فصلنامه مطالعات تفسیری
پیاپی 18 (تابستان 1393)

The term “seven ways” in the seventeenth verse of Surah Al-Mominun which has only been used in Quran once is generally interpreted as “seven heavens” or “seven overhead ways” and it has become the origin of some doubts. Exclusive attention to one meaning and ignoring the others, and paying no heed to the context of this verse and its collocations are possibly the origin of this viewpoint. Considering that the words “seven, ways, and over” have other meanings as “replication and exaggeration”, guilds and practices” and “locations and abundance” respectively, and also according to the meaning and context of the previous and next verses, two possibilities can be presented; one meaning of “seven ways” is seven existential ways during human creation and creation completion. The other meaning which is beyond human creation is creation of other creatures and abundant groups of the worlds’ creatures. Accepting either one of the viewpoints negates synonymy of “seven ways” with “seven heavens”. Therefore, considering all meaningful aspects of the words in combination, collocations, and context are necessary requirements for accurate understanding of Quranic words and sentences.

The Holy Quran is God’s miracle and its scientific miracle aspects or wonders have been recognized by development of human scientific abilities. Stating the story of Zolqarnein and dam construction by him, verses 83 to 98 of Al-Kahf have pointed to some scientific points and facts regarding safety industry, impenetrability and consolidation of iron through putting a coating of copper on its surface or as a kind of joint connector of iron to copper as a strong and impenetrable technology. This is while nowadays, these elements are considered to be necessary for the scientific accepted innovations. In addition, this technology can be used in consolidating the walls and objects made of this alloy. For instance, one of its possible applications in the process of building walls of non-hydro dams. Also, it can be used as a tool and technique in order to strengthen connections between some metal elements especially Iron and may bring about developments in some industries.

Islam and faith are two Quranic concepts about which various viewpoints have been presented. From Fakhr-e Razi’s viewpoint, faith means genuine acceptance and firm belief based on reason, acceptance of the prophet Muhammad along with whatever he has proposed and also verbal acknowledgement. From Allameh Tabatabai’s viewpoint it has different definitions some of which are related to basic factors of faith and some others are related to components of faith, i.e. believing in God, divine verses, angles, prophets and their successors, the day of judgment and every decree that are presented by divine messengers. In addition to genuine belief, it is known for Allameh Tabatabai that commitment to the practical effects of faith is one of the signs of faith, while Fakhr-e Razi believes that only genuine belief is enough to be a true believer. Fakhr-e Razi has been involved in some inconsistencies regarding elaboration on his viewpoint about meanings of Islam and faith and the connection between them based on which the relation between Islam and faith is sometimes considered as equality and sometimes contradiction. From one perspective, it is known for him that the relationship between Muslim and believer is overall inclusion and from another perspective it is equality.

Among the issues in Quranic fields, interpretation of Quran based on the order of revelation has attracted the attention of many practitioners of this field. This group believes that this style of interpretation has a unique role in discovering psychological, educational, ethical, social and political aspects of Quran verses among which are gradual progresses against polytheists and unbelievers. This group believes that without adopting this method, true understanding of the Quranic concepts and achieving educational and guiding principles of Quran would not be possible or at least it would be very difficult. Pointing to the revelatory nature of the order and discussing two categories of quality of the order in Imam Ali’s interpretation and sudden revelation along with its order, the present paper has proven that continuing interpretation based on order of revelation is unnecessary and it might be said that it is even against expediency and wisdom.

“The state of being plain” is one of the features of the Holy Quran, taken as indicative of Quran’s expressiveness and clearness regarding its intentions. However, one of the aspects of Quranic miracles is its expressive miracle based on which verses have been revealed according to suitability and appropriateness of situation in an explicit and succinct form. In order to have a desirable understanding of a book it is necessary to be familiar with its linguistic and expressive features. Accordingly, to use teachings of the holy Quran, being familiar with linguistic features of Quran regarding expressing educations is necessarily needed so that an appropriate response could be provided for the ambiguities which might be created in some cases related to modes of expressions in Quran. The paper intends to investigate succinct nature of Quran which is one of its expressive features and also to analyze the reason of its occurrence. Although the common expressive method in Quran verses is given explicitly, because of some reasons such as observing politeness, examining people, providing inviolability for Quran, subjects with no importance, conveying more grace to servants, and proving the miracle of Quran allusions, references and succinctness are used in some cases.

Angel has been considered of an important role and position by Quranic teachings. The focus of this paper is the issue of divine assistance to the believers in battles by angels. Therefore, after discussing the concept of angle, the concept of assistance and its types will be explained and presented relying on Quranic verses. Then, the occasion of revelation for the verses 124 and 125 of All-i-Imran and ninth of Al-Anfal, the way and quality of angels` assistance, and the theories given in the field have been analyzed. The possibility of presence and battle of the angels against enemies, being exclusively or non-exclusively related to battles of early Islam and realization of divine assistance by angels during believers’ life and its continuity are among the discussions that based on Quranic and narrative principles have been followed up as is understood by Quranic commentaries. Accordingly, it has been concluded that there is not any fundamental obstacles against realization of this assistance and continuity of divine success during human life.

God almighty has stated the importance of sea in various verses of the holy Quran. Since more than 2500 kilometers of the borders of Iran includes sea waters, attention to Quran’s statements about sea is an important duty while human life completely depends on the right knowledge and exploitation of this God-given resource. The word “Bahr” which means sea has been mentioned in 32 verses of Quran in singular. The word “Barr”, meaning land, has been mentioned in 12 verses of Quran also in singular. In this paper, initially the relation of these verses with proportion of lands to seas are proved, after that the rest of the new findings in the science of sea engineering will be matched with the holy Quran verses. Then, the necessary evidences will be presented some of which are the Quranic facts found in modern sciences, particularly wonders of seas and oceans. Integration of the seas, barriers between two seas, darkness of the deep seas, tidal currents and other sea currents and waves have been discussed as well.

“Thematic commentary of Quran” is one of the Islamic M’arif lessons that are studied by BA students of all majors. Designing a proper syllabus for this lesson plays a pivotal role in realization of its purposes; therefore, it should be appropriate to the students’ needs and characteristics. This study attempts to propose a syllabus for the lesson thematic commentary of Quran appropriate to the students of art majors. Students of this major have some particular characteristics which distinct them from other majors’ students. The collected data from students and university professors have been analyzed through SPSS software. The prioritized Quranic subjects based on summarizing the professors and students’ viewpoints for the mentioned syllabus design include love and affection, human relationship with others, meaning of life, art and aesthetics in the Quran, the Quran beauties, some verses from Quran with visual statements and jurisprudential topics of art.