Journal of Contemporary Islamic Studies
Volume:1 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2019

The nature of life has obsessed the philosophers and scientists for long. One of the sciences that has a very close relationship with the concept of life is biology. Biology uses two approaches to address the concept of life: the list-oriented and the science-oriented. In the list-oriented approach, the definite distinction between living and non-living beings is accepted and different lists of the features of the livening beings are provided. In the science-oriented approach, which is a better way to achieve the concept of life, the aim is to define life within a network of existing concepts of a specific field of science. In transcendental theosophy, life is viewed as a type of existence, and by the consideration of the being and life as concomitant, the life hierarchy is equaled to the existence hierarchy, and no distinct line can be drawn between living and non-living things. In this article we try to answer the question that if science and philosophy have any relationship or similarity in the exploration of the concept of life. The findings of the study demonstrate that although the question of life is investigated in philosophy as a transcendental issue and in biology as a material one, a general-specific relationship can be made between science and philosophy in defining the concept of life in the natural world domain.

The execution and recordation of transaction and debt deeds is one of the main solutions to bring organization into the Iranian judiciary. To this end and in order to guarantee people's rights and reduce the disputes, the notary public offices undertake the important task of executing the transaction and debt deeds. The study at hand aims at investigating the qur’ānic viewpoints on the necessity of recording the debt and transaction deeds and wants to find the qur’ānic solutions for the recordation of these deeds. Relying on the opinions of outstanding Imāmīte jurists, this study has found out that although some scholars have ruled for the desirability of the debt recordation, the majority of scholars have relied on the imperative sentence "reduce them to writing" (Qur’ān 2:282) to rule for the general obligation of the debt recordation. It has been even deemed necessary not to forget recording the small non-cash deals because the advantage of deed execution is that it guarantees the implementation of justice in society and the establishment of a healthy economy. According to the common opinion, the scribes and witnesses should be secure and immune. Any act that harms them should be avoided, because causing damages to them means disobedience of God and leads to wickedness in transactions.

A great deal of scientists and philosophers made the history of humanity heavily indebted, blossoming out during the Islamic Golden Age. Tracing the development of Muslim civilization, we can observe distinct thinking methods which have improved different facets of society. Contributing to the promotion of civilization, mathematics and its various apparatus cannot be neglected. Khwārizmī is the most critical figure in mathematics as the bedrock of empirical method. Ibn al-Haitham is reckoned as the leading figure of that era in the scientific method on which all sciences and technologies are based. Fārābī as a profound philosopher focused on imagination and art for distributing wisdom and reason among public. In his utopia, artists have this task and they are called the conveyors of religion. Suhrawardī concentrated on intuition besides wisdom and reason. In addition, Suhrawardī typified the artist of Fārābī’s virtuous city. In Suhrawardī’s mystical treatises, he allegorized intelligible happiness. Each method would contribute to human civilization—that is, a set of thinking methods is required for surviving and developing civilization. However, dramatically important in today’s world is that the balance ought to be maintained.

The present article addresses the typology of the approaches to the science of the interrelatedness of the qur’ānic chapters. To this end, this science has been bought under typological analyses from the viewpoints of the past and contemporary scholars. In the approaches of the past scholars, topics such as the narrative origins and the backgrounds of this science, the chainlike relationship between chapters, the thematic relationship between chapters, and the structure (architecture) theory of the Qur’ān have been discussed. On the other hand, the approaches of the contemporary scholars to this science have addressed the interrelatedness of the chapters in the light of theories such as "the unity of the Qur’ān", "the conceptual and contextual connectedness of the qur’ānic discourse", Sa‘īd Ḥawwā's holistic approach in his book al-Asās, and a new approach entitled "symmetric order". Then, the article analyzes the ups and downs of this science and the reasons for them, and examines the development capacities of each of the foregoing approaches. It seems that the appearance of the interdisciplinary studies of the Qur’ān in the contemporary era outlines a promising future for this style of the qur’ānic studies.

