Journal of Contemporary Islamic Studies
Volume:4 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2022

The purpose of this article is to show that how Shahristānī, as one of the Sunnī great writers and exegetes, is influenced in his commentary by the narrations of Imāms (a) and in particular those of Imām Ṣādiq (a), how he expresses his views on the issues of interpretation and comprehensibility of the Qur’ān, and what solutions he proposed in this regard. The article at hand has adopted the analytical research method. Examining the comprehensibility principles proposed by Shahristānī in Mafātīḥ al-asrār commentary, we come to the point that Shahristānī deems that the reference to the narrations of Ahl al-Bayt (a) is the only way to understanding the Holy Qur’ān, and he himself has been influenced greatly by them in his discussion of the Qur’ānic principles. In addition, he takes the knowledge of the Qur’ān - including exegesis and esoteric interpretation – exclusive to Ahl al-Bayt (a), maintains that exegetes wonder in the interpretation of the Qur’ān because they do not refer to Ahl al-Bayt (a),  deems that staying away from them is the cause of destruction, and believes that Ahl al-Bayt (a) are the true protectors of the Qur’ān. In the light of Shahristānī’s comments in the introduction to his commentary and using Ahl al-Bayt’s (a) narratives, we might conclude that there is a possibility to understand and interpret the Qur’ān for all exegetes provided that they set aside their religious presuppositions in interpretation and choose the correct method for the interpretation of the Qur’ān, which is referring to Ahl al-Bayt (a) and using their narration, as the Prophet (s) repeatedly noted in his valuable words.

The topic of the Mawqūfiyyat of the verse order (i.e., their original, divine order) in the noble Qur’ān chapters has always been discussed by the scholars of the Qur’ān sciences and has had proponents and opponents during the history. In this discussion, which has roots in the historical-narrative and sometimes in the theological sources, the role of narrations is highly significant, and the independent examination of the related narrations might have a significant effect on the clarification of its various dimensions. Therefore, in this study we did not take into account the other evidences presented by the proponents and opponents of the originality of the verse order, and only collected and evaluated the chains of transmission and indications of the narrations related to the manner of ordering the qur’ānic verses during the lifetime of the noble Prophet (s). Moreover, the narrations about the ordering of the verses in Imām ‘Alī’s (a) manuscript and his stance to this issue are also examined. At the end, it is concluded that from the viewpoint of the narrations, the original order of the qur’ānic verses is their very revelation order, and the changes made in the order of some verses did not come from the actions of the Prophet (s).

Most of the Islamic theologians, particularly Shiites, who believe in prophets’ infallibility assert that Adam’s act in eating the forbidden fruit was not a sin. They have provided some justifications for Adam’s act. The most significant justification is that God's prohibition of eating the fruit was not obligatory but advisory. In another justification, Muslim theologians attribute Adam's sin to his children and generation. Other justifications belong to those theologians who accept that Adam's act was a sin done in disobedience to God's necessary prohibition. They justify his act in these ways: 1) Adam was misled by Satan's oath; 2) He committed the sin out of oblivion or mistake; 3) His sin took place in the heaven; 4) That was a minor sin; and 5) Adam was not a prophet when he committed the sin. The current study aimed at analyzing these justifications. In conclusion, according to some evidence, it seems that God's command to Adam was not advisory. Accordingly, Adam's sin was neither minor nor unintentional. The kind of command, advisory or necessary, or the place where sin was committed is not important. What matters is that Adam disobeyed Gods’ strict and direct command. Since a prophet should obey all God's commands, Adam’s act was a sin.

The attainment of welfare is a goal that has motivated different human schools of thought. In the meantime, Islam with a claim for welfare has given instructions to the human society, and the noble Qur’ān is teemed with verses that offer in various forms approaches as to this goal. Remembering divine boons in noble Qur’ān is of the items which is being emphasized greatly for the attainment of welfare. This study attempts to probe the training effects of this remembering with an emphasis on the verse 20 of Luqmān chapter (Qur’ān 31:20) so that education and training officials, teachers, advisors, and researchers could provide the society, in the light of the findings of this study, with practical solutions in educational books and advisory methods for generating personal and social welfare. With a descriptive-analytical approach, this study has looked at the personal and social, training effects of remembering divine boons. The boons investigated in this study are those ones that are recognized by all religious and non-religious schools of thought. Therefore, it is not possible for any human and non-human school to deny the achieved Qur’ānic findings, and every human can use these findings, whether to have belief in them or not. Of the most important personal and social, training effects of remembering divine boons are the feeling of self-worth, purposefulness in life, improvement of emotional relations, and so one.

