نشریه معرفت فرهنگی اجتماعی
سال دوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 5، زمستان 1389)

Using an analytical-theoretical approach, the present paper studies the features, principles, and way of discovering social traditions in the holy Quran. The term social customs is attributed to the Most High God's management and organization which have high frequency and it is indicative of the rules and laws governing social phenomena and life, and the relations between individuals and groups.Among the features of social customs in the holy Quran are reliance on God, constancy, conformity with man's free will, and connection with man's social life. Due to the considerable variety and broad range of social customs, there are a various ways of discovering them.

As one of the structural elements and fundamental foundation of social system institution covers a considerable part of sociological literature. Although this socio-historical entity has been dissected from different angles and examined symantically and ontologically, no serious study based on intra-religion approach has been made in this regard.After reviewing the sociological literature of this field, the present paper scrutinizes minutely the concept of institution, the course of its development and its components, its distinctive features, the structural and functional prerequisites, typology, the effects and outcomes, the concrete manifestations, and the manifold relations of the institutions with one another and with other environmental elements. Furthermore, it sheds light on the main outlines of Islamic thought in this respect and on the corresponding concepts which have conceptual and symantic affinity with this concept, by referring to the holy Quran.

One of the important issues in the field of religious studies is the question of religion and the meaning of life. Many thinkers, including Max Weber, have dealt with this subject from different angles. According to Weber, the most important feature of human life is its meaningfulness. Therefore, the difference between man and other animals and between human world and natural world is determined by meaningfulness. The most important question in this discussion is: who is the author of this meaning? According to Weber, only religions can meet this metaphysical human need, and not any other force is capable of playing the role which religion can play. So, Weber analyzes the origin and function of religion according to the role of religion in creating meaning. The problem of Weber's viewpoint is not his observations, because nothing can make human life meaningful except religion; the problem lies in the way he presents this idea. Weber’s main problem originates from his reductionistic view. So he believes that the religion can be explained in materialistic terms. Therefore, he adopts a completely worldly view about meaning, and shows total disregard to transcendent realm of man and religion.

The question raised in the present research is: what concepts does Farabi use in his exposition of the idea of prophethood? Not all disciplines can give an explanation for the relationship between the terrestrial world and celestial world and explain how they are related with one another. The intellectual faculty is unable to understand it. Revelation and prophethood, being the only source of relation between the earth and heaven, are regarded as theological subjects. Farabi uses a philosophical and intellectual approach for expounding it. He explains prophethood by relying on Aristotelian psychology and considering two faculties of the soul, i.e. reason and fancy. Simple and valuable ideas about this kind of relation are detected in Farabi's philosophy. In this regard, he has tried to resolve the problem about the relationship between the philosopher and prophet. According to him, soul has a single inseparable reality; it has hierarchical degrees and faculties which put the body in motion. Therefore, reason and fancy have one single system called "soul". This means that the philosopher and prophet are one person with two particular characteristics. The research’s main finding is the scrutiny of Farabi's answer to the question about the kind of relation that exists between the soul and the celestial world (Holy Spirit).

Values generally refers to what one ought to do, not to what exists. However, science is expected to explain existing realities and truths. Accordingly, it seems suitable to discuss nothing other than human phenomena and the real relation between them along with their principles and results in the realm of human sciences. The question that arises here is: how can a positive and causative relation be established between values and human sciences? The present paper tries to prove that some human sciences, such as ethics, essentially has a value nature, that other human sciences are influenced by values in determining the aims, and limiting the applied principles, and that the values accepted by the scholars of human sciences consciously or unconsciously exert influence on these sciences. Therefore, as researchers of human sciences, having different value attitudes, we have to comply with the different human sciences, as well.

Mohammad 'Abid al-Jabiri, a prominent Muslim thinker proposes a theory in which he criticize the idea of the Arab mind in response to the question of tradition and modernity. In the first phase of formulating this project, he investigates the historical dimension of mind in the Arab culture of the Arab and considers that, when contracted with the Greek mind and European mind, the Arab mind is effected by ethics and lacks the capacity of investigating the reasons behind phenomena. According to him, the foundation of the culture of the Arab depends on the expressive, mystic, and argumentative epistemological systems between which there has been continuous debate throughout the Arab history over the domination of independent mind with Hermetic origin. This question is the cause of the backwardness of the Arab world. Finally, he suggests that this crisis can be overcome by referring to Ibn Rushd’s rationalism. Among the weaknesses of his theory is ethnocentrism, his unfamiliarity with Shiite scientific works, leveling groundless accusation at the Shiite, and marginalization of revelation and transmitted traditions.

Some theoretician in Islamic or domestic social sciences hold that western sciences have secular principles and foundations, hence western theories cannot be applied to Islamic society. The present paper assesses the extent of effect which the principles and foundations of Talcott Parson's theory have on his theory and then poses the question "Can this theory be applied to domestic issues by means of modifying some of its presuppositions? Or, should it be completely rejected because of its secular principles?It seems that Parson's theory has no logical and foundational coherence. Some modifications has been made to this theory by referring to Islamic principles. If we make these modifications, we will have a more coherent theory which can be the basis for further investigations. For example, voluntarism and the existence of society are among Parson's most important claims; however, it is impossible to prove these claims without referring to some principles such as it is neither determination nor free will but something between the two and physical universal.