نشریه پژوهش های نهج البلاغه
سال هجدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 62، پاییز 1398)

This study aims to determine which element or elements, according to Nahj al-Balaghah, are involved in the creation of the universe and their historical origin. The dating method of narrations in this article is to search for the questions that narrations arise and evolve in response to them. In Qur'an, various discussions are available about the creation of "heavens and earth", the inauguration of creation by God, the rain, and the vitality of nature and the like. Still, the primary Muslims did not offer a cosmological interpretation of such verses. At the same time, since the first century AH, the two verses of Hood: 7 and Foselat: 11, received more attention, as they have mentioned about the "Throne of God", "water", "heaven" and "smoke". The Sunni narrations of the Prophet (PBUH) indicate two points: God is above the throne and the heavens, and from there, He surrounds the universe scientifically, and the "pen" is the first creature. In the commentaries attributed to the companions' elements such as "wind", "smoke" and "cloud", an attempt has been made to offer a kind of cosmological interpretation of creation, which these narrations have been called "Israelites" in later periods. However, these narrations have nothing to do with the issue of the elemental creation. They only indicate the beliefs of the people of that time regarding Qur'anic interpretations such as "the position of the house", "the passage of the earth", "fish" and "rock". In the third century, this issue is related to the theological differences between the Hadithists and the Mu'tazilites on the issue of literalism or interpretation. In Shiite hadith sources, both material phenomena and spiritual concepts such as the first creature have been mentioned. The dominant opinion emphasizes the importance of material elements in creation, especially "water". Nahj al-Balaghah provides a relatively detailed interpretation of creation; Seyyed Razi has used both Shiite and historical sources, especially Murūj aḏ-Ḏahab, in quoting narrations attributed to the Amir al-Mu'minin. Late Muslim thinkers, influenced by the view of Thales Malati, who considered the origin of phenomena to be water, emphasized the role of water in creation. However, other beliefs of Greek philosophers, especially Neoplatonic philosophy, also gained support, and some, for example, interpreted water as the reason.

There is a title called honors in Arab history. It can be seen in poetry, especially in Arab Diwan. Through this title one can understand the type of boasting, cause, goals, and purpose of the narrator. The revelation of the Qur'an somewhat reduced the negative burden of this tradition and forbade reprehensible pride. Although this ancient custom faded after Islam, it can still be seen in the poems and sayings. One of the prose writings in which the proud expressions are seen is Nahj al-Balaghah, perhaps because of the rhetorical sayings. The main purpose of this research is to explain why these phrases exist in Nahj al-Balaghah. This article extracted the boastings from the words of the Amir al-Momineen (PBUH) and examined them. Then determined and explained their temporal and spatial conditions, the reason for the Imam's boasting in all of them. The first reason is to present the correct criterion for the boasting that the Imam used during his speech. In the same cultural context of the age of revelation, Amir al-Momineen (PBUH) was able to change the criteria of boasting in terms of meaning to change its cultural concept, besides expand and present criteria that were not common before. On the other hand, Amir al-Momineen (PBUH), under certain circumstances, considered the inclusion of his virtues and boasting about them to motivate people towards his goals (previously, he used to incite people to jihad and influence them by sermon).

Due to the fusion of the words of Imam Ali (A.S.) with the Qur'an, and the fact that the Qur'an is related to ahl al-bayt according to the noble hadith of Sakhalin, the general theme of Nahj al-Balaghah is also Qur'anic. Therefore, the Qur'an is one of the most useful sources for understanding the words of the Imam. For this reason, numerous commentaries of Nahj al-Balaghah have benefited from Qur'anic citations. The present article, with the aim of better understanding the explanations and explaining the influence of Nahj al-Balagheh commentators on the Qur'an, examines the Qur'anic citations of the commentators and the typology of these citations. For this purpose, the descriptive-analytical method and statistical tools and tables have been used. The description of the first 50 sermons of Nahj al-Balaghah from the descriptions of the Maearij Nahj al-Balaghah, Ibn Abi al-Hadid, Ibn Meysam, Tanbih al-Ghaflin, Abdu, Fi Zalal Nahj al-Balaghah and Sharh Minhaj al-Bara'a Khoi has been searched and examined. The statistical analysis results of the article were represented in the form of quantitative tables and qualitative explanations. Findings indicated that the quality and quantity of using Quranic evidence in the studied descriptions are different. In terms of quantity, the commentaries of Minhaj al-Bara'a Khoi and Ibn Maysam had the most citation about Qur'an. In contrast, the commentary of Sheikh Muhammad Abduh had the least Qur'anic evidence. Qualitatively, there was a significant relationship between the commentator's general approach and the amount of his Quranic citations.

