نشریه پژوهش های ادیانی
پیاپی 21 (بهار و تابستان 1402)

The Quran, as a revelatory and enlightening text, has always claimed that by resorting to various theological methods, it informs believers about the twists and turns of life and guides them toward goodness. Meanwhile, storytelling has been one of the path-breaking tools for conveying meaning to the audience. Suppose this part of the Quranic verses is paid attention to and a literary and narratological reflection is made. In that case, it will definitely confront the audience with layers of meaning whose subtleties were previously hidden from the eyes. Using the descriptive-analytical method and library sources, this article intends to conduct a case study about the story of Moses and Khidr by reflecting on the narratological approach and drawing a model of the elements of a coherent narration. It also tries to discover what level of meaning such a perspective leads us to

The types of love are one of the concerns of Ghazali and Augustine, the investigation of which is a step in the study of love, conducted with descriptive and comparative methods. The findings show that both scholars considered love as one of the sources of knowledge belonging to the truth and non-truth (God and non-God). Augustine considers the love of the truth and everything along the truth to be the love of God, but he rejects the love of non-truth, except for the loves that are in line with divine love. In Augustine's view, love for untruth is divided into two types; directed to God, such as love for neighbors and self (unequal to selfishness), and non-directed to God. Ghazali considers the types of love (divine and human) as love for the truth lacking Qiblah (direction towards the Kaaba) and does not divide it into real, virtual, accepted, and rejected. Both scholars, while believing in the authenticity of love for the truth, disagree on how it should be; Ghazali, unlike Augustine, considers the figure of speech to be a part of the truth but also of divine love and a non-uniform concept. Regarding the flow of love in existence, Augustine considers it to be inside man having the mode of intentionality and to be a part of human duties, a cause of happiness, a part of the advice of saints, and acquirable. Ghazali, however, considers it to be inside and outside lacking the mode of intentionality and nature. In addition, Ghazali introduces God as the lover and teacher of the first love. From Augustine's point of view, the lack of love for the good or the fear of loss is its justification. Moreover, the love of virtue is conditional on avoiding selfishness, self-admiration, sinful desires, ambitious will, and the rule of human pride, but Ghazali considers virtue to be equal to knowledge (connected to the shore of the sea of love) and knowledge to be immersed in the sea of love.

Interaction with the People of the Book is necessary despite the many differences in beliefs and rulings, and it is not specific to living in an Islamic society. Although the origin of these distinctions is a difference in creed, it can only be resolved through jurisprudential rules and foundations. By using general principles and rules, Shiite jurisprudence has the capacity to remove many obstacles to these interactions in order to facilitate interfaith dialogue and social interactions. One of the main and problem-solving rules for this issue is the jurisprudential rule of obligation. It means to accept and make someone accept the rulings that the religious people believe in, even if it is against Shiite jurisprudence. The scope of this rule covers various jurisprudential subjects such as sale, lease, endowment, divorce, marriage, inheritance, and blood money. The rule is not limited to the differences between Shiites and other Islamic sects but also applies to the followers of other religions, especially the People of the Book. There is no doubt that by solving the obstacles of personal and social life in various fields, the ground for inter-religious dialogue and presenting the rich logic of the Quran and Islam is also provided. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the rule of obligation, its meaning, evidence, and examples as a law that opens the way for inter-religious social relations from various aspects. Hence, the present article deals with this topic

The present study aims to answer how the audience's understanding of Islamic art is realized. This question has been raised due to the adoption of a philosophical-mystical approach to studying art. We know that studying art from various perspectives can lead to different results. The first result of adopting a philosophical-mystical approach is to accept "form" and "meaning" in art content. Moreover, understanding the hidden content behind the form of artwork is not as simple as perceiving the tangible form, the most important prerequisite of which is the health of the audience's senses. The purpose of this research is to explain how the audience can reach the knowledge and understanding of the hidden meaning behind the form of artwork. We know that not all audiences of meaningful Islamic artwork can go beyond the form and realize the content. However, certain conditions must be fulfilled so that the audience can understand Islamic art and know the truth manifested in its beauty. These conditions are clarified through analysis and citing library data. In the first step, the current research explains "what is art" and in the second step, "how to understand it". Then, the conditions of the audience's understanding are stated by referring to Mersad al-Ebad, one of the most well-known religious and mystical sources, a chapter of which is about artisans and professionals

