نشریه پژوهش های قرآنی
سال چهاردهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 58، تابستان و پاییز 1387)

In this article, after giving a definition of the cultural engineering, the writer stresses on the reformation of culture as one of the major pivots of cultural engineering. Thereupon, he talks about taking the reformative method of the Quran as a role model; furthermore, he explains the nature of this method; and then, goes on to divide the features of the Quran's reformative procedure into two categories: 1. formal features, 2. contextual features. He points out formal features in terms of artistic motivation, variety of speech, purposes as being combinatory, transparency and expressiveness, repetition and inculcation. He discusses the contextual features by following topics: realism, holding on to principles, rationalism, nativism, scientism, modernism, exploitation of the benefit and loss equation, graduation and step-by-step procedure, and realistic self-image.

This article is written with the aim of explaining mammonism – as a cultural pathology – from the viewpoint of the Quran – so as the cultural strategists may thereby undertake a study of the status quo and plan for achieving an optimal situation. After mentioning some fundamentals of cultural engineering, the writer has first touched upon the difference between "worldliness" (in the sense of rightful enjoyment of worldly gains and pleasures) and "mammonism", and then reported on worldliness and mammonism in their three levels of "attitude", "value", and "behavior" from the viewpoint of the Quran along with the Quranic indications of mammonism. The writer believes that if the mammonistic attitude develops in a society, it will often prompt the promotion of mammonistic values and eventually mammonistic behavior, which in turn will lead to deepening of mammonistic attitudes in the society.

In this article, the writer first deals with the conceptology of culture. Then, he delves into the reason for the global attention to human development and cultural development; and after that, he reviews the indifference or the moral responsibility of the governments. Along the same line, he goes on to talk about the role of religious rule (ḥukūma) explaining the viewpoint of political philosophy of religion in relation to the fundamentals and the necessity of ideological and moral education of the society as well as the strategic approaches researchable in the Quran. In this framework, he introduces the most significant duties of the ruler – as a caliph of God – and governments to be the education of society, and regards the spiritual influence of the administrators as a prerequisite for their success in the field of education. In the end, the writer addresses three approaches: cultural encounter and interaction; control through social boycott; and corporeal punishment for fulfillment of the responsibility for cultural education and cultural development.

This writing addresses the essential pathologies of religious culture, and as an introduction to this issue touches upon such topics as the distinctive feature of human communities and animal colonies, cultural index of human community, as well as recounting general approaches in the what-ness (quiddity) of culture and dichotomizing its various types into material and spiritual and the impact of each one of the two types of material and spiritual culture on the other. The first part of the main discussion includes: the concept of pathology and cultural pathology and its division into external and internal, explaining the conditions and preconditions required for the assessment of the essential pathology of religious culture. In the second part of this discussion, the researcher has introduced six types of essential pathology for the religious culture including: weakness of belief in the foundation of culture; change of the role of cultural components, with three subtitles of deification of man, superstitiousness, and frivolousness; cultural antagonism; cultural disruption; incompatibility of thought systems; and cultural transformation. In the final part, the writer introduces the preventive strategy for cultural pathology, regarding the homogeneity of convictions with the stances of the social pragmatists as the most important preventive strategy for the essential pathology of religious culture.

One of the significant and highly effective factors in a nation's cultural engineering is the elucidation of the status of religion in cultural engineering. To this end, the present article is discussing and studying the relation between religion and culture. The writer regards defining the meaning of religion and culture, the realm of religion and culture, and their origin to be among the most important issues that help to find out the relation between culture and religion. As for the definition of religion and culture, he has only reported the two extensionalistic and functionalistic approaches from among several suggested ones and explained the relation between religion and culture according to these two approaches. As for the realm, he speaks of the two theories of maximal and minimal, regarding the realm of culture as very widespread; then, he goes on to examine the relation of religion to culture and concludes the article by discussing the origin of religion and culture and their relation.

