نشریه دین و دنیای معاصر
سال هشتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 14، بهار و تابستان 1400)

In this article I examine some of the theological views of Abdulkarim Soroush and show that he is attempting to naturalise theology, or more accurately, naturalise religion, theology, and religiosity in an unjustified and implausible way. First, I define the term “naturalising theology” and divide it into plausible and implausible types; then, I review his views and show how one can attribute such a property to his views. Finally, I argue that his naturalised theology is neither plausible and acceptable, nor satisfies his own purposes in naturalising theology. However, this does not mean that one must not naturalise theology, nor does it mean that all versions of naturalised theology are false. It merely means that his maximalist version of, and his method for, naturalising theology is implausible.

The Qur'an contains a small number of criminal sentences that have been widely extended in the expression of commentators and jurists in the light of Sunnah and other jurisprudential arguments in terms of number and severity. These verses have always been interpreted in the light of Sunnah in books related to the rules of the Qur'an as well as commentary collections. In this article, in the form of criteria, a different reading is offered, according to which it is possible not only to adhere to the minimum punishments of the Qur'an, but also to explain this little in a more flexible and timely way. The main focus of the discussion is on the principles governing the Islamic penal system, which in some readings allows and dares such an interpretation.The Qur'an contains a small number of criminal sentences that have been widely extended in the expression of commentators and jurists in the light of Sunnah and other jurisprudential arguments in terms of number and severity. These verses have always been interpreted in the light of Sunnah in books related to the rules of the Qur'an as well as commentary collections. In this article, in the form of criteria, a different reading is offered, according to which it is possible not only to adhere to the minimum punishments of the Qur'an, but also to explain this little in a more flexible and timely way.

 Indubitably, nowadays the Islamic political knowledge is known as an independent field at the level of scientific assemblies, and the Holy Quran which is the most important infallible book in guidance, is heedful of political guidance area, too. Therefore, the present researches entry on analyzing how meaningful resonant the Holy Quran can be on the forming, stating the small-predicates and the spread of Islamic political knowledge. The discovery of this resonance is feasible through commentary and the divine verses analysis based on commentary regulations. Ventilating this hypothesis depends on analyzing the divine verses with interdisciplinary approach and second-best knowledge (Method and Approach) to inquire into Quran and its rule and resonance in political word, political ethic and political jurisprudence by considering human different existential layers from Quran's viewpoint and dividing the sciences based on it (the expanse of resonance). And the aim is that the expanse of divine verses resonance should be admitted in the fields of the forenamed political knowledge (goal) and consequently it should be emerged that the Holy Quran is the origin of political word, political ethic, political jurisprudence and establishing Islamic-Political literature and by creating concepts and the forenamed knowledge's problems and all the later developments owe to the Holy Quran's political guidance which is for responding human existential needs (the findings).

Quranic Studies has two categories of outcomes when it comes to experimental sciences: positive and negative. The first category is to do with scientific miracles of Quran. The core of scientific miracle theory is that Quran foretells the achievements of experimental sciences or is confirmed by these sciences.  The second category which deals with the conflicts between Quranic material and data of experimental sciences, is based on the existence of statements contrary to science in this book. The present study, with its "logical and epistemological considerations" regarding the relationship between Quran and experimental science, simultaneously considers claims of “miracle” and “conflict”. After reviewing the evolution of views on the relationship between Quran and science in recent decades and the nature of theories of experimental sciences, this study firstly shows how to challenge the accuracy and precision of scientific models instead of justifying, interpreting and modifying the sacred text. Secondly with the typology of Quranic statements, it reveals that the realm of Quranic utterances - in destination, methods, and ends - is completely separate from the realms of empirical modeling, and is not negatively or positively comparable to them for claiming "miracle" or "conflict." Quranic verses are definite and totally disregarding to scientific modeling, are sent from higher horizons and therefore are not on the same level of statements of scientific models to support or oppose them. So the verses of the Quran, logically and epistemologically, can only be confirmed or involved with other revelatory or rational statements.

Four Quranic verses in which the term “yoḥarrifuna” has occurred are most cited to prove the textual distortion of the Bible. Some scholars, however, tend to see these verses as referring to something other than textual corruption of the Bible, yet no one has still conducted a systematic research to determine the clear meaning of these verses and their relation to the idea of Biblical falsification. After a philological survey on the meaning of Taḥrīf in Arabic and other Semitic languages, this paper conducts a semantic analysis of these verses and shows that neither lexically nor in the semantic grid of the Quran this word implies textual falsification, but it simply means misinterpretation. Through a survey on the oldest Christian-Muslim polemics it is shown that how the meaning of the word underwent a shift from misinterpretation to textual falsification. After a philological survey on the meaning of Taḥrīf in Arabic and other Semitic languages, this paper conducts a semantic analysis of these verses and shows that neither lexically nor in the semantic grid of the Quran this word implies textual falsification, but it simply means misinterpretation. Through a survey on the oldest Christian-Muslim polemics it is shown that how the meaning of the word underwent a shift from misinterpretation to textual falsification.

