نشریه معرفت ادیان
سال سوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 9، زمستان 1390)

The history of Scripture indicates that Torah and Gospel are among the heavenly books and that they have been distorted over the time. In fact, Jesus Christ did not leave a written copy of the book, and it is the reflection of his recommendations that was compiled and their collection is known as Gospel. The Holy Quran confirms the fact that Torah and Gospel are heavenly books which have been distorted over the history. However, these books contain divine sciences and, in general, they are reliable. The present paper tries to prove the view that the history of Scripture and the Quran share the same view.

Mourning ritual practices form part of the cultural- social aspects of society. A study of the mourning ritual practices has special significance because it contributes to forming a clear idea about the culture and beliefs of the members of that. Since ancient times, that is, before the advent of Islam, there have different mourning ritual practice in Iran. For instance, the mourning ritual practices of religious minorities, including Sabians. The present paper focuses on the mourning ritual practices of Sabians and examines their thoughts and views about these practices; it uses an analytical-historical method.

Benedict, one of the important monastic personalities of Catholic Christianity, is called the father of Christian monasticism. Nowadays, the followers of Benedict constitute an important monastic sect and are thought by the instructions of Benedict's book of rules. The present paper presents his biography and discusses the cultural-social conditions of his time. He wrote his book which owes its inspiration to the previous books of principles. Benedict's instructions have exerted crucial influence on the progress of western civilization and mystical life of Christians. In his book of principles, he introduces a brief account of the principles of monastic theology, instructions for spiritual progress, and commands of monastery management. Benedict's principles of monasticism are divided into epistemological, ontological, theological, anthropological, and soteriological principles. The sources of Benedict's monasticism are the Scripture, antecedent's tradition and his mystical experience. The influence of these resources, specially Scripture and tradition, on Benedict's monasticism is evident.

The present paper studies the worldview of Hinduism according to the teachings of "Rig-Veda" in the light of theology, cosmology and how the world was created, and anthropology. Rig-Veda has polytheistic views in theology even though the belief in one God and philosophical unity of Being is detected in some hymns. Several views about the knowledge of the universe and the manner of its creation have been shown on the basis of the kind of knowledge that the singers of hymns had. Some think that gods have created the world, and according to others, thinks that gods have been created because of the world. In the field of anthropology, Rig-Veda believes that individual from upper class have intrinsic value and dignity and those who are from lower class are unimportant and mean. Man should live in this world according to Rita law. He should observe ethics and also establish good relations with gods through invocation, making vows and offering sacrifice to them. Man does not decay through death; rather, he enters an eternal world. Explaining the contradictions and differences in this worldview and referring to the Quran (Sura the Women: verse 82), the author concludes that the worldview of "Rig-Veda" has no divine basis; rather, the thoughts of profound men of ancient times are the source of inspiration of this worldview.

Hinduism is one of world's philosophical religions that thoroughly studies the beginning and end of the world. Its religious texts and philosophical schools provide different explanations about this cosmological issue, which clearly differe from those provided by other religions. According to this religion, the world has a creator who has come into existence from non-existence. Hinduism proposes several ideas about the process and manner of this creation such as creation form water, creation based on "Prakriti" and " Purushu" or material and soul, creation based on four particles, creation based on "Brahman" and "Maya", and creation based on " Brahman", "soul, and "material". On the other hand, the end of world in Hinduism has to studied in the light of the conception of periods of creation. According to this conception, the world passes through periods of thousands years after creation before it reaches its end and finally falls into disintegration and non-being. The time-span of the period of world's creation and disintegration are the same, and they occur successively. This eternal cycle will continue moving for ever.

The transcendent unity of religions is one of the components of the discourse of traditionalism, which represents the result of traditionalist's approach towards religions. Relying on such things like diversity of revelations, principle of orthodoxy, difference between the domains of inward dimension and outward one, and internal unity of religions, traditionalists try to brush aside the differences among religions and concentrates on the common ground between them. Consequently, the difference between religions is, to them, superficial and untrue, and all religions unite transcendentally level. Elaborating on the content of the aforementioned principles adopted by traditionalists, the present paper analyzes and criticizes this concept according to the discourse of traditionalism, evaluates traditionalist's views, and assesses their words in the light of Islam and Quranic teachings.