نشریه هفت آسمان
پیاپی 54 (تابستان 1391)

The conflict between rationalists and Ahl al-Hadith (the people of Hadith) in the early centuries of Islamic thought caused antagonism, excommunication, and clashes between the two sides. The people of Hadith identified the Mutazilites as heretics, the cursed, God's enemies, heterodox, and liars, and recognized companionshipwith themagainst the Prophet's tradition. They held that Kalam(theology) is a discipline of deviation from the straight path of faith, and regarded the Mutekalemun(theologians) as heretics. On the other hand, the Mutazilites regarded the people of Hadith as superficial religionists who believe in the incarnation of God. When Mutazilites gained power, they slaughtered their opponents. This conflict between Ahl al-Hadith and Mutazilite was first to the advantage of the Mutazilites; but people, due todeveloping the literalist thought, gradually began to follow the people of Hadith. Therefore, the popularity of the rationalists among the people began to decrease, and gradually within several decades was disappeared. Both Mutazilites and people of Hadith were concerned to explain religion, while the former advocated reason and the latter advocated revelation as the basis for this explanation. They had different destinations, however. The aim of this paper is to examine some contrasting points between these two schools of thought, and consider their influences upon the decline of rationalism in Sunnite Islam. It also considers the way in which this conflict influenced the social behavior of these two movements in a negative way.

Sikhism consists of three major denominations; these sects in the order of importance are: Khālsā, Nāmdhari, Nirankāri. They take different positions on the nature of Guru or spiritual teacher. Khālsā sect - to which the majority of Sikhs adhere - itself consists of three groups, which become distinguished from each other by their certain kind of clothes, life style, and some religious principles. These three groups are called Nihang (Akāli), Nirmalā, and Sewāpanthi. Furthermore, in some scriptures, references have been made to one of the Sikh sects called Udāsi, which was established by Guru Nanak's oldest son, Sri Chand. By considering the beliefs and religious ceremonies, this sect is by no means similar to the mainstream Sikhism, because it neither acknowledges the series of ten Gurus, nor is Monotheistic. Nevertheless, since Udāsi identifies itself as the follower of Guru Nanak and has played an important role in Sikh history, it would be regarded as one of the Sikh sects in this paper. Furthermore, in other resources some references have been made to the other sects, which either have no follower currently or their followers are in the extreme minority. Such cases are classified as subgroups of one of the aforementioned sects. This paper is concerned with a general overview of these sects and their major beliefs and practices.

In the first decade of 20th century, seminary of Isfahan built an institute for the dialogue between Moslems and Christians which was called "Isfahan Safākhane". In this Institute, Moslem's representatives and Christian missionaries participated in different discussions, and their debates were written and published in Al-Islam magazine. This magazine also included biographies of some well-known religious and political people, and letters which were sending to the institute. Only 38 volumes of this magazine were published in Iran. In 1323/1906, Mohammad Ali Dāei Al-Islām, the head of Moslem's representatives, was settled in Mumbai and started publishing a new magazine entitled Davt Al-Islamin Persian and Urdu, main subject of which was dialogue between Islam and Christianity. In this paper, the author first points out the unique features of the magazine and then, provides a brief report of its subjects. In the final section, it is discussed about the purpose of the publication of this magazine, its publishing information, and its some other features.

Shahid Avval is one of the prominent Shiite scholars in the middle centuries. He belongs to the theological school of Helle and had a superior status in jurisprudence and enjoyed an extensive expertise in that field. In addition, he was an expert in theology. By presenting the intellectual issues systematically, he tried to answer the questions of his milieu and time. It should be mentioned that he has introduced some innovative ideas in this respect. Studying Shahid's theological works, it can be seen that he has greatly benefited from intellectual methods and arguments, though he is not blind to the evidences based on Quran and Hadith. He also tried to express the beliefs in a concise but acceptable and reasonable way. In this article, relying on his Al-Arbaeiniyyah and other theological works such as Maqala Al-Taklifiyyah, I would sketch out his viewpoints about the Imami theological discourse.