One of the main themes in Mani's teachings, clearly reflected in Manichean literature, is suffering. In this religion, suffering begins with the fusion of good and evil, or rather the entanglement of light in the darkness, and continues until the end of the world. In fact, this is a cosmic suffering, passing through which under a special process would lead to emancipation and salvation. Hence, an evangelist from the Great Father, the Almighty Manichaean God, descends to free the soul from the suffering of this captivity. This is why strict teachings are taught in Manichaeism, so that the chosen and pious Manichaeans, along with God, participate in emancipating divine lights from the darkness. This research, conducted with an analytical-descriptive method and a focus on Iranian Manichaean hymns, seeks to address the concept of suffering in Manichaeism and provide a better understanding of Manichaean philosophy and mysticism.

According to the background color, the "Arab-Jinni" Persian carpets are divided into two main categories; white and blue. This type of carpet contains various motifs of animals, plants, and creatures that are called "jinn". The main feature of these carpets is the lack of a predetermined /mind-weaving plan. The only common visual element in all the carpets of "Arab-Jinni" is the goddess Venus. The image of the "King of the Jinni" is specific to the blue (dark and light) background carpets. But the white background carpets have other features and patterns; because, in addition to the multiplicity of the role of the goddess Venus compared to her blue counterpart, a lady with a brown skirt with colorful beads and a blue top is standing around the goddess Venus, who is the goddess Aštād and the helper of the god Tištar. Identifying the man/men wearing green and blue as the companions of the goddess Aštād is one of the necessities of this research. According to Zoroastrian religious texts, the man/men are Zāmyād and Tištar gods, who were renamed Khidr and Elijah in the Islamic periods of Iran. Sometimes the absence of man/men wearing green and blue clothes has been replaced by the symbolic motifs of Tištar / Elijah and Zāmyād /Khidr in the form of a flowing river and plants in the center of the carpet. The white "Arab-Jinni" carpet is one of the astronomical carpets that remind the chronology and times of the creation of the earth and plants. Using library sources, the research was done with a comparative and descriptive-analytical approach.

The change in the concepts of "blessing" and "curse" among the ancient Mesopotamians shows an example of the evolution of religious beliefs among them. The beliefs were part of the religious and mythological foundations of the owners of these civilizations and had a deep function in their lives. Therefore, blessing meant the favor of the gods in changing unfavorable situations and asking for a curse explicitly or implicitly was considered to be a request for their judgment for unjust situations and those who used the tactic of cursing were seeking heavenly justice and reform. Over time, these beliefs, while preserving their conceptual content, entered the semantic center of Judaism from the religious meanings of the ancient period. Using the phenomenological and comparative method, the present article examines these concepts and the process of their religious evolution in the religious culture before and after Judaism

Various views have been proposed about the religious beliefs of the Medes. Some consider them followers of Zoroastrianism and others have the opposite opinion. This research deals with the following questions: Did different groups of the Medes have the same religion? What are the characteristics of their religion? To what extent was it akin to Zoroastrianism or the common beliefs of the people of Mesopotamia? Contrary to the views insisting on the influence of Mesopotamia worldview on the attitude of Iranians living in the western regions of the Iranian Plateau, the present study shows that based on the content of Mesopotamian documents as the first-hand written sources, Greek-language reports as the second-hand sources, and according to some cultural elements of the Medes (e.g. individual names), the dominant religion of this group of Iranian descent, on the one hand, has similarities to Zoroastrianism and on the other hand, has clear differences with Mesopotamia beliefs. The fact that the religious mentality of a group of the Medes was in complete opposition to the religious culture ruling Mesopotamia forms the foundation of the current paper