Despite various and numerous topics existing in many of the verses of the Quran, which in the first glance seem to be evident, some contemporary Quran researchers believe that a single purpose and topic lies behind this apparent multiplicity and variety, and that there is an inevitable and unbreakable bond among all the verses of a sūra. They regard this feature – topical unity – to be one of the superior miracles of the Quran and expedient to the Divine rhetoric and wisdom. Although many attempts have been made by the advocates of this theory for proving the "topical unity of the verses of the Quran", there are weaknesses and deficiencies in the reasons they have presented which hinders the acceptance of this theory. In this article, the reasons and evidences of this theory are critically reviewed. Besides the deficiencies existing in the reasons provided by this theory, there are other shortcomings that attest to the refutation of the theory of topical unity, such as lack of reassuring standards; risk of interpretation by personal opinion; difficulty of reaching the main topic in each sūra of the Quran; absence of referential indication in the Quran and the words of the infallible ones (ma‘ṣūmīn); and the many differences in the topics that the advocates of this theory have introduced for every sūra.

The present writing is a translation of the entry: Inimitability by Professor Richard C. Martin from the Encyclopedia of the Quran. Upon elaborating various derived forms of the term u‘jaz in the Holy Quran, the writer proceeds to deal with the history of the idea of inimitability (i‘jāz) in the verses of the Quran and the Revelation time, and has presented a report about the history of the Muslim's attempts in the field of the Holy Quran's inimitability. He has also stated the opinions and viewpoints of Naẓẓām, Jāḥiẓ, Bāqlānī, Rummānī, ‘Abd al-Jabbār, Jurjānī, and the contemporary scholars, and has pointed out the impacts that their viewpoints have had on one another.

There are various ways for teaching the Holy Quran to children. One of the best ways for comprehending the concepts, subjects, and the stories of the Holy Quran is by using illustrations. With a survey of the age characteristics of primary school children, we find out that we can add up to the attractiveness of story telling and the children's interest in the subject of the story by means of painting and illustration. Besides, comprehension of concepts through illustration leaves deeper impact on the long-term memory than verbal expression. Nowadays, most of the cultural institutes and Quranic centers utilize illustrative procedures for teaching the Quran to children but its application is not specialized and professional. In addition, the illustration of many of the educational books, journals, and digital programs of the Holy Quran have their own weaknesses. Although principal application of illustration art can be increasingly appealing to children, its weak and non-professional expression may have irreparable damages to the child's soul and mind. With an examination of the weaknesses and strengths existing in the illustration of the Quranic books for children, the present article stresses the importance of a thorough revision and reconsideration of illustration in the Quranic books for children and regards it as significant in the process of teaching how to understand the Quranic themes.

Frequent references have been made to the urban and rural standards in the sciences such as sociology and human geography, which any scientist and expert has looked at from a different angle and presented a definition proportionate to their own information about it. In these definitions, physical development, population rate, the existence of civil, economic, and industrial institutions are among the most important indicators of distinction between cities and villages. Apart from these standards, however, the Quran introduces the touchstone of religious and social culture, which is very instructive and highly important. This article takes a look at cities and villages as well as the urban and the rural from the Quran's point of view, in line with an exploration into the cultural engineering of the Revealed Word of Allah.

One of the most pivotal Quranic discourses is tribulation and trial in the Quran and knowledge about its meaning, philosophy, and how to disengage oneself from it has an undeniable impact on human happiness. In this article, it is demonstrated that the terms tribulation, affliction, and trial are applied to mean "testing". The philosophy of Divine testing is man's attaining perfection and Divine mercy, his return to Go, ways of victorious disengagement from tribulation, self-control, piety, and surrender to God, etc. Of course, human beings display two types of reactions toward Divine testing, i.e. gratitude and ingratitude, and it turns up that in a testing there must be an unknown element as well as some proportion between the individual and the testing so that the task would not be unendurable. It is established by the Quran that the role of human beings in tribulation and predicament is significant, to the extent that it has an educational effect on man.