فصلنامه شیعه شناسی
پیاپی 22 (تابستان 1387)

Social theology is a part of theology concerned with various aspects of social life, such as politics, war and peace, law, education, as well as interpersonal relationships like marriage and divorce. It is of multidisciplinary nature and consists of five parts: social hadith, social interpretation of the holy scripts, social jurisprudence (or fiqh), social morality, and social Kalām. They are considered as parts of theology since they are all based on holy scripts (such as the Quran and hadith), but each of them uses its own methodology to explain and justify its propositions and arrive at new conclusions.

Sheikh Mofid's Al-Irshād is an important source in the historiography of the Shia and Shiite Imams. However, it has not been sufficiently examined intra-textually. Content analysis and text analysis of the book my open new horizons for research and scholarship on the subject. Such content analysis may, in the first place, examine the Sheikh's style of historiography and its relation to his theological views. Moreover, some weaknesses of the book such as its contradictions and paradoxes as well as its non-methodological gathering of historical data from various sources can be scrutinized in this way.

In examining a commentary book on the Quran, it is important to consider the method used by the commentator, his doctrinal tendency, reasoning, language and expressiveness, and also to see how the commentary is documented. What is of equal importance is to investigate what sources are referred to and how. The late Mohammad Hossein Tabātabā'i's Al-Mizān is one of the most important Shiite interpretations of the Quran. In his commentary on the Quran, Tabātabā'i has widely referred to Mahmood Zamakhshari's Al-Kashshāf, an important commentary on the Quran, to support his literal and conceptual arguments. In this paper, the author compares the two commentaries on the Quran to explore the method employed by Allama Tabātabā'i for using and referring to Al-Kashshāf.

In this article, the authors examine Shiite views on sexuality, by applying Michel Foucault's approach in his book, the History of Sexuality, to Shiite revered texts, including the Quran (and Shiite Imam's and scholar's commentaries on it), and the Al-Nikah Book of Wassā'il al-Shia. Some other complementary hadith collections were also referred to. The authors argue that sexuality can be considered as a religious concept, which as a part of a discourse is articulated in a life-culture context. It is concluded that: 1) sexuality is of paramount importance in the Shiite faith, 2) the faith has a positive attitude towards sexual relationships and encourages such a non-linguistic relationship, 3) the birth of a human being is regarded as a sign of God's wisdom and power, 4) Shiite religious texts have defined the patterns and limits of legitimate sexuality, and introduced mechanisms to protect them.

As the hadith are susceptible to distortion, perversion and alteration, Islamic scholars have been very much concerned about the authentication of the hadith to ensure that they can rightly be attributed to Imams. Hence, Muslims have developed the historio-biography of the transmitters of the haith, as a distinct discipline, in order to assess the credibility of their narrators. Most Muslim scholars argue that familiarity with the biographies of the narrators is a prerequisite for embarking on Islamic research and scholarship. On the other hand, a minority, that is, Akhbaryyūn, insist that all hadith collections, particularly the Shiite four books are authenticated. So, they believe that there is no need for paying attention to the biographies of the narrators. However, such a weak argument is untenable, and the discipline, beside other Islamic disciplines, has flourished, as it is attracting more and more attention.

The city of Baghdad, under the Buwayhids (the fourth and fifth centuries A.H.), witnessed the exchange of views between the Twelver Shia and various other Muslim schools of thought, including the Asharite school. Such exchanges resulted in either similarity or differences of viewpoints. In this paper, it is explored how the issues of collaborating with an illegitimate ruler, waging a war against a Muslim ruler, war among Muslims and the holy war (or jihad) were discussed among such various schools. The gradual domination of Asharites over other schools led to the demise of rationalism, philosophy and ijtihad within the Muslim community, bolstering the institution of Caliphate, and weakening the Hanbalite school of thought. The Twelver Shia and Asharites had opposing views on the issues of legitimate political and religious leadership, the position of rationality in understanding religion, and the legitimacy of ijtihad. Theoretical differences between the Shia and Asharites resulted in the weakening of the Bwayhids and the Hanbalites, as well as the strengthening of the Caliphs and their support for the Asharites.

A way to understand and explain the events of the first century A.H. is to pay attention to the role played by the Muslim tribes and the relations among them. The Nakha' Yemeni tribe was one of such important tribes, as many of whose members were proselytized by Imam 'Ali during Prophet Mohmmad's lifetime. The tribe was settled in Iraq, and involved in some of the formative events of the Shiite history. This paper is a historical survey of events in the first century Islam insofar as the Nakha' tribe played an important role.