فصلنامه حکمت و فلسفه
سال دهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 38، تابستان 1393)

The level-based nature of faith is one of the important issues revolving faith and has a valued place in the Quran. This issue, which derives from Quran’s verses, has drawn attention to itself in Mulla Sadra’s (1571-1640 A.D) hermeneutics. Mulla Sadra proposes different divisions for faith from different viewpoints. However, the present report aims to coherently and methodologically study this issue, and thus it undertakes a systematic analysis based on Mulla Sadra’s theory concerning the nature of faith. His theory about the nature of faith is a knowledge-oriented one and bestows originality in faith upon knowledge and science. Therefore, the analysis of the stages of faith require a knowledge-based analysis.According to knowledge - based analysis, the first stage of faith, that is verbal faith, lacks the fundamental element of knowledge and the application of faith upon it is a virtual application, and only the meaning of faith in Islamic jurisprudence applies to it. The second stage, known as the imitative faith, is the faith of the masses which possesses some level of knowledge and is known as belief. It is an imitative belief which is contingent and subordinate. In case this belief turns into action, it possesses the truth of faith. The third stage is the demonstrative faith, that of the privileged, which brings along the faith of certitude, though its certitude equals the Certitude by Knowledge, the premier type of certitude. The fourth stage is the discovery faith which consists of two levels: Certitude by Sight and Certitude by Experience; A faith which belongs to a select few of the believers.

Aiming to prepare the teaching of Seddiqin Demonstration and gazing upon that whose existence is imperative from the viewpoint of mere existence, primarily founded by Ibn Sina, (Shirazi, 1999), prominent figures have spent time on this affair and have come up with different readings. As a renowned scholar in the Islamic world, Sadr el-din Mohammad Shirazi, by referring to the basis of the originality of existence and imitation of existence, reached a new reading of this demonstration. His reading, based on the skeptic unity of existence, expanded from the field of skeptic existence to that of personal existence and novel readings of it were later produced. Mohammadreza Ghomsheyi, the mystic philosopher, is among the scholars who have reached new readings thanks to the mystic fundamentals of Ibn Arabi and his exponents. The present paper is an attempt to provide a precise philosophical representation of this reading, and afterwards, the study aims to point out the aspects of its prejudice in the skeptic system of Mulla Sadra’s philosophy.

‘Meaning’, in Ibn Arabi’s thought, is a general and common truth between the different semantic levels of a lexical item. Each item naturally has levels of semantics on which it applies. This common truth makes up the single essence dominant on the meanings of a word. This theory reconciles with the divine verses of the Quran (those which are concerned with the properties of God), and based on this theory, the relation between the loads of these versus to their subject, that is God, is actual and free of figurative elements. The analogic products of the divine verses, after disregarding meaning from the temporal and potential complications, are attributed to God. In understanding this theory, Ibn Arabi’s ontological subjects are of great importance. This theory is greatly influential in understanding and hermeneutics of the Quran’s divine texts. The aim of this paper is to explain Ibn Arabi’s theory in terms of the essence of meaning with the end goal of undertaking semantic studies regarding the loads of the divine versus and to present this theory’s practical results.

The image of God has been presented in a particular way in each culture and civilization. Such images which are born out of particular beliefs of a different schools of thought, directly influence the thoughts and deeds of the people, as well as the construction of their ideologies and worldviews. Our efforts in this paper are directed towards studying and comparing the image of God in the viewpoints of two Muslim philosophers, namely, Naser Khosrow Ghobadiani and Sanaii Ghaznavi, in order to find and understand the differences and similarities between these two scholars and, from there, analyze the influential factors on these considerations and viewpoints.

‘Dahar’ is the Arabic word for time and means age or eon. The term ‘Dahari’ was coined by Arabs, near the end of the Sassanid era, to refer to the followers of Zorvanism. This religious belief is a deviant belief system of Zoroastrianism which, through trimming mythological and metaphysical elements, believed in an absolute beginning named Zorvan. In this monotheistic worldview, Zorvan is the representation of absolute time and the creator of all creatures and phenomena. Therefore, this belief, by rejecting the Day of Resurrection and depriving humans of their will, is considered as a predestinarian belief and will be comparable to the belief system of Materialism in terms of its tendency toward naturalism and rejection of supernatural phenomena.

The issue of Incarnation is one of the fundamental beliefs in Christianity on which others principles such as The Holy Trinity or Ransom Theory of Atonement are based. From the beginning, this belief has faced numerous discussions regarding the nature and manner of the unity between human and divine natures in Jesus Christ, and the language used for understanding it. In this paper, the source of creation for the theory of incarnation and some evidence regarding the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ have been studied. These studies have been carried out by using the main source of Christianity, that is the Holy Book, and also the Chalcedonian Definition. Afterwards, two of the main approaches of Christian scholars, that is True Meaning and Virtual Meaning, have been explained and, in the end, certain criticisms such as obscurity, inconsistency etc. regarding the first approach have been proposed.

The cliché understanding of mass media is that they are tools and means to transmit news and expand communications whose function is to be informative, provide entertainment and promote ethical codes amongst the people. The present study, mainly by depending on the viewpoints and approaches of Heidegger and Marx regarding technology, aims to provide an analysis of the media and its relation with advertisement. This analysis has put under question the current common belief and shows that the advertisement industry requires a certain viewpoint toward the world which will bring about certain philosophical requirements and consequences. This analysis also shows that media in the new world has undergone structural transformation which, under social relations and rules, acts as an advertisement tool.