Baker, Umar and Uthman and 1 did not hear any of them recite Basmala.' We have also explained the reason for law schools to differ on recitation of Basmala, discussed its being the Great name Of Allah and finally examined the hadith attributed to Imam Ali as saying 'I am the dot beneath the “B” of Basmala'.