نشریه انسان پژوهی دینی
پیاپی 5-6 (پاییز و زمستان 1384)

This paper, bringing the meaning of guardianship into light, has presented a fundamental study on the subject. The question at hand is: what is guardianship, a religious duty or a right? Answering this question has led to different views of Shiite jurisprudents in the ground; among them, the prevailed ones are as follows:1- Those like the author of javaher, know guardianship as a pure right. He says: there can be found no sign for guardianship to be a necessary duty. 2- Those like Seyyed Ali Tabatabaie, know it to be a mixture of right and religious duty. The view is agreed with by the article no. 1172 in Civil law. 3- The view prominently current to Imamiye jurisprudents, like that of Imam Khomeini and Ayatulla Khoyi, it is a view of two sides, i.e. only to father it is thought to be a mixture of religious duty and right. Although legislature has turned to the second view in civil law and regarded guardianship as a mixture of religious and right, then in second stage, he has limited his view. When comparing the two stages of legislating, we find that the legislator has an incline toward the prominently current view of Imamiyeh's jurisprudents.

Ash'arites believe in some Qualities being additional to the Essence. Mu'tazilites, however, have negated qualities and known them to be replaced by essence ; and Shi'ites have taken a middle position on the ground, i.e. the unity and sameness of qualities and essence. Mulla Sadra intending to rectify the two mentioned views and using the principle of: the thing of simple reality ( basitulhaqiqa ), has successfully proved the uniqueness of qualities and essence. In this view, the Qualities of God are in reality the same as His Essence and one with each other. However, the difference observed between the Essence and the Qualities and at the same time between the Qualities themselves, is only on the plane of concepts. Mu'tazilites, like Shi'ites, has regarded the Quality of power to be the fundamental principle for other Qualities, including Knowledge and Life. Ash'arites, however, have taken the Quality of Life as fundamental principle on which the Qualities of Power, Knowledge and Will are based. There can be found little difference among various Islamic sects on the Essence of God. All sects know the Divine Essence to be Everlasting, Self-sufficient, Omniscient and Omnipotent. Yet on the unity of Qualities the views are different; Ash'arites argue for the multiplicity of Qualities; but Mu'tazilites have viewed them to be one and the same reality. Ash'arites have understood the Quality of Will as a quality of Essence absolutely; Mu'tazilites being influenced by the formal meanings of some traditions, however, have considered it as a Quality of Action. The view of Shi'ites here is also in a middle state; in an exact survey, they have regarded it from two respects: when intended as loving to the Essence it surely is a Quality of Essence but when the meaning of decision is meant by it, it is a Quality of Action. Again Mu'tazilites and some of Shi'ite theologians have known the Quality of Speech ( Kalam ), meaning creating speech or ability for speech, a Quality of Essence. But Ash'arites have counted it as a meaning established in the Divine Essence and called Speech to the Self, namely something referred to by verbal speech. And for the sages all the universe, consisting of materials and immaterials, is His Speech.

This paper argues that though moral concepts has been current in western socio-political thought and western scholars have dealt with it in detail, their attention to the subject can never be comparable with what has been paid to it in Islamic world. For them, moral values have not been known of a fundamental part. Furthermore, some eminent western scholars have taken a fully opposite position against using moral values in socio-political life. To argue for the claim, the followings have been carefully studied: extending justice, opposing injustice, negation of power-seeking and selfishness, feeling love to all people, open and respectful meeting with public ideas, obeying moral values when meeting enemy, feeling responsibility for one's lawful obligations and think the power and office as responsibility. The great attention paid to the mentioned factors in Islam shows that in Islamic society moral values form the foundation and basis of policy; in other words, in Islam policy and government are directed in such a manner that leads to the development of moral values. Therefore in such a state, education and moral principles are really considered as a practical criterion for legislators and as a basis for rulers when making decision and administrating.

This writing is a translation made from the second chapter of Michael Parenti's Democracy for the Few. The author is an American scholar in politics and a serious critic against American Capitalism. In this work, using valid information presented in American publications and media, the author has brought the terrible unequality between the rich ,the middle and the poor classes into eyes. The damages occurred due to extravagancies in different areas including economics , culture, geology are investigated in detail. A glance at Parenti’s work clearly shoes that how a few men of very great wealth , powerfully exerting influence on media, cultural and educational centers, and men of state, are seeking their aims hard. In the system of capitalism, to seek more and far more interest has been intentionally substituted in place of justice, logical and nationally interested decision and no room has remained for exposing national demands and freely thinking. Meanwhile, Matt Neunke, an American scholar, has presented a critical note on the seventh edition of Parenti's work; this note, however, is too far to be called a scientific one. Some words and sentences used there, clearly seem to be impolite and prejudicial. The critic has never been able to weaken the evidences used by Parenti and only relies on Prenti's tendency to Marxism and his unfaithfulness to western values and focuses on them.

New Theology is a topic prevailed and greatly focused on by scholars and scientific centers during recent century. Yet, since the beginning there have been some kind of ambiguity in the topic itself: can the topic itself be logically agreed with? If so, to what does the word new refer? It must be explained if all parts of theology have become new or some of them, if the foundation and aims of it can undergo any change to become new or not. Needless to say, true answer to above questions lies in one's thought on theology itself and as people think about the problem differently, there cannot be found a full agreement in the field. This paper, therefore, has presented current views on the meaning of newness here critically. I disagree with those who believe in the possibility of a full transformation in theology. Only on few aspect such as problems, principles, methods, approaches terminology and language.

This paper has brought into consideration the fundamental scientific alteration done by the late Imam Khomeini. The act referred to as scientific revolution, took place against secular paradigm of Pahlavi Regime and challenged it strongly. When analyzing this fundamental scientific changing, we surely can regard socio-political nature of Islam as its essential cause. And as we know, it was a fact just opposing to the dominant view of the day that thought religious teachings and instructions to be only for personal behavior or even to be out of date. In such a situation, Imam Khomeini as a dominant religious leader, succeeded to argue for socio-political essence of religion to the extent that there remained no room for doubt in it and therefore the alternative view was withdrawn.