پژوهشنامه معارف قرآنی
پیاپی 10 (پاییز 1391)

Among different types of Qura’nic exegesis, tafsir-e tanzili (exegesis of Qura’nic chapters according to their order of revelation) is a legal approach whose great subtleties are appreciated during the process of exegesis by the researcher. The author of this paper seeks to adopt tafsir-e tanzili to study the word ‘caliphate’ in 15 verses among ten Meccan and Medinan chapters of the Holy Quran. The findings are restricted to those revealed by this certain type of Qura’nic exegesis in order to encourage further researches in this field.

The Holy Quran is the messenger of liberty at all levels and defines its different domains in line with mankind’s existential domains. It also demarcates spiritual and social liberties according to the individual and collective aspects of mankind’s life, formulates the inseparability of internal and external liberties and develops a systematic model for liberty of thought and discussion according to internal as well as spiritual liberty.The present article is an attempt to analyze the spiritual and social liberties on the basis of the Qura’nic verses and hadiths from a perspective which deems spiritual and social issues intertwined. The results indicate that pure Islam generates and maintains liberty at all levels.

The Holy Quran proposes patience as a strategy adopted by the holy prophets to further their objectives. Holy Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (BAUHHP) was no exception. The unbelievers resorted to several plans, including bribe offer, harassment, character assassination, ban on the Quran and trade boycott to discourage him. However, he exercised considerable patience and managed to overcome all difficulties. The unbelievers even accused the holy messenger of Islam (BAUHHP) of witchcraft, madness and barrenness; however, Allah the Almighty assured and advised him to seek solitude, use decent language and praise Allah. The present paper is based on descriptive-analytic method and library researches.

Since the dawn of creation, in both divine and non-divine religions, the believers have resorted to worship and above all prayer to express their gratitude to their God or gods. It is no exaggeration to deem prayer the gist of servitude as sincere prayer embraces all elements of unshakable faith. This article seeks to study the extent to which a sincere prayer-sayer gains access to moral virtues and the prayer speeds up his moral growth and the impact the moral growth has on the content of the prayer. As a spiritual practice, prayer encourages the prayer-sayer to challenge his ego.

The author of this paper seeks to prove by means of descriptive-analytic method and library researches that the Qura’nic prayers are so delicate that the non-Qura’nic prayers recited by the prophets and saints lag seriously behind them. The results demonstrate that the Qura’nic prayers open with words markedly different from those of non-Qura’nic ones; therefore, those non-Qura’nic prayers in which God, against His divine dignity and omniscience, is addressed by words other than Rabb are open to suspicion.

As relative freedom from dangers and threats, feeling of security imbues the individual with physical and mental peace and plays a vital role in safeguarding the mental and social health of the society. On the contrary, feeling of insecurity, in the form of dangers and threats, agitates the individual and, thus, the society. This article is an attempt to investigate the relationship between feeling of security and mental health and vice versa in the Holy Quran. It addresses the questions: Which factors generate feeling of security and, consequently, mental health? Which factors threaten them? The following hypotheses were developed accordingly: ‘Remembrance of Allah’ in one’s beliefs and behavior generates feeling of security and mental health while feeling of weakness, poverty and ‘avoidance of Allah’s remembrance’ all threaten them. This is a documentary research based on the Holy Quran, Qura’nic exegeses and some books on psychology. The results indicate that those remembering Allah enjoy mental security, peace and health while those who fail to remember Him suffer from mental insecurity. ‘Avoidance’ has two meanings in the Quran: ‘Avoidance of the world’ and ‘avoidance of Allah’. Mankind would attain mental security, peace and health through avoidance of the world.

Some condemn the governments established during the Occultation of Imam Mahdi (AS) as illegal and unlawful on the basis of the 'flag' narration (Rewayat-e Rayat) which apparently denounces raising the flag of revolution before the Advent of Imam Mahdi (AS) and introduces the flag-raisers as satanic tyrants. This library research aims to provide a logical interpretation of the famous narration on the basis of Qura’nic verses, authentic narrations and other types of evidence in order to criticize the above claim and prove that it does not apply to the revolutions conducted to support the religion and fight tyranny and injustice.