فصلنامه اندیشه نوین دینی
پیاپی 39 (زمستان 1393)

“Mohammad Naquib al-Ataas” is one of the proponents and theorists in Islamization of knowledge. For him، explicating the realization process of Islamic sciences does not merely include refinement and completion of the existing sciences، but a phase of producing new sciences based on Islamic principles needs to be added، too. Illustrating on the realization process of Islamic sciences from Ataas’ viewpoint، the paper has studied some problems raised on his viewpoint including lack of explanation on reality of religious propositions، unacceptance of the Islamized sciences by the scientific communities، incompatibility of the produced sciences، and dichotomy of science. To the authors، methodological weaknesses، taking steps within the rival’s paradigm methodology، and inefficiency are some shortcomings of this theory.

Social theology is one of the areas of study within social thoughts of Islam and a branch of Islamic social theology describing the doctrine of faith and religious perspectives concerning social issues. The most important methodological principles of social theology include: evaluation of historical validity، realism and meaningfulness، hermeneutic validity، methodology of Ijtihad، and inference of knowledge. On the other hand، methodological principles of sociology of religion، in understanding the subject and achieving the goal in the paradigm division، can be divided into three proven، interpretative، and critical groups. Functional explanation is from explanations of proven methods which is based upon two principles of holism and utilitarianism including characteristics such as putting emphasis on objects’ utility، rejection of the metaphysical criteria and relativism. On the contrary، functional logic of the social theology is a modern functional logic concentrating on religious teachings without characteristics of functional explanation of the sociology of religion and its secularizing consequences. Avoiding independent consideration to mundane functions of religion and priority of the truth to function are the most important instruments in differentiating the speakers’ functional logic from functional explanation of sociology of religion.

One of the fundamental questions about human souls is asked on whether it has a separate and substantive entity before belonging to body، being imparted to it and being united to it by occurrence of body، or it is similar to body and is occurred along with or by body. Among the Muslim Philosophers، there are three viewpoints about temporality and eternity of soul and to prove its own claim، each viewpoint has resorted to different verses and narrations and by underlying its own rational viewpoint، each one has made an attempt to justify the verses and narrations supporting the opposite theory. According to his approach in making his philosophical thoughts compatible with religious texts and having deep belief in unity of reason، narration and intuition، Mulla Sadra has also attempted to justify the philosophers’ opinions and concepts of some of the verses and narrations implying the prior existence of soul، in favor of his own theory. According to the importance of this discussion and lack of its explanation from the Book and tradition’s point of view، the paper aims at collecting and studying whatever has come about this subject in the verses and narrations to evaluate its compatibility or incompatibility with philosophical viewpoints.

The possibility of taking advantage of opinions in beliefs is a challenging and important theological topic. In this respect، there are two approaches: the authority specific to theological opinion and lack of authority to this opinion. Advocates of each theory have proposed some reasons to prove their own claims. In this paper، ten reasons of lack of authority to theological opinions are stated and criticized followed by three reasons expressed to prove the authority specific to theological opinion and finally، the same viewpoint is proposed as the selected theory.

Theologians` view of the creation of world in time has been faced with philosophers’ serious challenges and the essential creation has gained a particular momentum in philosophical thoughts. Referring to various books written by Allameh Helli، the Shiite scholar and theologian aware of philosophical principles، one may argue that the view of essential creation، being corrected with non-essential eternal state of the world، would be rejected. On the other hand، he denies the interference of “time” feature by the meaning of creation and like philosophers، he sees the view of creation in time and the world’s precedence in time from invalid and unacceptable. Therefore، Allameh’s viewpoint regarding creation of the world is apart from the essential creation and creation in time. He believes that the world is created in that God was existed from the beginning in reality of existence without commitment to time; however، the world and time were not realized i. e. not-existent was dominant and simultaneous with the origin of the nature it was created from the depth of not-existent in an innovative way. In other words، the existence of the material world has had a meta-time commence and in terms of time continuum، it is limited and finite to absolute not-existent in the context of existence. The not-existent، not being in gradual and continuous time، is in contradiction with the universe existence in the form of the opposition of negation and affirmation and not being capable to be united with it but is rejected and excluded with counterfeiting the existence. The present paper explicates the dimensions of Allameh’s theory about creation of the world.

