نشریه قرآن شناخت
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 13، بهار و تابستان 1393)

Some of the Quranic verses are concerned with the past events, and the destiny of prophets, past nations, historical figures and other historical affairs. Some orientalists emphasize on the inconsistency between the historical accounts of the Quran and the historical accounts of other holy books, including the Bible. One of the instances is the supposition that the Quranic account of the dwellers in the Thicket, people of Midian and their prophet, ''Shuaib'' (a) is considered a historical fault. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the author criticizes the orientalist's claim and concludes that the false claim that the Quran has made a mistake is rejected, citing evidence to back up his idea, and the Quranic account of Midian conforms with that of Bible. The proofs indicate that Midian and Thicket are located in different places and that Shuaib was from Midian but he was selected to deliver his message to these two places. Midian and Thicket were in the western north of Arabian niemimaa at the side of Hijaz- Sham highway.

As a rich source of divine sciences, the Holy Quran has different longitudinal and latitudinal levels and layers. This divine treasure, along with the hadiths narrated from the Holy Prophet’s Household (peace be upon them), recommends its audience to refer to all the semantic levels and layers of the Quran. The present paper seeks to underline these layers and show how to extract them in the specialist field of semiology, by demonstrating layer semiology.The research findings indicate that different semantic aspects of Quranic text are detected in inter-textual and intra-textual relationships by means of the multiplicity of denotative layers and levels in two pivots: vertical and horizontal. In addition to the multiple and different layers within itself (vertical pivot), which are realized through its relation with the internal semiotic system; the Quranic text has different aspects: philosophical, theological, political, narrative, intellectual etc, in the horizontal pivot each of which constitutes a concrete and textual manifestation of a code system. It is through his cognitive knowledge of the different codes, that the interpreter can realize these aspects. Therefore, layer semiology is regarded as a proper method and as a framework that can be used by the interpreters and a new way for understanding and discovering the different semantic layers of the Holy Quran.

This research seeks to find out whether or not we can rely on single narrations in exploring religious beliefs. This paper shows that there is an obvious difference between religious beliefs and fiqhi obligations. To this end, it investigates the evidence about the validity of narrations and the extent its efficiency with regard to realities and religious beliefs. The result of the investigation shows that certainty is a requisite for doing research in this field, whereas in case of the traditions about whose authenticity all agree, there is a need to know their chain of transmission. Due to the possibility that the narrations contain examples of cutting up, referring to the meaning (idea), low level of understanding of some narrators, concealment, and dissimulation relying on their content will be difficult, and accordingly, their content will, in most cases, be unconfirmed. On the other hand, when discovering realities, unlike the case of fiqhi questions, one cannot question validity and soundness. Compared with the narrations dealing with fiqhi questions, the narrations concerning with the inference of reality and explaining religious beliefs meet more difficult conditions.

The verse of purification is a testimony to the infallibility of the Holy Prophet’s Household. Muslim scholars present two possible views about who are “the Holy Prophet’s Household” mentioned in this verse. Most of them agree that it is “Al-e- Kasa (people of the Clock) and the Holy Prophet’s wives” or only "the Five People of Al-e- Kasa" who are meant here. An inquiry into the transmitted hadiths shows that the hadiths which affirm that the verse means only Al-e- Kasa are strongly emphasized. The Holy Prophet’s wives themselves relate from the Prophet as saying that the verse they are not meant in this verse. Furthermore, the words and action of the Holy Prophet prove that the verse refers to none other than Al-e- Kasa (i.e. the Prophet, Imam Ali- his daughter, Fatimah, Imam Hassan and Imam Hussein- peace be upon them). Contrarily, there is a number of accounts which consider that the verse refers to “the Holy Prophet’s wives” or “Al-e-Kasa and the Holy Prophet’s wives, but the weakness in their texts and authenticity proves that they are not reliable. These hadiths strongly rely on a narration attributed to ‘Akramah and Ibn ‘Abbas. Given the fact that this narration has not come in the first-hand Shi’a and Sunni narrative sources besides the weakness of the authenticity and characteristics of its narrators- ‘Akramah and Ibn ‘Abbas-,it is rendered invalid.

The reality of conduct is an inner movement which starts from the material world and ends in meeting with God. Resting on the Quranic view, Allamah Tabatabai proves the existence of such an inner movement in man. He supports his argument by citing such words like sirat, tareek and sabeel, meaning (path or way), sky door, ascent to the God, antecedence, going astray and following the right path, persevering to meet the Lord, meeting with God, return, and such questions like multilevel character of Islam and of faith, multilevel character of the faithful, reproaching the pause in the stage of appearance, purposefulness of man's life and necessity of striving for the goal. He considers that this inner movement occurs within the soul. Thus, it is necessary for man to truly know the soul. A real knowledge of the soul depends on realizing that God is the ultimate aim in this course. Divine religion has made explicit the nature of conduct in this respect by prescribing acts of worship, and only those who have reached the state of the worship of the free are capable of displaying such a conduct.

The role of sanad (chain of transmission) in evaluating the infallible Imams’ hadiths has been the special concern of scholar. The present paper seeks to review and make explicit Allamah Tabatabaii’s view about “the role of chain of transmission in evaluating hadiths”. The research findings show that Allamah believes that the hadiths which contradict the Quran are rejected, and so examining their chain of transmission will be of no avail. A review of the chain of transmission of non-fiqh hadiths which do not contradict the Quran and which are accompanied by textual indicative signs can have a beneficial effect. A chain of transmission can be used as an independent indicative sign only with the hadiths concerned with the fiqhi questions. According to Allamah Tabatabaii’s thoughts the disciplines which are related with chain of transmission such as rijal (knowledge of biography) dirayah (intelligence) have no special place in the fields other than fiqh, particularly commentary of the Quran, due to the limited role of chain of transmission in evaluating hadiths, especially non-fiqhi hadiths.

One of the important, precise and relatively complex legal issues is “the conflict of laws in time” which occurs in national and international legal relations. Although it may supposed that dealing with this issue is one of the achievements of legal thought in recent centuries, the fact it that the issue is rooted in Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence) and its first and most important source, i.e. Glorious Quran, though not mentioned under this particular title.The present paper does not seek to provide a full legal and jurisprudential discussion about “the conflict of laws in time”; rather, it merely deals with the issue from the view of some relevant Quranic verses and on the basis and at the level of late Ayatollah Allamah Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Tabatabaii’s thoughts in noble Al-Mizan Commentary in order to show that this commentary work discusses the issue and its details much more than most merely jurisprudential and legal verses-related commentaries, although it is not a legal and jurisprudential commentary.