The concept of violence has always been one of the most challenging issues in social research. In the Islamic world, this issue has long been considered by thinkers, especially among religious sociologists, and of course, has been used by many extremists. Attitude towards the category of violence according to different perspectives and perspectives can show different types such as individual, social, hidden, overt and... . This article has descriptively-analytically examined the narrative and inadmissibility criteria of violence in society from the perspective of Quranic verses. First, "justice" is the criterion for distinguishing between the validity and inadmissibility of violence, and then the two components of "ethics and law" are analyzed as criteria for acts of violence in the Qur'an. This means that any behavior, speech and action against social offenders that falls within the conceptual framework of morality and law is considered violence, even if it is accompanied by the intensity of action and suffering. Examples of permissible and impermissible violence in the community are also extracted and explained with the inspiration of verses of the Quran.

One of the ways to understand the words and the meaning of the divine word is to know the direction of the word and its special meaning by discovering the language of the Qur'an in groups of the verses which are related to divine attributes. In the past, this issue has been discussed with its theological description, and today the solution is considered to be to study the language of the Qur'an and to determine its orientation. However, the challenging point is what the Qur'an's emotional interpretations of God mean and what their orientation is ; for example, in the Qur'an, there is always talk of divine hob (حب) for special servants. The question is, what is the meaning of this hob (حب), and what kind of hob (حب) it is, and what place this hob (حب) has between and among all the words? Therefore, understanding and clarifying the language of the Qur'an in words that have an emotional connotation is of linguistic importance. In a descriptive-analytical way, this article has tried to answer these two key questions:

Qur'an, the Book of God, is in Arabic; God has made His book one of the eternal miracles of the His last prophet. God has called all people to ponder the Qur'an and the deniers of this miracle to bring a book like the Qur'an and Its verses. One of the prerequisites for an exploratory reference to the Qur'an is knowing the Arabic language, and the higher the degree of this reference, the more necessary it becomes to know the Arabic language. Arabic is one of the most powerful languages in the world of language. The most famous sciences in this language are morphology, syntax, semantics and expression which constitute the science of rhetoric. The translation and interpretation of the Qur'an are not possible without knowing these sciences, and part of the power of translation and success in interpretation depends on the degree of mastery over them. Some of the rules contained in these sciences are less included in their famous texts; at the same time, the significant effects of these rules have been included in some of the interpretive texts. This article discusses one of these rules; the rule of tazmin.

Although worship and devotion were the best devotional deed of the divine prophets, apparently some parts of prophets' worships in Quran and narration are being accused of including inappropriate requests, but it should be mentioned that it has nothing to do with the saint chastity. In this research, all the worships of which there are some doubt or questions about or even they, themselves, are the source of doubt and were hardly collected from various resources, then these worships were being analyzed and also there were some responses given to these questions, have been criticized and the closed ones have been boosted and selected or some new responds have been invented. And in some cases there was no respond, so it gave some. The collecting method was through library and on data invoking.

In different cases, Muslim philosophers attested to 41:53 to prove their philosophical viewpoints. Going through their philosophical works, we could find ten attestation mentioned earlier. Nine of these attestations have been explained (The tenth attestation will be studied in another paper.) and also there are subtitles for five more general titles in this paper. The titles are as follows: Anthropology, Epistemology, Psychology, Ontology and Theology. In the explanation of every part, at first we explained the philosophical assertion and how to attest to the scared verse, then we talked about strengths and weaknesses. These studies indicate some of the philosophical attestations to this sacred verse have no clear reason, but some other are espousal or we can consider them as one of the possibilities in commenting the verse.

What does the Quran mean by dispute over the book or disagreement after knowledge came? Who are those who differ? Are all of them wrong or some are right? Could prophets’ believers and followers be among those who differ and be one side of the dispute or not? If all of those who dispute are wrong, why is there any need to make judgement between them, like when the Quran says: »it had been judged between them«? And if some of them are right, why the Quran says:» Those who dispute as regards The Book, they are in a wide schism, Far from the Truth«. “Indeed, those who differ over the Book are in extreme dissension”? When would or does this disagreement happen? Did the dispute happen after prophets had delivered the Message and it was between Messengers’ followers? If so, why have all of those who differ been despised and have not seekers after the truth been exempt? When the Quran discusses those who dispute, does it refer to the deniers? If so, who are those who differ over prophets’ messages. And why have they been warned of divine punishment for differing and not for denying? These ambiguities make it necessary to scrutinize the meaning of “to differ” in the verses of Quran. This paper aims to show that “differing” or “disputing”, that the Quran reprehends, has a different meaning than what we use today.

Among the commentators who believe in existence of a specific purpose in each surah, there are two approaches: Descriptive and Deductive. And these approaches help to figure out the purpose (in surah). In deductive approach, the commentator, with emphasis on the inside and outside evidences of the text, tries to find out the surah's purpose and states the quality of his/her path to reach that purpose in reason and principle. To discover the purpose of the study, four steps must be followed by the rules and regulations that are based on the principles of rational dialogue. In the first stage by considering the principles and rules of recognizing the text coherence, the verses in Quran have to be classified. In the second stage, by the taking into account the quality of relation between every part and its content orientation, the surah's parts' titles are being named. In the third stage, by gathering different parts' titles and the elements study, the purpose of surah will be figured out. And in the last stage, by criticizing and examining other viewpoints about the purpose of surah, it will be asserted. In this paper, it is stated the regulation of passing these four scientific and deductive stages of discovering the purpose of surah. And afterward, there is an example of Surah Naba's purpose which is being found through passing these four stages.