فصلنامه شیعه شناسی
پیاپی 70 (تابستان 1399)

In the present article, we have investigated the condition of the followers of Ahl al-Bayt in Nigeria in a pathological manner. This article aims at introducing the Shi’i community in Nigeria and the Islamic movement in northern part of that country, explaining the reasons for the relative success of the Shi’i movement in that country, and presenting a brilliant image of the followers of Ahl al-Bayt in Nigeria. The main subject is investigating the difficulties and challenges of the Shi’a community in Nigeria. The main question is as follows: “What factors lead to disorder in the conditions of the followers of Ahl al-Bayt in Nigeria?” The theoretical framework of the article is based on the pathological matrix (SWOT), the strong points, the weak points, the opportunities and the threats. In this article, we used the descriptive-analytical method to consider the main factors affecting the process of development of Ahl al-Bayt’s religion in Nigeria as well as the existing obstacles and difficulties in this regard.

Ibn Sekkit, a companion to Imam Jawad and Imam Hadi, is considered one of the scientific and practical role models of the third century AH. After acquiring knowledge, Ibn Sekkit began to teach and serve as an educator in the Abbasid caliphate court for a while. The important and authentic historical sources have considered him an authority in some fields of knowledge, praising his social and scientific morality and conduct. He was also a reliable source in transmitting hadiths and traditional accounts. Investigating the existing sources and commentaries in historical and geographical books, biographies, literary sources, and accounts of personages and related encyclopedias reinforces the idea that Ibn Sekkit, apart from the prevalent knowledge in his own era, enjoyed other knowledge as well; and this reveals the necessity of studying about him. The present study seeks to explain firstly how Ibn Sekkit’s scientific status was, and secondly, how his relationship to the various sciences in his age was. The research method is descriptive-explanatory and deals with Ibn Sekkit’s scientific status.

The quantitative lexical analysis of the 1985 manifesto published by Hezbollah movement in Lebanon shows the dominance of religious and Shi’i Islamic aspects of the movement in the form of words such as ‘Islam’, ‘God’, ‘the oppressed people’, ‘martyrdom’, ‘the nation’, ‘Wali Faqih’ (the authoritative jurist), ‘Waiting’, ‘the global Arrogance’, and ‘anti-colonialism’. Applying the same approach in analyzing the 2009 manifesto of this movement shows a reduction of in the religious and Shi’i symbolism and, in contrast, an increase in general and common concepts in international political literature such as ‘Lebanon’, ‘national and nationalism’, ‘the government’, ‘citizen’, ‘Arabic’ and ‘human’. Some maintain that this reveals an essential change in the literature of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. This article uses the methods of content analysis and quantitative lexical investigation to study the nature of that change. The findings of the study show that the aforementioned literary revolution does not necessarily mean an ideological and doctrinal change in the resistance movement. The movement’s reemphasis on Wilaya Faqih, Islam, nation, and combating the hegemony regime all represent the preservation of faithful and Invisible-centered approach in guiding the political conducts and Hezbollah’s no ideological revolution and merely a change in its literature and, sometimes, an alteration in its political insight – not a doctrinal revolution – considering the existing social conditions and backgrounds.

Variation and plurality of voice and thought in the conceptual network of the Shi’a poetry in the last three decades is a point that is worth being scrutinized. This type of poetry has breathed in a different atmosphere by experiencing an altered climate, taking on a more modern identity. In the present study, for the first time, the manifestations of evolution and distinction of ritual poetry in the last three decades have been investigated and analyzed. The research question is as follows: “What conceptual indices and manifestations have led to formation of the identity of today’s Shi’a poetry, and how does this evolution show itself?” The research method was of descriptive-analytical type using library sources. Here, we attempted to explore today’s Shi’a poems to extract the manifestations of modernization of this type of poetry in the sphere of conception from the related texts and explain them using examples. The study aims at introducing and explaining the modern identity of today’s Shi’a poetry and its artistic aspects, which are unknown for the scientific and academic community. The findings of the study show that today’s Shi’a poetry has become more thematic, more objective, and more promising. It has become closer to the social life and far from the stereotypic expression of the past; and the discourse of Waiting has become stronger in it.

The theoretical mysticism is one of the newly emerged sciences in the sphere of the Islamic civilization. Among the pillars of the cosmology and anthropology systems in theoretical mysticism are the ideas of Wilaya (literally: guardianship) and Perfect Man. These ideas passed through the well-known Shi’a mystics’ thought, and encountered a deeper and more precise reading of esoteric Wilaya, the perfect man and its instances. Sayyid Heydar Amoli noted the mystics’ errors in theory and instances in this sphere in a brave and rational manner, and resorted to the Shi’a doctrines to create a new explanation in this regard. The main question in this study is as follows: “Can we consider what Sayyid Heydar has expressed in facing with the common mystical trend as arguments in line with the discussions of theoretical mysticism?” In the present article, we used a descriptive-analytical method to study his performance in inferring, explaining, and defending this Shi’i doctrine to show how he connected the mystical teachings to its true origin in issues pertaining to Wilaya, and assisted an evolution and perfection of mysticism in that sphere, removed the related gap in mystical thought, and presented proper arguments in theoretical mysticism.

The present study aims at investigating the factors effective in formation of the Twelver Sunnism in ninth century AH and its mutual effect on Shi’ism. The writers attempt to answer the following questions: “What factors have been effective in the initial formation as well as the expansion of Twelver Sunnism in ninth century AH?” and “What were the mutual effects of Twelver Sunnism and Shi’ism?” The findings of this study, conducted in a descriptive-analytical method, suggest that the fall of Abbasid caliphate as the most powerful Sunni religious institute caused other religious groups, especially the Shi’a groups, to find an opportunity to be active in the political atmosphere of that era and gradually add their followers. Besides, the diffusion of Sufi movements in Iran due to religious tolerance of the Teymurids created a new thought that attempted to pay special attention to Shi’a Imams and a peaceful coexistence between Sunnism and Shi’ism in Iran, while being committed to the Sunni principles. This new thought is known as Twelver Sunnism. Here, Sufism became the vehicle for a trend whose result was a religious transition in Iran from mere Sunnism to Shi’ism in the period between the seventh and ninth centuries.