فصلنامه شیعه شناسی
پیاپی 74 (تابستان 1400)

The issue of science is a central issue in many early and later Shiite texts, so much so that it can be said that the Shiites have their own plan of science. The "science plan" here refers to a set of topics that define science, distinguish real science from pseudo-science, determine its purpose and benefit, and make it the representative of human truth. There is a continuous tradition in the history of Islam, especially in Sufism, The most famous example of which is Ghazali's book "Revival of Religious Sciences". Such works have always seen the truth of science in danger of being forgotten and distorted by the scientists of the time and have tried to show that true science is something beyond the formal occupation of sciences, the way of being a scientist that manifests itself as his morals and behavior. In this article, we have shown that the early and late Shiite scholars have similarly important and prominent works in the discussion of the pattern of science and viewed it as a fundamental issue for the Shiites, As far as jurisprudential Shiism can be considered as a scientific Shiite. Although the method of this article is analytical rather than historical, the depth and breadth of these discussions in Shiite texts highlights the possibility of spreading science-related issues in Sufism from these Shiite texts, especially since some later Shiite scholars also have emphasized on the Shiite sources of a book such as "Revival of Religious sciences".

The rights of the Afghan Shiites, as a considerable part of the citizens in that region with their special identity and cultural features, have always been ignored throughout history. It was just in the recent era after the compilation of new constitution in 1382 SH (2003) that a window of hope was opened to that ethnic and religious minority. The question in the present inquiry is posed as follows: "how much political toleration has been inserted in the new constitution of Afghanistan compared to former constitutions and what was its role in ensuring the rights of the Afghan Shiites?" To answer this question, the hypothesis is posed as follows: "The new constitution of Afghanistan has considerable theoretical capacities in regard with political toleration, and one can explore various parts of it to find that it has the capacity to discover and extract the rights of the Shiite minority as well." This article aims at explaining and analyzing the theoretical aspect of political toleration in the new constitution of Afghanistan and its role in ensuring the rights of the Shiites. However, it must be noted that, unfortunately, enforcing that article of law is far from the existing reality.

The twelve Imam's occultation period, especially the major occultation that started from 329 AH, was the onset of the doctrinal difficulty in the Shiite society. In that period, the Shiites faced a massive crisis and strange confusion. The present article uses a descriptive-analytical method to investigate the Shiites' doctrinal situation and their bewilderment and explore the related reasons to study the role of the Shiite prominent scholars in relieving that confusion. That widespread bewilderment and far-reaching crisis led Shiites to scatter in various sects. The three factors of long period of occultation, oppression and severe reservation, as well as the doubts cast by other sects, especially Zeydiya and Mu'tazila, were among the most important factors for emergence of that crisis. However, the more important point was the role of the Shiite scholars in resolving that crisis and their enlightening in that regard. Many works were written by great Shiite scholars during the 4th and 5th centuries that show their efforts in resolving the crisis in the Shiite society.

Throughout history, the Shiite researchers of hadith have made use of the fourfold classification of hadiths (ṣaḥīḥ, ḥasan, muwaththaq, and ḍa'īf, literally meaning 'right', 'good', 'authentic', and 'weak' respectively) for distinguishing types of hadiths. Although a large number of scholars have accepted this classification, some others – such as Astarabadi – have regarded it a kind of heresy modeled on the Sunnites, leading to ruin of Islam. In this study, we have used the library documents and the descriptive- analytical method for analyzing the contents. Accordingly, the findings of the study are as follows: the aforementioned claim is not acceptable and the existence of similar terminologies, sometimes with more variety for the later Shiites, does not mean that forging scientific terms is accompanied by heresy, and the foundations of the two denominations are different. On the other hand, adding two other terminologies, i.e. "strong" and "authentic" to the threefold classification of the Sunnite scholars – which is resulted from the expertise of the Shiite thinkers – makes the accusation of adopting [from the Sunnites] unacceptable.

A study of the historiographical texts of the Safavid period indicates that an important part of the narrations were written under the influence of theological elements and concepts. The results of this study show that due to the reliance on theological historiography on epistemological sources such as reason and authoritative narration, the power of negation and the strong proof has been at the core of such an insight and method. Accordingly, the Safavid opponents tried to use such an approach, while confirming and proving their political and ideological tendencies, to question the foundations of the religious legitimacy of this government. On the other hand, pro-Safavid historians also tried to justify the religious rules that legitimized the government using such insights and methods. therefore, Theological historiography could, in both negative and positive aspects, raise ambiguity or proof about religious narratives on the foundations of the legitimacy of the Safavid state. The core nature of the narrative played an important role in adopting the verbal method. Narratives whose main subject matter was controversial and persuasive, such as the controversy over important religious, military, and political issues, were accompanied by a detailed theological-historical discussion using a comparative and rational approach. On issues such as the elimination of political and ideological opponents and the expression of some elements of the legitimacy of the state that required psychological grounding, an approach based on the acquisition of theological concepts was used with the least discussion or historical assessment

The Shi'a Faqihs are among the rational people and they should be prepared for whatever they say to be evaluated by their lot. Weighing the Fatwas of the Faqihs against people's reason and common sense, they could fall into three categories: the Fatwas that conform to both the rational approaches of the past time and today, the Fatwas that conform to the rational approach of the past time, and the one's that conform to today's rational approach. Considering the examples of these categories and their differences, we should find out which one is more in line with God's intentions. Based on two reasons, it appears that the Fatwa's which are conforming to the rational approach of today are more closely in line with God's intentions. First, because some of the sources from which the non-worshiping Fatwas are derived were in agreement with the special conditions at the time of the outbreak of religion. And second, the Faqihs must take into consideration people's common understanding of God's words. Understanding the scriptures and religious traditions does not belong to a certain group of people. The Faqih cannot ascribe a Fatwa to the religion if most people cannot ascribe that to the All-wise God. The role of people in understanding religious words might discredit the understanding of Faqihs and result in the ambiguity of those words.