نشریه قرآن پژوهی خاورشناسان (قرآن و مستشرقان)
سال شانزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 31، پاییز و زمستان 1400)

This study examines and analyzes the foundations and principles of civilization in the declaration of the second step, which is rooted in the Quran and Hadith. The most important foundations of the declaration are science and research, spirituality and ethics, economics, justice and the fight against corruption, freedom and independence, foreign policy and lifestyle. Will Durant deals with the theoretical issues of civilization in a part of his book on the history of civilization. He has discussed economics, ethics, science, art and politics as the foundations of civilization. The subject of this research is the study of the foundations of civilization in Imam Khamenei’s thought and the analysis of the foundations of civilization in Will Durant’s thought. This research uses analytical-descriptive and critical methods while examining each of the above foundations and presenting the Quranic point of view, also analyzes and criticizes Will Durant’s point of view. The results of the research indicate that according to Imam Khamenei, the view of modern Islamic civilization should be linked to religion and Islam, contrary to Will Durant, who does not believe in a place for religion in civilization. The main axis of civilization is the Quran, which is a system-building, community-building and humanizing book; contrary to Durant’s view that the main axis is influenced by economics and other principles of civilization. Also, knowledge, ethics and politics have no place in existing civilizations as instances, but the new Islamic civilization moves based on standard science, standard ethics, government and standard politics.

One of the most challenging issues raised by the Supreme Leader is the negotiation with the United States. He was not optimistic about the negotiations, considering the requirements of the Islamic Ummah, and in many cases stated that negotiations should not be held with US for various reasons, including the non-compliance of the United States with its obligations. Given that negotiation and non-negotiation with the United States have far-reaching implications for Islamic society, it is necessary to discuss the Quranic documentation of the Leader’s opposition in this regard, emphasizing the views of American Orientalists. The present study has analyzed the mentioned issue using descriptive-analytical method and referring to the verses of the Quran and referring to the statements of the Supreme Leader and the views of American Orientalists. The findings suggest that the reason for the Leader’s opposition was that the United States and some of its Orientalists have shown over the years that they are arrogant and do not stand with their commitments. As a result, not-fulfilling promise, distrust, threats to national security, and maximum pressure will be the consequences of unconditional negotiations with such stubborn enemies. The revelatory word also states that Muslims have no right to retreat in the face of such enemies, but must stand up to their extravagance and avoid any dependence on them, and rise up to defend the oppressed in order to intimidate them in all areas.

From the very beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the United States began conspiracies to defeat this revolution and bring the Iranian nation toward surrender, which shows the nature of arrogance, and today the US government is a symbol of arrogance. US actions against Iran do not belong to a particular government, party or individual, but to the political nature of the United States, a colonial nature. This article, which is the latest research in this field, endeavors to use the analytical-critical method to expose the US conspiracies against the Islamic Revolution of Iran with an Orientalist approach and explain and criticize the ways to deal with it from the perspective of the Holy Quran, emphasizing the Supreme Leader’s guidance. Studying Orientalists’ research, it can be seen that the Islamophobia and the widespread psychological warfare of the American governments against the Islamic Revolution of Iran is a clear manifestation of biased Orientalism. The research findings indicate that the realization of the ideal of independence and freedom, the relative establishment of social justice, the acquisition of regional and global national dignity and authority, the globalization of the struggle against the Zionist regime, the defeat of America as a symbol of anti-Islamism in the world, the revival and introduction of pure Islam as the transcendent school, strengthening unity and brotherhood at the community level and avoiding internal and religious differences, scholarly and insightful criticism and hostility-studies, including techniques and strategies to counter American conspiracies from the perspective of the Holy Quran, with emphasis on the statements of the Supreme Leader.

