Religious Inquiries
Volume:11 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2022

The coherence of Quranic verses and chapters is an essential characteristic that indicates the eloquent structure of the holy Quran. The coherence can be seen in its verses and various chapters. A systematic consideration of the coherence and cohesion of the Quran has far-reaching implications for an accurate understanding of the Quran. Scholars of Quranic studies have examined more than twenty aspects of the coherence of the Holy Quran; however, some non-Muslims have cast doubts on the harmony of the Quran and have raised various objections to show the inconsistency of Quranic verses. We highlight the divinity of the Quran and defend its sacredness, and by adopting an analytic-descriptive method and deploying a critical approach, we aim to refute the claims by non-Muslims by providing evidence that the holy Quran enjoys verbal and semantic cohesion. Hence, the objections by non-Muslims are a result of a failure to differentiate between thematic and artistic versatility of the holy Quran, and to take account of its existing cohesion and hidden connections.

Sīra writing (that is, works about life and practices of the Prophet), which emerged in the Islamic world from mid-second century AH onwards, was not limited to a particular sect but rather was practiced by various Islamic factions, including the Imāmiyya. Sources have pointed to an impressive number of sīras written by Imāmi scholars. These works have been written in different categories, including the Prophet’s battles (al-maghāzi), his virtues (faḍāʾil), evidence of his prophethood (dalāʾil), delegations of the Prophet (wufūd), narrations or hadiths, and the like. An analysis of the available texts from these categories’ points to the emergence of a model among Imāmi authors, which was different from the common Sunni tradition in terms of context and method. Accordingly, in this article we adopt a descriptive approach to introduce the famous Imāmi sīra writers, followed by a content analysis of their available works to explain and clarify the fact that within the period in question, sīra writing was a common tradition among the Imāmiyya, which has sustained through different forms and models.

One of the best-known researchers of Shiism in Europe, Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, has claimed that Imamate was an esoteric transcendental religion in the early centuries, and the belief in the supernatural powers of imams is attributed to the early Twelver Shiite tradition. However, in the mid-fourth century, as Shiite scholars turned to the Muʿtazilite School, this belief was rejected by the School of Baghdad. To assess this claim, we examine the hadiths on Imams’ “knowledge” cited in Baṣāʾir al-darajāt and hadith sources of the School of Baghdad, using the content analysis method. In the book Baṣāʾir al-darajāt, nearly half (fifty-seven percent) of the content about knowledge is on “knowledge of the hidden.” It also turns out that the School of Baghdad, just like the School of Qom, accepted Imam’s “knowledge of the hidden.” Books affiliated with this school cite many texts on the subject, except that certain aspects of Imam’s “knowledge of the hidden” are only mentioned in Baṣāʾir al-darajāt. Hence, a drawback of Amir-Moezzi’s methodology is lack of full examination of certain Shiite sources of hadith and failure to take note of certain hadiths.

Although most philosophers and theologians have simply disregarded the results of more than forty years of scholarly endeavor in near-death experiences (NDEs), many scholars believe that religious teachings have great potentials for explaining different dimensions of such experiences. Using a descriptive-analytical design, the results of the present study indicate that if NDEs are considered glimpses into the afterlife, as problematic as it is to prove this claim, NDE elements conform to the prevailing spirit of Islamic eschatology derived from Shia hadiths. However, there are some conflicts and inconsistencies. Thus, recognizing the authenticity and significance of opposing epistemological propositions, a focus on their disciplined interpretation, and analysis of their compatibility with other credible and related propositions, along with a comprehensive, accurate, and valid understanding of NDEs and the interpretive nature of reports, can greatly reduce such conflicts and inconsistencies. Other inconsistencies, as well as some of the most controversial issues in science and religion so far, will await further scrutiny by scholars and theologians.

