فصلنامه انتظار موعود
سال سیزدهم شماره 42 (پاییز 1392)

The influence of religion on culture is conceivable in two dimensions: the smaller realm is related to the appearances of civilization, such as buildings, monuments and customs and the larger area is related to the foundations of thought and the spirit governing civilization. The first realm is easily provable by reviewing the related resources and the second realm is more or less considered in the writings of theory makers of civilization. In the realm of Islam, the first area is needless of reasoning and arguments because of being evident. To prove the second realm we can use intellectual arguments in addition to historical experience. Islam, on both individual and social level, in order to improve the effectiveness factor of its teachings, and as a step toward the completion of its doctrine has linked them to the idealized models. Accordingly, Messianic teachings can play a role in shaping the spirit governing new Islamic civilization through the drawing of achievable future. Such a drawing of future can be considered as a “perspective outlook” which is a linking ring of Messianism and new Islamic civilization. The present paper has investigated this fact and at the end, in order to use this capacity, some suggestions have been presented.

Religious beliefs have always been a scene of criticism and submission of doubts. This does not exclude the belief in the Hidden Imam. One of the doubts been presented in this regard is “debunking of benefits and futility of the Hidden Imam”. The root of the abovementioned doubt can be the result of wrong or imperfect interpretation of the meaning of Imam’s absence, states and orders. The presenters of this doubt have considered the absence of Imam as his isolation, hiddenness, lack of personage and personality and orders (leadership, political administration and social presence). Thus, the Hidden Imam means a governor that has no presence and appeal. Meanwhile, according to resources of Arabic words, Quran and Sunnah, absence does not mean hiddenness and non-presence of the person from society, rather the absent Imam exists, has activities, and is in touch with society, but not everyone is able to recognize him, exactly like the absence of holy Yousof (Joseph), holy Khidr,- and not like the absence of Jesus Christ. This paper tries to present a relatively new or at least with a new method answer according to Quran, Sunnah and theological sources in the light of which a greater depth of benefits of the Hidden Imam is discovered.

Most of commentators have considered God’s intention of bringing glad tidings of “Fat’h (Victory)” in surah An-Nasr as the conquest of Mecca. While the study of traditions of cause of revelation of surah beside the lexical, Quranic and historical evidences in this surah and other Fat’h instances in Quran, indicates the wrongness of this opinion. This research- by gathering, categorizing and reviewing the traditions of the cause of revelation of this surah and presenting the above-mentioned evidences- has attempted to show the surah An-Nasr has been revealed after the conquest of Mecca and in the last days of the holy Prophet’s life and the intention and meaning of “Fat’h (Victory)” in surah An-Nasr, unlike what most commentators think, is not the conquest of Mecca; because the traditions entered for this theme not only are transmitted by Sunnis and Shia has no authentic way to approve them, but also are in objection to other multiple traditions, some of which have been narrated from the infallible Imam and are compatible with each other in terms of their theme. Surah An- Nasr brings the glad tidings of Islam’s final triumph and overall victory over all religions and beliefs in all parts of the world at the time of Imam Mahdi.

“Writing petition” is an issue that Shi’a has considered it as a means by which they ask for their general needs from the Almighty God through the infallible Imams. This method has received much attention in recent years because of the attention of western media to the Jamkarᾱn’s well and arguments have been presented in verification or rejection of this issue. This paper with a descriptiveanalytic method tries to answer this question: what writing-petition documents are and what harmful effects it may have. Results show that on one hand writing petition basically is not an innovation in religion and on the other hand show the lack of sacredness and relevance of Jamkarᾱn’s well and people’s attention to it is traumatic. The need for further precision in the evidences of petition-writing proofs, finding newly-found documents and presenting new documents to western media in this regard are the reasons for writing this paper.

In Islamic Iran, many of Imams’ offspring are buried and among the issues raised in this area is the authenticity of their attribution to Imams. In this area, explorations have been done. This paper tries to verify the attribution of an offspring to Imam Hasan Askari with a descriptive-analytic method. This paper proves that Imam Hasan Askari had no descendant but Imam Mahdi by reviewing literature and exploring ancient texts of Imams’ ancestor-graphy and virtue-graphy. Also, studying Imam Askari’s period of life proves Imam has never left Sᾱmarrᾱ. At the end of this article, we reject the view of those who believe Imam Hasan Askari has traveled to Iran and attribute an offspring to him.

The leadership of Infallible Imams is divided into two periods: the presence (of Imam’s) period and the Occultation period (the absence of Imam’s period). Each of these periods has characteristics distinct from the other one. One of the characteristics of the presence (of Imam’s) period is the availability of all backgrounds in guiding people to the truth and avoiding diversions and detours, and after this period, in the absence of Imam, the backgrounds for the emergence and spread of divergent currents have extended. Of course, it did not last long before most of the vicious flows and false claimants were annihilated like the sea floor and became history because of all the inward and outward guidance of the absent Imam, the select representative of Imam and the efforts of religious scholars. This paper is an answer to the question that what factors affect the process of formation and destruction of divergent branches of Shi’ite and what consequences they had. Reviewing and evaluating the three groupspredisposing factors, continuation and declination and finally consequences- has formed the basis of this paper.