One of the precious achievements of the Islamic Revolution of Iran was the establishment of the revolutionary foundation of Jihad of Construction following which Jihadi management burgeoned. Many lectures and studies have been done in the arena of Jihadi management, each of which mentioning some factors related to the features and indexes of Jihadi management. This has caused inconsistencies and, as a result, the lack of cohesion and unity in the features and indexes of Jihadi management. This study recognizes and gathers the indexes of Jihadi management through the use of Meta-synthesis method as well as thematic analysis method. The explored sources in the study are the set of Imam Khumeinī’s speeches (his book Ṣaḥīfah), the speeches of Supreme Leader, all the presented articles in the conferences in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, and all the presented scientific-research articles in the arena of Jihadi management. The results showed that monotheism and Theocentrism, religion-centrism, public participation (the mobilization of human resources), giving service, science-centrism, commitment to the Islamic Republic of Iran, altruism and devotion, the prioritization of public interest, the reception of creativity, personality traits, flexibility, and the independence from the worldly materials are the indexes that form the Jihadi management.

The request to see God is one of the theological paradoxes mentioned in the life story of Prophet Moses (a) that apparently opposes his infallibility. The verse 143 of the chapter A’rāf is one of the places this story is narrated. The opponents of infallibility suggest that Moses knew God is not physical or visible, nor occupies a place, so why did he have such a request? The answer is that he made a mistake by asking so. Therefore, it negates his being an infallible. On the other hand, Hadiths as well as the views of the exegetes of the Qur’ān and theologians believe that Moses spoke out on behalf of his people and it wasn’t his real request.

The problem of human's two domains has a significant influence on human knowledge, and since the human privilege in the universe to the other beings as well as the immateriality of the soul and so on is based on proving the soul's substance separately, it worths to search in this issue about the ideas of two Western and Islamic philosophers. Ibn Sīnā with arguments such as the "suspending man" proves this matter; Descartes also proves this matter with ''Cogito argument''. In this paper, after explaining the views of these two philosophers, we have tried to compare these two perspectives. Ibn Sīnā considers the soul as “the first perfection of the natural body” and Descartes defines it as a “thinking substance”. Both of them are dualists with two truly separate substances. In each of their proofs, simultaneously, they prove the soul's immateriality and its distinction from body and its self-consciousness. Their important difference is that the Ibn Sīnā's proof is a hypothetical state, while Descartes’ Cogito is a personal experience which can be attained by a little meditation. Both of them believe in the mutual influence of the soul and body.

The science of interpretation has a special position in the Islamic sciences and has been addressed seriously by Muslims from the very first days of Islam, because interpretation is to understand and discover the points of the best speech, i.e. the speech of the Sublime Allāh. One of the new commentaries on Muslims' divine book is al-Tafsīr al-munīr fī al-‘aqīda wa al-sharī‘a wa al-munhaj, authored by Wahba Zuḥaylī, the contemporary exegete and Qur’ān researcher. The study at hand has set out to examine and evaluate this commentary by the critical-analytical as well as library research methods. This has led to the identification of the differences of this commentary with other interpretive works. The strengths of this commentary are its investigation of the contemporary social, political, and jurisprudential issues as well as its high readability. On the other hand, the insufficient references to the new and old interpretive resources along with the scarcity of the scientific references of the commentary are among its weaknesses.

Along with proving the sufficiency of the Qur’ān for the extraction of the religious knowledge, the Qur’ānists have doubted the authenticity and the authoritativeness of the sunna and Ḥadīth. One of their reasons for the inauthenticity of the sunna is the inefficiency of the Ḥadīth evaluation and criticism system. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present study first analyzes their main reasons for this inefficiency, including the existence of inauthentic traditions in Ḥadīth collections, the prevalence of forgery and fictions in Ḥadīth, the ignorance of internal criticism by Ḥadīth transmitters, the existence of gaps in the principles of the Rijāl ideas, and the existence of forgery and distortion in the chains of transmission. Then, the responses of the Ḥadīth defenders are discussed, including the possibility of justifying the Ḥadīths that have been deemed inauthentic, the ignorance of the different linguistic levels of the Ḥadīths, the Ḥadīth transmitters' constant efforts to purify the Ḥadīth legacy and identify the fabrications from the time of their issuance, the traditionists' efforts in and attention to the textual examination and strict Rijāl investigations.

