نشریه مطالعات قرآنی نامه جامعه
پیاپی 137 (بهار 1400)

Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, based on a nihilistic philosophy aimed at elucidating the status of human, presented a system in order to criticize the previous approaches to human and the subsequent atrocities that modernity and the like inflicted on the human’s status. This system led to the engenderment of a superman, believing in which would result in the death of God. Nietzsche’s school of thought, like other atheistic and human schools of thought, faced a wave of opposition and criticism, but while being condemned and having numerous flaws, it still remains the main strategy of the hegemonic system and capitalism of the Western modernity. The present article, with its library method and descriptive-analytical and critical approach, seeks to critique this theory based on the Qur’anic views of Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli. This theory, with various principles and foundations, such as the principle of struggle for existence and advocacy of the school of power, relativism, denying fundamentals, and materialism, and the preference of the body over the soul, contrast the Qur’anic and rational ideas which emphasis the dignity, caliphate, grace, and the heavenly status of human and the purposefulness of existence. Adherence to principles and foundations, misunderstanding ethics and believing in the relativity of moral concepts, misunderstanding human, his creation and its goals, and his place in the universe are among the challenges of this theory. The superman theory has a great internal contradiction that invalidates it.

Examining the role and position of each organ of the body is of particular significance for leading a healthy and faithful life. On the one hand, their significance and vital role in a believer’s life are reminded and explained, and will result in individual’s care in maintaining health, and on the other hand, will lead to familiarity with human’s religious duties regarding each body organ. This is so consequential that if the Qur’an intends to express the factors of degeneration and excellence of individuals, it refers to their non-utilization of some organs of the body. In the narratives by the Infallibles (AS), special attention has been paid to the use and importance of body organs. The present article explores the concept of one of the most important organs of the body, i.e. the “heart”, with a descriptive-analytical method. The result is that in the Qur’an, the heart is used in the sense of reason and understanding, the soul and the center of emotions. In the narratives, too, the heart is mentioned as the chief organ of the body, and the superior status of the heart to other organs of the body, its states and types are discussed. Among the positive impacts of the heart upon life are good faith in God, the intention of approximation in worshipping and remembrance of God. In contrast, heart damages include suspicion concerning God and people and reflection on sin.

Praying is a form of worship that, in the monotheistic worldview, is always considered to alleviate human’s mental and physical pain. Prayer may be one of the ways to deal with corona disease; yet at present, with the marginalization of religious issues and concepts and the magnification of medical solutions, there is the suspicion as to what is the need for prayer and spiritual advice if we attain physical health by observing health issues? The present research seeks to respond to this challenge with rational and narrative methods, library tools and information processing in a descriptive-analytical manner. One of the findings of this study is that five groups of verses of the Qur’an are to answer this suspicion. The first category consists of the verses indicative of the causal relationship between the phenomena, according to which the conditions of prayer as a component of cause and the obstacles to the fulfillment of prayer as the absence of an impediment contribute to the realization of the effect. The second category includes the verses indicating the elucidation of the meaning of prayer fulfillment, noting that the fulfillment of a prayer, in the sense of God’s answer to us, is definite, but this response does not mean the realization of what we want. The third category comprises the verses that indicate wisdom, since the Servants of God, whose hearts are enlightened by the light of faith and righteous deeds, do not utter a word of ungratefulness, even if they do not know the reason for the unfulfillment, for they know that one of the attributes of the Almighty God is wisdom. The fourth category covers the verses indicative of the tradition of testing so that human would realize his true position. The fifth category covers the verses indicating human’s inherent poverty, according to which the claim of not needing the Almighty God is contrary to the very text of these verses.

The Qur’an is a holy and Divine book, the fight against which has been carried out since the beginning of the revelation and is still going on. Today, in order to weaken Muslims’ beliefs, suspicions are raised against this holy book on the part of enemies. In the book, Critique of the Qur’an, by Dr. Soha, doubts are expressed in various fields, including the type of human personality in the Qur’an, and the author attempts to introduce human beings in the Qur’an as distorted, deviant, and devoid of a transcendental spirit. According to Soha, human has attributes such as inquisitiveness, creativity, discovery of science, legislation, authority, justice seeking, etc., which have not been considered in the Qur’an. Citing verses of the Qur’an with the concept of soul being left unexplained in the Qur’an, Soha finds no rational or scientific evidence for the existence of something immaterial and considers it the invention of the Greek philosophers, which the Qur’an has used. The author of the book also refers to the incompatibility of the soul with physiological and psychological evidence. In response to Soha’s suspicions, the present article, making use of a descriptive-analytical method with a critical tendency and the library method, and citing rational reason, the Qur’anic verses and the ideas of Fariqain commentators, proves the soul and human’s spiritual issues and concludes that Soha is being contradictory in his/ her writing. Science, justice seeking, creativity, legislation, etc. are among the categories that have roots in human’s nature and subconscious mind, and the Qur’an has addressed all of them. Expressing these spiritual characteristics while not believing in the existence of a soul in human indicates that Soha has a kind of contradiction in his/her viewpoint.

The consumption of Khums is one of the most prevalent and prominent topics in the book of Khums. There is a discord between Shiites and Sunnis regarding the uses of Khums, as well as the principle. This dissension may be due to a lack of understanding of the general terms, conditions of assignment, allegory, limitation, as well as the preference of some possibly political intentions over the provisions of the text. The knowledge of jurisprudence and interpretation of the Qur’an, aiming to know the semantics of the words of the Qur’an, has established a close relationship with the knowledge of semantics, for an accurate understanding of the meanings of the Qur’anic terminology has a direct impact on the correct understanding of the religious rules. Accordingly, using a semantic method in this research, we have elucidated the words “Dhi al-Qurbā”, “Yatāmā” and “Masākīn”. The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical and the data was collected with the library method from jurisprudential, narrative, and interpretive sources. Regarding the three guilds in the verse, the Shiites’ view differs substantially from that of the Sunnis. The Shiites consider all Khums to belong to the family of the Prophet (PBUH), while the Sunnis consider only the share of Dhi al-Qurbā to be allocated to Banī Hāshim. The present article discusses this issue using the reasons of the opponents and those of the proponents. Analyzing the definitions of these words plays a key role in examining the reasons for each view.

Among the foundations of the Islamic doctrines is that human has a dual material and spiritual existential nature and as the selected creature from among all creatures of the universe, he deserves to reach the position of proximity to God, and this significant matter has a special relationship with human’s attitude toward the world and knowing the purpose of creation. In this regard, there are two views to the world in verses and narratives: the praised world and the condemned world. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present research has addressed the assumption of two dimensionality of the world in Islamic sources. The findings of the study indicate that in the materialistic view, the ultimate goal of creation is the further enjoyment of worldly blessings and the disregard of the afterlife, which has been condemned due to drowning in material things and forgetting the hereafter. In the real view, however, there is the issue of human’s perfection, which is praiseworthy due to the enjoyment of the world in the path to God and the acquisition of human virtues. True life which is mentioned in the Qur’an as the pure life, is the result of the proper way of life in this world and dependent upon the transcendence of the soul, and can be achieved with abiding faith and righteous deeds, leading to happiness in this world and the hereafter.