One of the ways to discover the capabilities of the teaching of nation (Umma) is investigating the functions of Islamic nation teaching in a society from which it is originated; this is because a certain social event occurs in its own specific time, place and situation. Madīna al-Nabī and Madīna al-Waṣī is the best proof for the functions of Islamic nation teaching. With a descriptive-analytical method, this study seeks to find a response for this question: what behaviors did the holy Prophet (s) and Imām ‘Alī (a) have and what viewpoints did they describe for implementing the concept of Islamic nation? Results show that the concept of nation caused the realization of social justice in Madīna al-Nabī, in the light of the development of public cooperation, absence of emotional stimulation out of Ignorant prejudices, deactivation of social gaps, and transformation of prejudices threat to an opportunity to found human rules and make the extreme class differences fade out. Therefore, Madīna can be deemed as a reflection of founding the nation teaching. Equalization of social privileges in social arena was one of the most important achievements brought about by the nation teaching in the governing time of Imām ‘Alī (a) in Madīna al-Waṣī. In doing so, connection of social justice to social balance, the practical renewal of legal and social status of discriminated groups, correction of ethnic-tribal viewpoints of the society to trans-ethnic and trans-religious viewpoints, and social freedom to gain social privileges were the most important arenas for the tangible realization of the nation in that period.

Of the very basically important issues in noble Qur’ān and the sayings of the Infallibles (a) is divinity. In many cases within the verses of Qur’ān and the speeches of the pure Infallibles (a), the ways of divinity are pointed out with various wordings. Of the important ways are rational-sensory and rational-philosophical ways. Since Nahj al-balāgha, after noble Qur’ān, is the most valuable book for guidance and humanization in which the repeated reflection of heavenly verses of Qur’ān is evident, the ways to prove the existence of God from the viewpoint of Nahj al-balāgha and then its conformity with the verses of Qur’ān are explicated in this study with a library method and a descriptive-analytical method in investigating the data. Results of the study show that sometimes as soon as humans pay attention to the system of the universe, they believe the existence of the sublime God, out of the innate reason. In addition, the base for the creation of beings indicates that the universe is under the control of a supernatural being. Moreover, from the rational and philosophical point of view, the existence of God can be proved with an intermediary; what is considered intermediary is a series of rational principles that proves the necessity of the sublime God’s existence.

Before authoring Al-Mīzān commentary in Qom, ‘Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī had written another commentary named Tafsīr al-bayān fī al-muwāfaqa bayn al-ḥadīth wa al-Qur’ān in his birthplace, Tabriz, and this commentary is among the early bases of Al-Mīzan. In this initial commentary, ‘Allāma first gives in a fairly brief interpretation of the verses based on the interpretation of the Qur’ān by Qur’ān method, followed by mentioning the related narrations and the clarification of the relationship between the verses and the narrations. As the title of this commentary shows, narrations have an effective role in the interpretation of the verses. However, this does not mean that the commentary is limited to the narrations; rather, it entails various method of interpretation, including the interpretation of the Qur’ān by Qur’ān, the interpretation of the Qur’ān by traditions, the interpretation of the Qur’ān by literary rules, the interpretation of the Qur’ān based on lexis, and the interpretation of the Qur’ān based on intellect.

In this article, the view of Kathryn Kueny about “wine” in the Encyclopedia of the Qur’ān, volume 5, pages 481 to 483 is propounded. Then, it has been probed using the jurisprudential, exegetic, and lexical books of Shī‘a and Sunni and some articles of Iran’s positive law. The author, at first, mentions the quiddity of wine and the location of winemaking, and then investigates the lexicology of the words khamr (ordinary wine), sakar (intoxication), and raḥīq (pure wine). Later on, the quiddity and difference between the worldly wine and heavenly wine is put forward. Finally, the jurisprudential principles for drinking wine and its metaphorical sense are mentioned.