The study of essential and accidental elements in religion is known an important discussion in philosophy of religion and modern theology entailing lots of consequences and results. From the statement of this problem، there have always been pros and cons on this issue explicating different aspects of it. The paper deals with feasibility of division of religion and religiosity to essential and accidental elements from Allameh Tabatabaie’s viewpoint. He confirms the essential and accidental existence on the one hand، and on the other hand، he rejects it. Proposing definitions of “religion” and “essential and accidental elements”، he believes that religion has essentials and accidentals: religion’s essentials demand submission to God، and its accidentals include instructions and religious teachings through which submission is occurred.

The paper is a documentary research evaluating the two theories of “rational choice” and “religious marketing” in sociology of religion and Islam’s relation with these theories. The rational choice theory is affected by a wide range of philosophical، economical، behavioristic and sociological topics by which the social activists’ behavior is explained based upon the cost-benefit rational approach. On the other hand، relying on the principle of the freedom of choice، for religious marketing theory، the desirable conditions for development and continuation of religion is formation of religious marketing. Rationality is the common base of both theories based on which religion is chosen in free marketing and in religious pluralism and this is carried out within a process of cost-benefit analysis. Therefore، the more developed are the religious institutes، the more is religious vitality. Despite of wide expansions of these two theories in sociology of religion، they are addressed by some criticisms such as having weakness in explaining structural and macro levels، the problem of theoretical and experimental generalization، little attention to emotion، values and human beliefs، religious outwardly viewing، tautology in given cases، and the most important one is theoretical and experimental explication in the context of secularism. Also، from Islam’s perspective، the most important criticism is formation of these two theories in the context of secularism.

In the contemporary world، human needs meaningful patterns and styles of life so that by observing the perfection point he could make progress and be leaded to the right path. Reaching to this kind of life on which many divine anthropologists، philosophers and even non-divine ones have put emphasis demands proposing a proper pattern of human personality called “Spiritual Human”. The study has explained and analyzed the viewpoints of two Islamic philosophers and scholars Avicenna as a rationalist thinker and Allame Tabatabaie as a Sadrian Hakim with religious attitude about the intellectual principles of the spiritual human and by focusing on reason and revelation، it has proposed a concept of the spiritual human. The most important intellectual principles of the spiritual human in Sino’s attitude include the authority of reason، pure goodness and truth of the Almighty God، spread of love in the universe، and evolution of reason. According to the Allameh’s thought charter، the most important intellectual principles are: pantheism، pure originality of the Almighty God، the dignity of the rational soul، the divine nature and the absolute poverty of the universe. In Sino’s Hekmat، the concept of spiritual human means an aspect equal to “reasonable human” while in Allameh’s viewpoint، it is has a more religious nature and it is based on innate inclinations. Although the spiritual human known by both of them have many common features due to their metaphysical approaches، relying on religious teachings along with rational perceptions، Alllameh Tabatabaie’s thought is of particular prominence which could be considered leveled with the religious (divine)، natural and innate human.

Causal interaction is an explanation to describe the mutual relation between soul and body. If soul is immaterial and body material and they are distinct from each other in substantive terms، how they will have relation with each other. To solve this problem، Mulla Sadra has resorted to steamy soul. This point of view is addressed by some challenges being investigated by a religious approach in this paper. At the end، it has been concluded that the type of Mulla Sadra’s psychology which is very close and similar to religious psychology makes him free of adhering to an issue called “steamy soul”. This type of psychology can have a better analysis of the problem of soul and body interaction and also provide a better solution for this enigma.