Orientalists’ followers who tie their horizons of thought to the Orientalists and use their foundations, methods and tendencies to deduce, give value to philosophical hermeneutics for reading and understanding texts and view the text as the dialogue of the object (text) and subject (interpreter), combine them with historical hypotheses historical presupposes. So, we have tried with descriptive – analytical method to explain the viewpoints of Orientalists’ followers like Soroush, Shabistani, Abu Zayd, and Fazlur Rahman in accordance the philosophical hermeneutics, to criticize the plurality in meaning and its fluidity in other words, its cognitive relativism and its usage by the Orientalists is regarded incompatible with the Islamic interpretive tradition in understanding the texts of revelation

The book “Letters to Muhammad the Prophet / Research on the Roots of the Quran” is a research on the source of the Quran written by Amin Qazaei. He believes that the Meccan verses and chapters of the Quran were originally letters sent to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by the Judeo-Christian sect called the Abyssinians, and with these letters, the original text, The Holy Bible was given to him as an appendix and description of these letters, but at the time of compiling the Quran, these letters were compiled as the Quran. Considering the importance of the issue of revelation and divinity of the Quran and the fact that the present book has been published in Persian in a cyberspace; it was necessary to critique his methodology in this article. In the present study, the sources and the Qazaei’s method in the present perspective were examined by the method of critical analysis. In explaining his view, the author is influenced by the views of revisionist orientalists on the validity of Islamic sources such as Wansbrough and Luxenberg. The result of the methodological study of the book indicates that the Qazaei’s view does not have any of the characteristics of a scientific theory and is based on conjecture and probability. The biggest problem of the book is the escaping from base of history and depending on textual analysis without the necessary conditions which has led to an imaginative and far-fetched analysis.

The words involved are singular non-Arabic words that enter the Arabic word from another language and are used in the same meaning and with the same word (or with slight differences). The claimants and deniers of the existence of this category of words in the Holy Quran, refer to historical and linguistic evidences and reasons and follow different methods to study this issue. Determining the correct method for examining the words involved in the Quran is important; because it closes the way to abuses such as claiming that the Quran is influenced by the culture of the time and non-Arabic texts of the time of revelation. Orientalists have studied this subject with various motives and have written several works in the last two centuries. In the meantime, Arthur Jeffrey, author of The Words Involved in the Quran, has a special reputation. Jeffrey, by discovering historical roots, sometimes according to the structural principle and sometimes the usage of words, has explained more than 320 words of Quranic words and claimed that they are involved words. The usages of descriptive-analytical and critical methods indicate that Jeffrey’s studies in this field have suffered from methodological problems; Such as including some incorrect assumptions, misunderstanding of the characteristics of the Quran, incomplete derivation and induction, conjectural and unscientific judgments that have guided his statements and led to some judgments and misconceptions in determining the meaning of the words involved and why they are used in the Quran

Considering the dating of old versions of the Quran by Western scholars through a new experiment of Carbon-14 radiography, doubts have been raised by some Orientalists, especially revisionists, who have used the method of source critique to re-examine the original and authenticity of the Quran. . The implications of this suspicion are that the results of the Carbon-14 experiments date the ancient versions of the Quran, especially the Birmingham Library version, to before the time of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), which is evidence of its pre-Islamic compilation and consequently its lack of authenticity of Quran. This means that the content of the existing Quran was created before the time of the Prophet (PBUH) or otherwise the Muslims have made it using that Quran. The present article, considering the importance of the two manuscripts of Birmingham and Tübingen and the new experiments performed on them, based on the centrality of their study, analytical method and library research data on the mentioned doubt in three domains of manuscript-studies and technical, Quranic studies and current trends studies, seeks to respond to those doubts. The technical and manuscript achievements of the present research show that the experiments performed on the manuscripts, the pages of the Quran found, only show that they were made from the skin of an animal that was alive during the life of the Prophet (PBUH) or shortly thereafter and is  unable to prove the prehistoric nature of their writings compared to the time of the revelation of the Quran; Some Western researchers have also considered the Carbon-14 test method to be relative and incomplete, which must be supplemented by other methods and is not self-evident; As the researchers in the project of testing Carbon-14 on the Quran, did not pay attention to the study of Arabic calligraphy as well as the sheet and its dimensions and the shape and type of font and illumination of the mentioned Quran, which indicates compliance with the date of revelation of the Quran. Also, the study of the Quran, such as considering the use of words in the Quran, as well as the Musahif in question, which did not exist or were not common in pre-Islamic writings, also pay attention to the gradual revelation of the Quran and the causes and dignity of the revelation of the Quran proves the compatibility of the aforesaid versions with the existing Quran. Also, the validity of the existing Quran is based on the issue of the verbal massive report of the Quran, which has existed for generations since the time of the Prophet (PBUH) step by step and is considered as a necessary belief among Muslims. As a result, existing versions of the Quran indicate the same verbal massive report among Muslims. Therefore, Muslims do not need to believe in proving or refuting the ancient Quranic Masahif, and if there are any errors in the manuscripts, the authenticity of the Quran and its textual validity, which is derived from verbal massive report, will not be distorted in any way. The result of the trend studies of the Carbon-14 experiment on the above-mentioned versions shows the attempt of the Oriental modernist current to critique the authenticity of the religious sources of Islam, which also has many opponents among Orientalists. Finally, the carbon-14 test did not reveal a significant difference from the Quran in the Mushaf in the hands of the Muslims.

