فصلنامه مطالعات قرآنی
پیاپی 15 (پاییز 1392)

The Holy Quran’s moral system is different from other moral systems. The Quranic system of morality is based on faith in Allah; its end is arriving at divine essence; its means are devotion to Allah and earnest endeavor to attain divine satisfaction; its behavior code is emulating moral codes and uprooting vice. When any human being arrives at certitude by relying on the divine teachings of the Holy Quran as the word of Allah Who is the sole source of honor and power, they would not admit anything ungodly and unholy into their hearts which are the sole abode of divine features. Quranic morality is based on divine love, divine ethics, love for Allah as a means to and reflection of divine features. Thus any act performed for and in Allah’s name is one that aims at attracting His Divine contentment and mercy.

One of the important philosophical and mystical problems which is considered by Islamic philosophers and Gnostics is the correspondence between ontological worlds and human domains, in other words, the question whether there is a kind of correspondence between the universal man and the universe and between macrocosm and microcosm. This subject has been discussed in detail in Mohammad Qasim Khalkhali’s book named "Exposition of Du’ae Sahar", which is the most complete interpretation of this Du’a. The author of this article attempts to consider this doctrine from a new point of view.

Al-Fajr is a Quranic surah or chapter revealed in Mecca containing 30 verses, 139 words, and 509 letters. Like many other chapters that contain verses revealed in Mecca it is short, shocking, filled with substance, and delivers a lot of warnings. Therefore, this surah is called the Surah of Hussein Ibn Ali dealing with his martyrdom and uprising during and against an era of darkness rightly to act as a dawn and a new origin for life and movement. In this surah, we deal with many swears or oaths that are unique in their kind, such as when we swear by Fajr and we mean "the beginning of the rituals of the month of Muharram, to refer to ‘Ashura and its relation to the start of the new year and the tenth day of Muharram in the year 61 AH, when the purest blood was shed, these are among many other issues which have been studied in this article.

The subject of context is among the key concepts and subjects in the field of Quranic Sciences and the principles of exegesis. This key role of context is also evident in such sciences as Fiqh and ’Usul. Scholars in the field of Quranic sciences and exegesis have widely drawn upon this concept, but few of them have supplied an exact definition for the term, and while investigating the subject, they have offered a twofold category comprising of the two conditions, namely, relation by source and relation by subject. It seems that these two conditions need a careful study. Moreover, one should study the boundaries of stronger clues that decide context. This article attempts to study contemporary definitions of the term in order to arrive at the most exact definition.

In mystical and traditional exegeses the word paraphrase is of essential importance. Among traditional exegeses, Feyz Kashani’s Exegesis is important for its inclusion of paraphrases offered by the Holy Shia Imams and some of Feyz’s own paraphrases are of special importance. Among mystical exegeses, too, Ibn ‘Arabi’s exegesis includes paraphrases relying on mystical paraphrases. Comparing these two works focusing on concepts and methods can clarify the meaning of this act in both areas. In the mentioned exegeses, sometimes because of methodological similarity in studying the meaning of a Quranic verses or ayahs, the paraphrases are similar. However, in most other cases, there are essential differences between the paraphrases. This article attempts to study Ibn ‘Arabi’s and Feyz’s approach to paraphrasing both in theory and practice; thereby introducing the similarities and differences.

One of the Holy Quran’s supremacies in eloquence and its flawless language is that it has a special manner of expressing different subjects, and since the Holy Quran has been revealed in a literary language, it expresses its extraordinary messages in the most beautiful and artistic style. One of these styles or methods is the optative style .The present article attempts to cite and study the verses displaying the use of the optative style.

Distortion is an issue that questions the originality and credibility of any book or mode of discourse. Attributing distortion to the Holy Quran has the same negative implications. One instance of the latest claims of distortion in the Holy Quran is that of addition, which is not so long standing, as older scholars had mainly discussed such claims as incompleteness and change. However, in the last two centuries, orientalists have spread this specific claim, referring to as much as ten verses. This claim is based on the orientalists’ understanding of the Holy Quran’s texture, style, and content, in addition to their dependence on some sources on Islamic tradition, exegesis, and history. These claims are readily refutable relying on the same sources that have inspired such assertions. The present article attempts to critically analyze half of these so-called theories, in order to reassert the undisputable infallibility of the Holy Quran.