فصلنامه شیعه شناسی
پیاپی 13 (بهار 1385)

Under Motawakkel, who came to power in 232 Hijri, the Abbasid Caliphate that previously supported the Mo’tazele rational tradition shifted their support towards the Asha’ere or Ahl-e Hadith, which became the Abbasid’s official doctrine. More than other Abbasid Caliphs, he was opposed to the ‘Alawis, and hence persecuted the Shi’a and his other opponents. Under him, zealot Sunnis dominated the Caliph’s court. In this article, the conditions of the Shi’a under Motawakkel, restrictions imposed on them, and the methods used by the Salafi to counter their opponents in various social, cultural and political areas are studied.

According to Shiite faith, Imams should be infallible and appointed by Allah. They believe there are twelve Imams, nine of them of the offspring of Imam Hussein (p.b.u.h.) and twelfth of whom is hidden now and shall be delivered in future. He is Imam Mahdi (p.b.u.h.), the Imam of our time. As soon as he comes back, he shall make the entire world full of justice, as it is full of cruelty and injustice. Sunni Sufis believe that in each era there is a perfect man who is the corner stone of the universe – i.e. the Qotb of the world – and rules over the entire world even if he does not rule directly and visibly. Imam Fakhr Razi agrees on this attitude with Shiites and describes the connection between the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.), the founder of the religion, and Imams (A.S.) as the sun shining all over the earth and the moon lightening up the world in the absence of the sun at the darkness of nights. The best of the followers of Imams are like the stars in the sky, who come after him. Imam Mahdi (p.b.u.h.) is the successor of the holy prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the center of the world; however, others are his followers as well.

Imam Khomeini was one of the greatest Shiite interpreters of Quran whose ideas and attitudes can be seen and studied in many various books and lectures. As a young student at Hawzah, he was eager to study and write about Islamic Mysticism and tried it with writing some books on Mysticism. However, he was not too much impressed by the principles of Mysticism, Theology (Kalam) and Philosophy. In fact, he believed these principles should be deducted from Quran and then interpreted. Since he saw “Guidance” as the main aim of Quran, later he focused on this aim in all of his works and expanded it in many various fields.Here, this article tries to present a review of Imam Khomeini’s attitudes toward Quranic subjects and besides, supports the idea that Imam Khomeini interpreted Quran due to the Divine Aim of this holy book. The author believes adaptation between three attitudes of referring to the text, interpretation and pragmatism is the key point to the success of Imam Khomeini as a great interpreter of Quran

Although a type of global homogenization can be seen at the higher levels of cultures, studying societies with an intercultural relations approach points to localism and diversity at lower levels. This study is a semantic study of the Carpet Washing ritual in Mashhad Ardahal, Kashan. The author studies the explicit meaning of the ritual, as asserted by the participanst, and its implicit meaning that provides identity and enables them to cope with their environment in the past and future. More importantly, it is shown that the ritual not only has not been diluted, at that age of communication, but also has been boosted, and acquired global recognition.

The al-Ghadir hadith is one of the documented hadiths referred to by the Shi’a to prove that Imam ‘Ali (PBUH) was appointed by the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) to succeed him. Hence, Sunni scholar have examined the hadith, and sometimes questioned its authenticity, or interpreted it in such a way that does not imply the appointment of Imam ‘Ali by the Prophet. Using library research methods, and analyzing the documents, the author examines a reason for denying the hadith by Sunni scholars, that is, the insufficient frequency of its sources (tawator or estefadhe, in Arabic). He, then, poses questions such as what the sufficiency of frequency of historical sources as a criterion for assessing the authenticity of a hadith means, where the criterion can be applied, whether noncompliance with the criterion undermines the authenticity of a hadith, whether the al-Ghadir hadith passes the minimum requirements, according to the criterion, and what are the documents confirming the hadith. Answering the above questions, the author concludes that the al-Ghadir hadith certainly meets the requirement of minimum frequency of sources required by Muslim scholars.

All Muslim scholars, Quran experts and interpreters of Islamic texts denounce unauthorised or unfounded interpretation of Islamic scripts. There are various accounts of such types of interpretation. In this paper, the history of unfounded interpretation, those hadiths censuring it, and the most important theories put forward against such interpretations are examined. In particular, Imam Khomeini's view, in this regard, and the examples given by him are discussed.

The first point being mentioned here in this article is a brief introduction to poets who praised Ahl Al Bayt, both in Persian and Arabic. Then the literary aspects of Imam Khomeini’s Poems and the impression of the greatest Iranian poets on his poetry are studied. Next, the author presents the stories of the Prophets, virtues of the infallible Imams of Shiites and concepts taken from Quran and Hadiths being used in Imam Khomeini’s poems.These stories comprise stories of Adam, Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, Solomon, David, Khizr and Mohammad (p.b.u.t.) as well as the virtues of the infallible Imams of Shiites (p.b.u.t.) and Ahl Al Bayt.

Baghdad is one of the places, where the Shi’ite faith has been influential, from early on. The Seventh and Ninth Shi’ite Imams, Mosa ibn Ja’far and Mohammad Taqi (peace be upon them), lived and martyred in the city. Many Shi’ite scholars and figures lived or spent sometime there. Also, during the Lesser Occultation, the four Deputies (Nowwab-e Arba’e) of the Twelfth Imam, whom were the religious authority for the Shi’a, lived there. In this paper, the city’s historical geography, districts, and religious communities are explored. Also, the formation of the Shi’ite community, their status under the Abbasid dynasty, their social and intellectual conditions during the Lesser Occultation, the four Deputies (Nowwab-e Arba’e) of the Twelfth Imam and their duties as well as the way the Shi’a contacted them are discussed in this paper.

In every society, security is the outcome of the interaction between various internal and external factors. With regard to Iran, the country’s security is susceptible to crisis and vulnerability, because of its revolutionary and ideological nature, its geopolitical and geo-strategic location, as well as its cultural and ethnic conditions. In current international circumstances, the traditional approach to security, which exclusively focuses on military and external factors, has lost its appeal, and is unable to provide a persuasive account of security issues. New factors with cultural and ideological aspects should be taken into consideration, when discussing Iran’s national security. Currently, within the framework of the Shi’ite geopolitics, which is a combination of cultural and ideological factors, access to vast resources of energy and a geopolitical and strategic location, Iran enjoys a special position. For both cultural-ideological and strategic-security reasons, the West is interested in such a position. In this paper, Iran’s security issues within the framework of the Shi’ite geopolitics are considered.