فصلنامه تحقیقات کلامی
پیاپی 9 (تابستان 1394)

According to the claim of some contemporary intellectuals rationality and spirituality are among the non-ignorable needs of mankind; while religiosity not only is not a human need, but also is an obstacle against the encounter of some human needs. Religiosity is not consistent with rationality; and, because one cant give up rationality, inevitably one must put aside the religion-based spirituality. In this concise article, only one part of this claim is examined: the claim of inconsistency of religiosity with rationality. It will be explained that religiosity in its universal meaning, is neutral in relation to rationality and irrationality. Although religiosity demands complete obedience, it does not demand a blindly and unreasoned obedience. What is inconsistent with rationality, is a blindly and unreasoned obedience, not a complete obedience.

Methodical study of Kalam (Islamic theology) is one of the needed discussions in the nowadays scholarly society that was not yet considered sufficiently. The Imami theologians had used the two rational and narrative methods to inference the religious teachings and to defend them. With an analytic approach to the Kalami works of Fadel al-Meqdad, this article examines the question that what usages of reason he had used to inference the Kalami teachings. Fadel al-Meqdad used reason both as a source and as a means serving narrations. The most usable method in theoretical reason in inference of teachings is to discover the implications, and in practical reason, is the rational good and evil (al-husn wal-qubh al-'aqlian). By using the methods of description and granting authenticity to narration, Fadel al-Meqdad uses the inferential function of reason in the realm of narration as well as answering the misgivings.

Dr. Muhammad Abed al-Jaberi is one of the contemporary Arab Thinkers that, with his numerous and different compilations, could take a considerable place in both Arabic and western worlds. In order to go out the crises in the Arabian world, he examined the five heritages of Iran, Greece, Sufism, pure Islamic and the pure Arabian, and maintained that all the retardations of the Arabian world are rooted in the thoughts of Iranian (Ardshir) heritance, and people like Abdullah ibn Saba', Mokhtar ibn Abu 'Ubayd and the Yemenites, infiltrating in Islam, could preach the Iranian and Israelite teachings such as Mahdawiyyah, Rajah (Retuning of the dead to the world), Wisayah (executorship) etc. in the form of Shiism. In this paper, only the issue of Mahdawiyyah, considering its importance, is examined in the al-Jaberi's thought and in addition to an exact report of the teaching of Mahdawyyah in al-Jaberi's works, his mistakes, slips, claims of no evidences, and his incomplete presuppositions were shown on the basis of the Sunni authentic sources.

Prophecy has an essential role in giving meaning to the human life and this role is solely belongs to prophecy and prophets. No human school and no intellectual force have the ability to draw a picture of a new life after death and grant it to human beings; to count this world as preparedness in order to secure the eternal and after-life happiness and therefore make the life meaningful; to increase hope and joy of life, and, with meaningful ways towards life such as realistic interpretation of death and evils, give hope to human's life; with giving advice to not depend on this world, and to have peaceful life in the shadow of God, reduce man's anxieties; with establishment of the family system and with creation of social solidarity and removing of racial and ethnic disorders, create a collective purposeful life and accompany humans with perfection and happiness.

The way the Holy Quran spoke of the prophets in two titles of "Messenger" (rasul) and "prophet" (nabi) brought about the Muslim scholars utterances about the differences between the two. We examined this issue in Quranic verses, narrations and Kalami texts. From the Quranic expressions, one could find their similarity. According to some narrations of the Imams (p.b.u.t.), "prophet" (nabi) hears the sound of the angel of revelation or dreams the angel, but "Messenger" (rasul) can see him in awakening. Thus their logical relation is absolute generality and specialty. From a period in the third/tenth century, it had been popular that their logical relation is absolute generality and specialty with the criteria of Sharia, revealed book and miracle. The source of this distinguish is the kind of the Imam's mission and the bases of their speech, that, of course, has been disagreed by some latters. On the basis of Allamah Tabatabaei's view, Ayatullah Mesbah Yazdi, maintains that the distinction is that "Messenger" (rasul) terminates the excuses; but we believe that his argumentation is insufficient.

Because the written heritage of the infallible Imams (p.b.u.t.) was written by themselve's statement and dictate, it is of a twofold importance in discovering the Ahl ul-Bayt's Views in various areas of religious knowledge. These writings counted as a measure to evaluate the authenticity of other propositions and texts. The infallible's letters are among the written but ignored heritance which was not be so considered in the Imamah studies. In this research, the aspects of Imamah were analyzed on the basis of the letter of Imam 'Ali (p.b.u.h.) to Imam al-Baqer (p.b.u.h.). According to these texts, Imamah is a multi-dimension concept which its dimensions are separable. The Ommah's leadership demands the leader to have divinely attributes, to have the Prophet's characteristics and to possess considerable personal attributes.

Demon is a material and bodily being; but with soft body that the early rule in their creation is that they are invisible; but in some cases they embody and could be seen in different molds and frames. The visibility of demons means that they will be visible in the man's faculty of sense and understanding, without any changings in their nature. And their embodiment means that, like the human beings, the demons take bodily molds that could be touched and referred to by the senses, and occupy the space. The Islamic verses and narrations show that the demons can be visible and even can be embodied. Many cases that narrated in narrations prove both the embodiment and visibility of demons. Rationally, considering the early mater of the demon's creation, one can prove this issue.