Due to the gradual revelation of the qur’ānic verses in line with the events of the prophethood of Prophet Muḥammad (s) era, the reports of the battles of early days of Islam are reflected in some verses, and in some others Jihād and fighting against disbelievers has been emphasized. This has been used as a pretext by some to unintentionally or purposively introduce the Qur’ān as a book that invites to fury and violence. Emphasizing the role of the revelation era atmosphere in the true understanding and interpretation of the verses, the authors of this article first explore the behavior of the enemies of Islam – which was mixed with ignorant stubbornness, harassment, conspiracy, imposition of war, and breach of promise – and then introduce the three stages of the Qur’ān’s response to disbelievers, namely advising the Prophet (s) to patience and resistance, inviting him to do defensive Jihād, and emphasizing the eradication of oppression. Accordingly, they aim at proving this point that despite all the hostilities of the disbelievers, the Qur’ān talks about war against them only as the last solution.

The Repentance chapter is the only chapter of the Qur’ān that is not started with the Basmala phrase “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” Different reasons have been suggested for the absence of the Basmala phrase at the beginning of this chapter. After examining every stance in this regard, the study at hand takes into account the external indications affecting the Repentance chapter – such as the atmosphere of the revelation and the conditions of the revelation – to investigate the absence of the Basmala phrase at the beginning of the Repentance chapter. The various behaviors of the Companions of the Prophet (s) at the Expedition of Tabūk (as the main event of the year 9 LH) revealed the existence of various groups of believers and hypocrites. The year 9 LH was a historical turning point in the history of the Arabian Peninsula, and the majority of new conversions to Islam were due to political, security, and economic concerns. These new converts’ approach to Islam was defined by their interests, and their behavior was mainly “the disbelief disguised under faith” (i.e. hypocrisy), a conduct the existence of which is confirmed by the Repentance chapter content, too. The mentioning of Basmala by the Glorified God at the beginning of every chapter is an invitation to use His general and specific Grace. The hypocrites have deprived themselves from the Divine Grace because they turn disbelief to an obstacle against the Divine Grace. In other words, the conduct of the hypocrites and their inward urge in a way is breaking ties with God and the Islamic nation. Therefore, God have responded to their conduct with depriving them from His Grace.

Human children are creatures who need to be appropriately educated and guided in the light of love. Love is, indeed, a major need of children. Their hope increases towards life by means of generously given love, and they can build a bridge to success from their mistakes with acuity. This causes them not to experience disappointment but rather be successful. Love brings about warm relations between parents and children and makes them intelligent and enlightened. It keeps their spirits high and wards depression off. A child who is satiated with love does not feel any shortage, developing proper relationships with others. Thus, he or she does not get involved in behavioral deviations. Friendly love should be rendered in a purposeful and step-by-step manner. Its factors and indicators need to be distinguished well from its barriers, and those factors should be predisposed and encouraged while the barriers, if any, should be weakened or possibly eradicated. Islam prohibits any extremes in expressing affection towards children and bases child breeding on moderateness. Children’s age and needs should be taken into consideration, and loving them should be based on such considerations. If love is expressed excessively or inappropriately, it makes children pampered, spoiled, bully, weak, and too dependent on their parents. In this regard, the educational method proposed by Islam is based on three principles of love, dignity and firmness. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the role and domains of affection in child education and the extent of its application as proposed in the holy Qur’ān and religious quotations, or ‘Ḥadīths’.