نشریه معرفت ادیان
سال چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 14، بهار 1392)

The Quran uses the terms compact, recommendation and commandment to refer to the concept of "'Ahd". The common feature of these three terms is that they indicate man's commitment to the command of Allah. God's compact with man has two forms: internal and verbal. God's internal compact with man refers to the very bestowment of the station of Imamate the precedent of which is divine effusions and the realization of an internal state in man through which election, infallibility, the reality of servitude, the perfection of relation and descent of revelation are realized. Man's compact with God has two forms too: verbal and internal. Man's verbal compact is conceivable towards God and people, which is the very accountability. Man's internal compact means perseverance in the way of faith and practical commitment to beliefs and duties. Aside from the fact that Old Testament does not clearly discuss God's internal compact with man, it has common generalities with the teachings of the Quran in terms of God's verbal compact and man's compact with God. This is contrary to the teachings of the New Testament, which do not regard lawful rituals as the factor for nearness to God; rather, consider belief in Christ and the reality of his fructification as the factor for man's unity with Christ and his salvation.

The present paper seeks to study the nature of Ten Commandments and elaborate on their value in view of such researchers and scholars as Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Khaldun, Seyyed Qutb, Abu 'Abdullah Qurtabi and the sage Fakhr Razi. According to Jewish scholars, Torah consists of 613 commandments among which Ten Commandments are of special importance. These commandments are the pillars of Judaism, in which the injunctions of Judaism are rooted. In fact, Israelites have made a compact with God by accepting these commandments. The term " "Tablet" in the verse 145 of the chapter 7 (Al-Araf- the Elevated Places) of the Quran refers to two tablets which include Ten Commandments of the Bible.Given the importance of these Ten Commandments for Jewish scholars and the exact and delicate references of the Quran to them, such sages, theologians and researchers as Seyyed Qutb, Khatib Tabrizi, Ibn Taymiyyah, and Ibn Khaldun, among others, have investigated and criticized these commandments from different views after the Medieval Period. The present paper discusses and evaluates the issue in detail.

The celestial book, the Quran, and Old Testament state the story of the creation of Adam and Eve as the beginning of man's creation. Since the two Abrahamic religions, Islam and Judaism, are rooted in divine revelation, there should be no differences between the stories of the creation of Adam and Eve, as stated in these books. However, a review of this story in these two books show many differences between them, which indicate the distortion of Old Testament, because there are strong proofs which show that not the holy Quran but the Old testament has been distorted. Although Orthodox Jewish believes that their holy book has not been distorted, there are many proofs, including this story, which show the opposite. Of course, there are several commonalities between these two stories of these books.

The attitude towards and belief in purposefulness and the journey towards final end are among the main principles of all divine religions. Like the Islam, the religion founded 7 centuries before christianity by Zoroaster ca is considered, a monotheistic religion. However, the passage of time and lack of due care to holy Zoroastrian texts against human manipulations have led to the inherent separation and differentiation between these two religions. Reanalyzing the basis and prerequisites of the origin and the resurrection in Zoroastrian faith and bringing out the various similarities between Islam and this religion, the present paper tries to prove the monotheistic nature of the origin of Zoroastrian faith and support the idea that the true Zoroastrian teachings concerning the world after death and its quality can conform with Quranic teachings.

Imamiyyah School and Catholic Christianity have a doctrine with the same conceptual name, that is, the doctrine of "divine grace or effusion". As the principle of grace is one of the most important doctrines in Imamiyyah theology so the doctrine of effusion is the central theme in Catholic theology, which is used to prove its other doctrines. According to these two schools, divine grace and effusion is type of intervention and management by God in man's life, which avoids him from sin and takes him to salvation and deliverance. However, these two doctrines have not the same principles. It is necessary to reflect on the relationship between these two doctrines in order to investigate this claim. This issue has different dimensions. Using a theoretical approach and a documentary survey, the present paper elaborates on the principles, similarities and differences of these two principles in the form of a comparative review. The research findings indicate that these two doctrines, despite their little similarity, are different in terms of their principles and presuppositions.

Since the advent of Islam, Christianity has conducted its different missionary (annunciation) activities in relation to this religion. In this regard, we can refer to reactionary, assaulting, cultural and dialectical approaches. The present paper was conducted with the aim of elaborating on the missionary positions of Vatican, and investigates the claim that Church has used different approaches to conduct its missionary activities in Islamic societies. A documentary-analytical method is used in this research. It is a sort of intermission which shows that the process of dialog among religions, especially between Islam and Christianity, is a critical and complex process, and makes us to deeply understand this dialog in the form of propagation and missionary. This issue is of great importance for scholars, administrators and policy makers of this dialog.