The crisis of meaning, as a characteristic of modern world, was investigated mainly from a philosophical perspective, considering necessary and sufficient conditions of the meaning of life, without regard to crucial social transformations of modern era, which led to this crisis. Focusing on the process of changes in knowledge and consciousness, here I show that in the modern world, as a result of developments in science, for the first time the natural or scientific consciousness seriously confronts the supernatural or religious consciousness. The argument is that because of this plurality of consciousness, the basic characteristics of man, i.e., identity, self, and rationality, have changed. The main idea of this article is that, based on such an explanation of the crisis of meaning in which consciousness and knowledge are pivotal, the solution resides in reconsidering modern rationality in order for these two sorts of consciousness to be united and for the crisis to be cured.

The far-reaching relation between the institutions of sharia and monarchy, which continued through the Qajar era, gave rise to interactions between the two institutions. A discourse analysis of the relation in terms of the “discourse of power” and the “discourse of compliance” demonstrates that, during the reigns of the first two Qajar kings, the interaction of the clergy with the powerful and the monarchs grew for reasons such as the latter’s acquisition of legitimacy from the former, fondness of the monarchs for religious rituals, and Russo-Persian wars. During the reign of Mohammad Shah, however, the relation between the government and religious scholars tended toward hostility and bitterness, ending in aversion and antipathy to the Qajar monarch on the part of the scholars. In this research, we draw on the descriptive-analytic method, adopting a new approach to provide a proper analysis of the discourse between Shiite scholars and the Qajar government from 1795 to 1847. By giving an account of the relation between the two powerful influential institutions of the time, we offer a plausible picture of the political-social milieu of the Qajar era.

There are holy places in each religion, where its followers congregate to perform religious rituals such as supplications. Moreover, in these places sermons and religious messages are delivered by clergies and preachers. In Christianity, churches are holy places for worship, supplications, and some of the seven rituals. The following question has concerned clergies and preachers: given widespread evangelical activities of Christianity in many areas of the world, why do Christians show so little tendency to attend such holy places to perform their religious practices and hear religious messages from the clergies? Drawing on a descriptive-analytic method, this research deals with external factors (those outside the Church) and internal factors (those inside the Church), which have led to decline in church attendance.

The world today accommodates many communities, consisting of diverse cultures with their distinct and similar characteristics. There are different conceptions of the nature of humans and the world, and the necessity of a comprehensive revision of various intellectual and cultural foundations for purposes of preventing the ever-growing conflicts makes itself felt more and more. Finding the roots and providing theoretical philosophical analyses of such tensions, as well as social repercussions of the philosophical views, will present us with a context in which the problem is illuminated. The social approach to the Darwinian theory of transformism is one such theory that provides philosophical and social contexts for aversion of the other. In this paper, we draw upon the analytic-descriptive method to collect data and documents to examine the philosophical and theological aspects, and then the social aspects, of this approach. We conclude that social Darwinism is not only a threat to cultural interrelations and peaceful coexistence of ethnicities, religions, and races, but also a threat to the world by encouraging racism, radical nationalism, and ethnical and religious supremacy, providing scientific justifications for such manners and habits.

This paper discusses the concept of absurdity in literature as a feature of modern human bereft of God. It compares and contrasts two cannons of the Theater of the Absurd in the West and the East, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1956) with Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s Ya taliʿ al-shajarah (1962) [The Tree Climber (1966)]. These plays have dramatized the absurdity of the human condition after World War II. Consequently, this paper offers an understanding of absurdity in Christian and Muslim cultures through the tenets of comparative literature. As the idea of absurdity is presented differently in various works, this article chiefly focuses on the selected plays to reveal their writers’ depiction of the absence of God. It is concluded that although The Tree Climber benefited from many characteristics of absurd literature, Al-Hakim’s views toward human existence, hope, and God convey different messages from those of Beckett’s. For Al-Hakim, hope is still found in the fertilization of a garden tree and spirituality is seen in the image of Dervish, who concludes the play with verses from the Quran. However, for Beckett, hope is impossible, characters are suicidal, and God is the never-coming God(ot).