Some orientalists have examined the miraculousness of the Qurān. John Edward Wansbrough, the outstanding American Qurān researcher is one of them. In his discussion of the miraculousness concept, Wansbrough first refers to Ibn Qutayba’s typology of the prophets’ miracles in general and the status of Moses (a) in particular. Examining the concepts of the terms such as “kitāb,” “kalima,” “kalimāt,” “kalama,” “kalāmullāh,” and “qawl” – which are deemed by him as related to miraculousness – he links them to the revelations made to Moses (a) or the teachings of the Old Testament (e.g., the order of creation or the implied description of the Divine Will). He takes the word “kitāb” in the verses with clear dialectic content to mean “sulṭān” and emphasizes the difficulty of identifying the word “kitāb” as the Qurān. He then introduces the verses on the necessity of the existence of the Bible (i.e., the necessity of having the written confirmation of the Divine Book) as a reflection of the Judo-Christian controversy, and in addition to “kitāb,” interprets some applications of the terms “kalimāt,” “kalāmullāh,” and “qawl” as the Qurān. Next, he attributes the phrases “naṣīban min al-kitāb,” “tafṣīl al-kitāb,” and “kalama” to the revelation onto Moses (a), and exclusively attributes the juxtaposition of “nubuwwat” and “kitāb” or “al-kitāb,” “al-hukm,” and “al-nubuwwa” to the Judaists and refers to the encounter between Ka‘b and ‘Umar. He also interprets five out of nine cases of the use of the term “kitābullāh” as order and command. Finally, he maintains that the terms “kalimāt,” “kalima,” and “qawl” are also used to express the Divine Will and are similar to the implied reference to the Divine Will in the Old Testament or the order of creation. This study investigates Wansbrough’s evidences taken from the Qurān and the Testaments, and evaluates his views using an analytical-critical approach. The examination of Wansbrough’s stance to the miraculousness of the Qurān reveals that the doubts he casts are fruitless efforts to question the miraculousness of the Qurān.

Richard Bell is one of the orientalists who believe in a shift in the textual structure of the Holy Quran, which tries to show the lack of coherence in the order and rhetoric of a number of verses of the Quran by providing evidences from the verses. Among his evidences is human intervention in changing the location of verses and transforming the original rhetorical structure of verses; In Bell’s view, in this group of verses of the Quran, with the phenomenon of lack of coherence in the rhetorical structure, confusion in the subject of verses, lack of order in the final part of the verses, which is evidence of the occurrence of distortion in the text of verses This study tries to verify Bell’s in-text and out-of-text evidences with a critical approach. The conclusions of the research indicate that Bell’s view is not sound and his idea has serious shortcomings in the premise and many weaknesses in the literary analysis of the text of Quranic verses. Examining each of the in-text and out-of-text evidences of Bell in the commentaries of the two major sects of Islam such as Tafsir Al-Mizan, Tafsir Safi, Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir, Mafatih Al-Ghayb, Jame’ Al-Bayan, etc. shows his misunderstanding of the issues of the dignity of revelation, context and appropriateness of verses which are not acceptable