Making pilgrimage to tombs is one of the current traditions among Gnostics, Mystics, and Sufis. They have expressed variety accounts of their conduct in connection with making pilgrimage to tombs. Likewise, they believe that the performance of this religious duty is advantageous to the mystical behavior and excursion. Moreover, the explaining of the essentials and reasons of making the pilgrimage to tombs is another topic that can be seen in their writings and literary works. Their theoretical and practical attention to this case aroused criticisms and incited those who argued that going on a pilgrimage should be totally prohibited. Accordingly, Gnostics, Mystics, and Sufis tried to answer their opponents and strived to write independent indictments and writings against them. In this paper, after explaining the concept of going on a pilgrimage, we attempt to present a summary account of this practical behavior, its method, and theoretical bases. We do that with seizing Islamic traditions through prophet and Imam's method, Isthmus life, soul and body connection, and the living universe, while indicating to the fact that honoring noble people and going on pilgrimage by a pilgrim would be profitable both for him and whom would be visited. We also study the arguments of Shiite and Sunnite Mystics, Gnostics, and Sufis about the meaning of Saints and Guardian and the ceremony of pilgrimage.

In confronting with the political opponents, Shiite Imams employed three ways: taqiyyah (God wariness), jihad (holy struggle), and occultation. For preserving the unity among Muslims, saving their lives, property, honor and creed, the Imams practiced taqiyyah, but it does not mean that they were idle; rather they concerned over the problems of Shiite communities and were active in the society in such a way that their political opponents did not be aware of their activities. The extensive network of their representatives, which worked actively from the ninth up to the eleventh Imam, is considered as an example of the Imams’ struggle for foiling the plots of their political opponents. Unlike taqiyyah, which was practiced during all of the eleven Imams’ lifetimes, the struggle against political opponents was occurred only during the lifetimes of two particular Imams: It was in such a way that Imam Ali (‘a) struggled against the nakithin (the perfidious), the qasitin (the deviators), and the mariqin (the apostates); and Imam Hossein (‘a) struggled against Yazid. Each of these struggles protected and secured the perpetuation of Islam. The occultation, a unique confrontation method during Imam al-Mahdi’s lifetime, was done according to the order of the Lord. The occultation continues until God Almighty orders the reappearance of the Imam and the killing of his enemies.

In this paper, Paul J. Weithman considers the relationship between religion and politics. He is a member of several philosophical associations in the U.S., and winner of book of the year award of the North American association of social philosophy for his book entitled Religion and Citizen Duties, in 2002. He declares that along with the emerging of Protestantism, European society, which had been shaped based on the religion, was disunited and religious pluralism challenged religion deeply. In this respect, Weithman first considers the origin of liberalism, its types and most important contemporary theory, i.e., Rawl's liberalism. Then, he looks at the views of the critics such as Pope John Paul II, Taylor, MacIntyre, and Hollenbach, who have criticized liberalism from either religious or philosophical perspectives. According to Weithman, domination of theism and its great influence upon the present policies has encounteredthe political philosophers to serious challenges, with which they have to deal.

In this paper, Paul J. Weithman considers the relationship between religion and politics. He is a member of several philosophical associations in the U.S., and winner of book of the year award of the North American association of social philosophy for his book entitled Religion and Citizen Duties, in 2002. He declares that along with the emerging of Protestantism, European society, which had been shaped based on the religion, was disunited and religious pluralism challenged religion deeply. In this respect, Weithman first considers the origin of liberalism, its types and most important contemporary theory, i.e., Rawl's liberalism. Then, he looks at the views of the critics such as Pope John Paul II, Taylor, MacIntyre, and Hollenbach, who have criticized liberalism from either religious or philosophical perspectives. According to Weithman, domination of theism and its great influence upon the present policies has encounteredthe political philosophers to serious challenges, with which they have to deal.