نشریه قرآن شناخت
سال هشتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 15، بهار و تابستان 1394)

Knowing the first man and his genesis is among the important anthropological issues mentioned in the Quran and traditions. Some scientists in the field of experimental sciences suggest some hypotheses that apparently conflicts with the meaning of the related verses and traditions. The present paper seeks to identify the first man and his genesis from the perspective of the Quran so that the Quran’s view of these hypotheses is made clear. The results show that most of the verses explicitly state that Adam was the first man, and the present human beings have descended from him. His emergence was independent and he was made of soil and mud, not from any other creature. Related traditions clearly confirm and emphasize on this claim.

This study aims to investigate and prove the Imams’ knowledge of the unseen from the perspective of the Quran. The method of discussion in this analytical research is based on thematic interpretation. It is inferred from the verse on vision of the deeds (Tawba: 105) that in addition to Allah and His messenger, a group of believers can also have vision of the truth and reality of people’s deeds in the world. Since such vision is not available to common believers, we mean a kind of vision which is a divine gift bestowed by God on some of His saints, the infallible Imams. It is also inferred from the verse of the people of middle path (Al-Baqarah: 143) that a group of the prophet’s (PBUH) Ummah stand as witness to the Ummah on the day of resurrection. Such testimony will not be possible without foreknowledge of the deeds of God’s servants. Traditional evidence also suggest that in the prophet’s stead, no one except the infallibles Imams has claimed to possess knowledge of the unseen and kingdom of heaven. Some special saints of God possess a level of knowledge of the unseen, but the perfect level is exclusive to the infallible Imams.

One of the incidents narrated in the Quran is calf worshipping of the Israelites in the absence of Moses (PBUH). Since this event occurred under the leadership of Aeron (PBUH), one of the questions raised in this regard is whether Aeron, as a leader, duly performed his duty against this deviation. Some commentators hold that he failed in this duty (despite the accepted presumption about prophets’ infallibility). However, analysis of his actions and exiting evidence prove that without any neglect of duty, Aeron did his best in the proper time, but because of the Israelites’ pressure, he chose to follow the instructions of Moses (PBUH). In order to retain unity among the Israelites, he did not take any action and avoided fighting against them.

In some verses, God has spoken of the creation of man in the best form, but in some other verses, like verse 19 of Surah Al-Maarij, it seems as if it speaks about a kind of shortcoming in his creation such as "Holu" which means "greedy". What is the mystery behind ascribing this attribute to man? Is this feature embedded in man’s nature? If so, how is this attribute compatible with the creation of man in the "best calendar" and the aim of man’s creation (achieving the perfection of nearness of God)? This paper examines the views of commentators on the verse 19th of Surah Al-Maarij and concludes that in itself, this attribute in man’s nature is not considered as a vice or virtue; it is rather a voluntary feature which can strengthen or weaken the virtues of man.

In numerous verses of the Holy Quran, the creation of all creatures is ascribed to God through using the verb “create", but in verse 54 of A’raf Surah, ownership of "command" is contrasted with ownership of “creation” and at first glance, one construes a contrast between "creation" and "command". Therefore, commentators have sought to determine the meanings of "command" and "creation". Dealing with a critical analysis of the concept of “command” from the perspective of commentators, this paper concludes that views in this regard include five theories: 1. order, 2. God's word, 3. divine commandment, 4. world of command and 5. command aspect of creatures. The arguments for all these views can be criticized. Only Allameh Tabatabai's perspective in Al-Mizan commentary can open the way for a defendable interpretation of this verse. In addition to thoroughly analyzing and criticizing the views of other commentators, the present paper takes another step in presenting the theory by Allameh Tabatabai in Al-Mizan commentary. Modifying Allameh’s theory, it achieves a new perspective i.e. the interpretation of command as the in-determined aspect of creatures.

In the Quran, God Almighty has referred to the aims of revelation of the Quran. However, the kind of goal in terms of being major or minor, the relationships among goals and their comprehensiveness in relation to all the verses of the Quran are not explicitly mentioned in the Qur’an. In addition, the mentioned goals are distributed between Meccan and Madinite chapters and verses and given the specific circumstances, some of them have been mentioned. This issue has made the scholars of interpretation and the Quranic sciences to have differing views of the aims of the Quran and the schema governing them.
This paper explains the Quran researchers’ views in this regard and notes some points regarding the way of exactly designing this schema. The results show that although the views mentioned above are mainly based on the verses of the Quran, they have several shortcomings in the stage of analyzing the major and minor goals, proportions and schemas among them. These shortcomings are mostly caused by lack of attention to variables such as agreement and differentiation of stated objectives in the chapters and verses, the audience in each of the goals and levels of expression of each of the goals in the arc of descent and schematic derived from the teachings of the Quran.