The sciences and techniques of recitation are a collection of theoretical and practical scientific skills that deal with different ways of relating to the Quran. Since the beginning of Islam, this collection has been of special interest to Islamic scholars. In the meantime, Orientalists have also paid special attention to the study of the history of the Holy Quran, manuscripts researching, recitations of the Quran and related issues, and have also raised doubts in this regard. Accordingly, the researcher of the present article intends to introduce the sciences and techniques of recitations and its role in responding to the doubts of Orientalists to examine the types of interventions proposed by Orientalists in the field of the sciences and techniques of recitation. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical which has been formed using library resources. Orientalists’ attention to the basics of the science of recitation along with the study of various fields of sciences and techniques of recitation such as teaching and promotion of the Holy Quran, manuscripts researching, history of recitation, is one of the most important achievements of this article. Manuscripts researching with all its dimensions, including tazhib, calligraphy, recitations in manuscripts, history of manuscripts of the Quran, the way of writing letters and symbols, have attracted the most attention of Orientalists among the sciences and techniques of recitation and to answer to their doubts, learning the sciences like the science drawing, the science of discipline, recitations and Quranic sciences are required

The entry of David (A.S) in the Leiden Encyclopedia of Quran was written by Isaac Hasson, a professor at the University of Jerusalem. The present study, after translating the entry with a descriptive-analytical method and with a critical approach, has criticized and evaluated the author’s point of view to clarify the Orientalists’ view on religious teachings and especially the Holy Quran and on the other hand to provide the audience with the opportunity to get acquainted with pure Islamic teachings by criticizing and evaluating the Orientalists’ works. In this article, verses of the Quran and authentic Islamic narrations have been used to explain the scientific and practical life of Prophet David (A.S). The author of the article has mentioned some of the contents of the Quran about David, which are among its positive points, such as: He is the great prophet of God, God has given him knowledge, wisdom and rule along with the book of Psalms. The position of the Caliph of God and the “final decisive speech”, the obedience of mountains and birds in the matter of praising God, the softening of iron by him. It is Divine grace to him. However, the author has considered the secret indications of the Quran as the reason for the entrance of the myth and its acceptance by Muslims and has attributed false accusations against David to Islamic sources. The request for forgiveness of Prophet David (A.S) in the Quran is related to the myth of his marriage, but pure Islamic sources do not mention any myths and false accusations against David (A.S) and there are rational and narrative reasons for the infallibility of David (A.S). False myths and slanders are among the Israelites mentioned in the present Torah. David’s request for forgiveness is related to the Divine test, not the myth of his marriage; therefore, what has been accused and rejected by the Holy Quran and the Muslims’ suspicion of the holy texts are the false accusations that have been made against David in the Bible

Orientalists’ interest in Quranic research as a scientific subject with many applications has increased in the present era. Obviously, these researches have some positive and negative points. “The Quran, An Encyclopedia”, known as the Encyclopedia of the Quran and edited by Oliver Lemon, is one of the new Quranic researches in which there are also articles about women in the Quran such as the article “Marriage”. The article “Marriage” written by Ms. “Kicia Ali” deals with various issues such as creation and mating, barriers to marriage, marriage contract and rights and duties arising from marriage. This article, along with some useful materials, has ideological, jurisprudential, etc. doubts that need to be identified and answered. Orientalists, as scholars whose scope of propaganda is international in nature and whose objections to the teachings of the Quran cause the world to misunderstand the Quran, it is necessary to critique and respond to their objections. The present article, with a descriptive-analytical method, first deals with the positive aspects of the article in the field of correct mentioning of marriage issues and then examines five weaknesses in increasing the rights of men over women in three areas of divorce, polygamy, male’s management, and female’s less authority in front of the spouse and the lack of implication of the Quran on the sequence of creation of man and woman. The findings of the study indicate that the Orientalists’ theories that there is no injustice between men and women from the perspective of the Quran are incorrect. According to the Quran, men and women are equal in the value of humanity and the only criterion is the superiority of piety; but in social life, according to the coordinated system of rights and duties, the duties and responsibilities of men are different from those of women.