Revelation, “the divine message to the prophets in order to guide people,” is the base and pillar of divine religions and the most precious, heavenly gem in the lap of earth residents, and it has an unbreakable connection with the nature and destiny of humans. Through the expansion of research studying Islam in the West in recent centuries, the hypothesis wherein adoption of some Qur’ānic contents from earlier religious and literary texts was an arena for the studies of Orientalists. William Montgomery Watt and Dermenghem can be deemed as those Orientalists who have connected the common phenomenological view of the West about revelation to the theological view mostly originating from Christian theology. Elucidation of this issue is necessary so that the legitimacy of Islam and Qur’ānic revelation and its superiority over all divine religions could be proved. The article at hand is organized with using the descriptive-analytical method and a criticizing approach along with gathering and analyzing data. The findings of this study show that the Western researchers and Orientalists such as William Montgomery and Emile Dermenghem have put forward their opinions based on some principles including the impact of the character of the Prophet (s) on the form of revelation, fallibility of revelation and the Prophet (s), the presence of the element of human in Qur’ān, and so on; none of these is accepted by Shī’a thinkers, and they are in contrast to the religious thoughts of Islam. Each of these principles is faced with serious criticisms including the infallibility of Qur’ān; the harmony of religion with science in Islam; the perfect character of the Prophet (s) in receiving the revelation which matters, not his being a medium; lack of ambiguity and contradiction in Qur’ānic revelation; and so on.

Mystery, as a word that has a slippery and vague meaning, is defined by Muṣṭafā Malikiyān and Gabriel Marcel in two different but explicit and definitive ways. These two thinkers take different approaches to mystery by presenting different definitions of it and adopting different philosophical affiliations. In this paper, which has been written in a descriptive-analytical way with references to library sources, the role and effect of belief in mystery in the epistemological system and, consequently, in the human’s existential and practical ways of life is clarified. The approach that Marcel takes in the face of mystery makes him the philosopher of mystery and keeps him constantly engaged with mysterious matter, while the approach adopted by Malikiyān keeps him away from what he considers to be mystery such that he deems wisdom as avoiding mysteries. These two philosopher’s viewpoints differ in semantic, epistemological, and ontological aspects as well as in the human’s access to mystery.

Referring to some similarities between Qur’ān and Torah, some Orientalists have taken the adoption hypothesis. Proposing this hypothesis, they attempt to prove that the origin for Qur’ān is not revelation and that Muḥammad (s) is not a prophet. Adopting a descriptive, analytical, and critical approach, this study probes and criticizes the adoption hypothesis in the aspect of sacred law and in the part of rites, in particular the alms tax. Through a comparative investigation of alms tax in noble Qur’ān and Torah, this research sees the existence of common motifs among divine religions in their rites due to their divine union, not due to their adoption from each other. Moreover, it discusses the exact and comprehensive mechanism of alms tax in Qur’ān and alludes to the reforming and completing role of noble Qur’ān for the former religions including legislating the decree of alms tax to uproot poverty in the society, changing alms tax from a merely ethical issue to a legitimate obligation along with the Islamic government’s sanctions, making the payment of alms tax perpetual and canceling the seven-year cycle, setting political, social, and ethical aims for whereabouts of spending alms tax, and so on. These major differences indicate that the decree of alms tax has not been adopted from

Islamophobia is part of the universe of discourse in the Western thought system. Part of the wrong and hostile mentality of the Westerns about Islam should be sought in the way Islam is represented. One of the outstanding contemporary authors active in making a distorted image of Islam is Ibn Warrāq. His works have been promoted many times in different languages, and based on his own claim he has chosen a pen name discreetly in fear of having a fate as that of Salman Rushdie. The present study attempts to probe Islamophobia in the plot of Ibn Warrāq’s character as well as the reflection of Islamophobia in his portrayal of Islam. The results of the study show that Ibn Warrāq represents Islam as ugly, inhumane, and irrational and the Muslim as oppressed, belligerent, frustrated, and reactionary. He tries to inculcate the phobia of the religion of Islam into his non-Muslim reader and to encourage his Muslim reader to jump from believing Islam to its denial. Seeking clear, political aims, he tries to promote Islamophobia systematically.