In studying the history of Islam, it is necessary to reconsider the principle of historical events and the contexts of their formation. This transformation requires a conceptual, exemplary, and semantic revision based on an analytical and interpretive outlook to discover the unspoken historical events. Unspoken words beyond the actual utterances and absent from the text can be read and discovered based on the text. From another point of view, the study of historical discourse on the one hand and the analysis of discourse history, on the other hand, requires a reading of discourse according to  between Imam Ali (A.S.), and Mu'awiyah are of important texts in the history of Islam that require analytical study with discourse method. Analytical study of these letters can reveal the meaning management method of these letters and their discourse creation method. In this article, an attempt has been made to analyze the allegiance concept, which is one of the most basic concepts in these letters, with the practical discourse analysis method and based on the theory of coordinated meaning management. The coordinated management of meaning is an interpretive, critical, and applied theory. This theory seeks to analyze conversations using two models of the daisy and LUUUTT of lived discourses, spoken discourses, unknown discourses, unheard discourses, and unspoken discourses. They also explain the management of meaning in the discourse process. In addition to explaining two distinct approaches in creating related discourse, the studied letters indicated the principles and literature of discourse regarding Islamic views on society, authority, ethics, and war in the Alawite discourse and manner and method of conflict in the Umayyad discourse.

One of the important issues which should be considered about the social system is factors of social solidarity, in this article analyses the system of solidarity in the administrative ideas of Imam Ali (A.S.) and its comparison with the theory of social solidarity of Emil Durkheim. Imam Ali (A.S.) in 36 AH, with the people's vote, took over the government in a situation where the social system was fragmented and divided. Therefore, the creation of solidarity at different levels of society seemed to be necessary. Similarities between creating solidarity in Imam Ali (A.S.) approach and Nahj al-Balaghah are evident. He tried to create a new direction in solidarity by redefining and organizing concepts such as society, rights, human beings, justice, politics, ummah, and a single ummah. Among sociological theorists, Emile Durkheim was the first who studied the theory of correlation and its role in society and provided a theoretical framework. In this research, which was done in an analytical-documentary way, it was indicated that according to the raised issues. However, there are differences in theoretical aspects between the ideas of Imam Ali (A.S.) and Emil Durkheim, but in the correlation dimension, there are common characteristics. The main indicator of the difference is that in his ruling position, Imam Ali tried to promote the society of his time towards organic solidarity, he also used to pay attention to the division of social work. In Imam Ali's (AS) thought, Islamic values, especially the concept of justice, have always been meaningful, and based on it, a kind of solidarity is formed in society. In Durkheim's view, it is the collective conscience that can lead to social solidarity.

Nahj al-Balaghah has long been the focus of Muslim scholars and writers. Attempts to book writing about Nahjah al-Balaghah have been manifested sometime after its compilation, to the point that today we are witnessing the accumulation of works entitled " Mustadrakāt of Nahj al-Balaghah". The mustadrak “Mesbah al-Balaghah fi Mishkat al-Siyagha” by Mohammad Hassan Mirjahani is one of the examples written in the late 40s (Persian solar decade). Although the word "Mustadrak" is seen in all these works, by analyzing the authors' motives and the criteria for choosing the words of Imam Ali (A.S.) in mustadrakāt, we can see differences in the type of his approach. Regarding Mir Jahani's mustadrak, an analysis of his time's political and religious events can reveal the hidden aspects of the book to the audience. MirJahani's main motivation in compiling such work was dialecticing non-Shiite currents, including Sunnis, Baha'is, and others. Relying on the analysis of the events of the MirJahani era and trying to re-read his book, we are witnessing a new type of mustadrak of Nahj al-Balaghah with an argumentation approach.

The first sermon of Nahj al-Balaghah, despite the existing discussions about the authenticity of its narration, at least in its current composition, has a special literary and theological content that has been considered by scholars for centuries. Despite these considerations, it has not been addressed as a structured narrative, which is the main objective of the present research. In this regard, two questions can be asked at two levels of text criticism and text comprehension, which can be answered by narratological analysis: first, at the level of text comprehension, what is the main message in the narrative structure of the sermon, and second, at the level of text criticism, to what extent - beyond the usual methods of hadith critique- can narratological analysis defend the stability and validity of the text of this narration? This study's narratological model is a causal model based on the interaction of efficient cause and ultimate cause. As a result, at the text comprehension level, the main message in the sermon's narrative structure is to set the basic goals of creation and focus on human beings in this field. At the level of textual criticism, this sermon has a solid narrative structure and a high degree of narrative coherence and textual solidarity. There is no interruption or rupture in it.