The destruction of the Second Temple led to the collapse of the Jewish community. Then successive rebellions and defeats, while Jews were awaiting the promised Messiah and salvation in Apocalypse, led to their massacre, captivity, and exile resulting in frustration and apostasy. In the meantime, intending to hearten the disappointed people and save Judaism, the rabbis expressed the narratives of life after death under the influence of their Zoroastrian neighbors in a new way to strengthen the belief among the devastated Jewish people that the oppressors will be punished for their deeds and the righteous and the oppressed will be rewarded. The comparison of early Jewish religious texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, with the first written Jewish texts in the Middle Ages, confirms the change in the way of expressing beliefs about life after death; heaven and hell; and the dualities of good and evil, God and Satan. The dualities began after the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the First Temple. They intensified in the period after the destruction of the Second Temple following the frustrations caused by the failed rebellions and during the compilation of the Talmud. These changes can be explained according to historical reasons, including living in the vicinity and under Iranian governments, the monotheism of Zoroastrian religions, and the behavior of Iranians with Jews in exile

The essence of time and existence, as it is considered in other nations, is emphasized in Jainism and is counted as one of the important topics in its texts, which forms the basis of the followers' belief. Time is related to the cosmos and existence, and in the light of time, the cosmos is justified in a constant cycle in the wheel of time. Just as time in a cycle has stages and divisions for which there is no beginning or end, existence also rises and sets in the circle of time without beginning and ending in the cycle of its stages. In addition, the importance of Jainism's cosmology is in justifying the atheism of the universe with a great substance or mahastha in six categories, Jivah and Ajivah, Dharma and Adharma, Kale and Podgale.

Edmund Burke is one of the Western thinkers who have attracted the attention of researchers due to the use of pragmatic propositions from religion and philosophy in his political thought. However, the lack of systematic written theory and knowledge has caused contradictory and erroneous interpretations of his thought. Considering the importance of the role of religion and philosophy in Burke's anthropological, epistemological, and sociological foundations and their function in the political and intellectual developments of the past two centuries, the present article by adopting a qualitative approach and applying the method of argumentative analysis seeks to examine the outcome of religion, natural law and reasoning as three fundamental, epistemological, and pragmatic pillars in Burke's thought and to answer some basic contradictions in this regard. The findings show that despite not being a theologian, Burke is against the non-revealed interpretation of religion, human nature, and human society. The same point of view is also present in his epistemological foundations, in such a way that his understanding of natural law, respect for conventional wisdom, belief in the submission of authoritarian government to the law, the continuous emphasis on the rights of citizens, distinction between the functions of practical reason and theoretical reason, and his understanding of social man ordered towards the common good, are all influenced by his theological thought, especially the school of Thomism. Burke lacked a stable system of comparative reasoning and opposing theory in his thought, and his understanding of religion was sometimes partial and based on religious assumptions rather than his understanding of the truth of religion. However, the same divine view is also seen in the purpose and method of his political reasoning and moral theory, which ultimately led to his realistic attention to man, nature, rights, governance, and freedom in the form of divine universal order.

The present article discusses the question of how the phenomenon of football can manifest "religious fact" through its presence and competitive and communicative forms in the club or national/world arenas. This phenomenon, while 22 people in a green rectangle compete for a trophy or medal, displays a range of monetary, commercial, aesthetic, artistic, cultural, moral, and religious exchanges. In the meantime, football becomes a complex of players, fans, and club owners, which reveals tendencies; behaviors; cultural, religious, and semantic identities. In this article, with the phenomenological-interpretive method and the semiotic-analytical technique, the football phenomenon is discussed as one of the most important sports that can represent the actions and signs of religious fact. First, the theoretical basis and general approaches to this phenomenon are examined, and then its features and functions are organized under the headings, dramatic dimensions, unpredictability, identity giving, media power, occasion-ritual, magical and spiritual, and in the form of thanksgiving and happiness prostrations. As a result of this study, aimed at understanding the religious fact in football, the malleability and fluidity of this phenomenon in the face of multiple cultures is the most important social field to use symbolic language and to represent the religious fact in the form of gestures and rituals individually and in groups.