نشریه پژوهش های قرآنی
سال هفدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 67، پاییز 1390)

The present article is intended to explain the reciprocal relation between faith and moral excellences. The writer has tried to answer three questions in this regard: Do moral virtues have a role in creating belief in God? Does faith have a role in the appearance and creation of moral excellences? Does faith have a role in creating goodness and value in moral act? The writer has addressed the viewpoints and arguments of each of the three fields and ultimately concluded that in the first question, the moral excellences theoretically have a role in the creation of faith, but in practice and external objectivity they have no role in it, unless on the absolute basis of Divine assistance. In reply to the second question, faith has definitely a role in creation of moral excellences, albeit by specific mechanism that is explained in the present article. As for the third question, the writer believes that faith does not have a role in creating the attribute of goodness and value of action.

The relation between religion and ethics is among the significant topics in the “scientia moralis”, including such questions as, “What status and functions does ethics have in religion and religiosity? And the basic question, “What outcome has “religion” had for ethics? The latter question concerning the efficacy of the Qur’ān in the field of ethical knowledge and behavior is dealt with in this research and is brought up in a macro-level in various subjects. This general attitude outlines the claim that the Holy Qur’ān recommends, guides, and motivates ethics and specific ethical behavior.

This article deals with the substitutability of morality with faith in respect to salvation. The writer has analyzed and examined four viewpoints in this respect: 1. Absolute substitution, 2. Absolute non-substitution, 3. Substitution in some ranks of salvations, and 4. Substitution in regard to some human beings. After a critical assessment of the arguments of each viewpoint, he has concluded that the two latter viewpoints are more acceptable than the first two ones. To confirm his view, he has presented some evidences, too.

In this article, Rippin examines the punning system in the Qur’ān. First, he states some generalities about punning. He believes that puns stand as a bridge between rhyme and metaphor and are formed by the blending of sound and meaning. Then, he raises the following two questions: Do the puns help to create efficient Qur’ānic discourse? What do puns convey to the reader? Then, he tries to answer these two questions by examining several examples of Qur’ānic puns. Altogether, Rippin concludes that the pun in the Qur’ān depends to a great extent on the readers’ reading (qarā’at) of the Qur’ānic text. The application of vocabulary is a part of the conveyed meaning and thus the Qur’ānic message is doubly highlighted by means of the applied vocabulary. There is no doubt that this issue involves the fact that words convey meanings only through context.

We encounter two types of verses in the Qur’ān; the verses that concern the conveying of the call to Truth and monotheism to the ears of the public and giving an ultimatum to all people on earth; and the verses that denote its not reaching the ears of those living in a number of towns and human dwellings. Now, although we believe in and trust the exoneration of the Revelation of any contradiction, then what is the source of such a contradictory impression about those series of Qur’ānic verses? What have the interpretations done to solve this Qur’ānic problem and how far have they fared in this respect? Have they done justice to this issue and given convincing answers to the contemplators? An inquiry into the interpretations reveals that some attempts have been made sometimes to solve this problem; but, as a thematic method has not been adopted, the desired result has not been achieved, and much likely they have ended up with fanciful assumptions. This article seeks for a thematic interpretation of the verses in question in order to find a worthwhile answer to this problem; an answer that may be of interest to the Qur’ānic researchers.

Examining some verses of the Holy Qur’ān would bring to notice the substitution of any of the past, present, and imperative forms of the verbs with the other. To deal with this morphological-rhetorical phenomenon, some learned scholars deem as permissible the existence and, indeed, the reference of the contrary verb to other verbs existing in the speech. Some others deal with interpreting the substituted verb to make it conform to other verbs existing in the speech. However, it seems that using a verb that does not conform to other verbs used in the verse or the total speech, contains a rhetorical point and denotation. For instance, reconciliation between two morphological meanings and denotations and the contextual denotation of the verb, emphasis on the occurrence of the substituted verb, sketching the verb in the present tense, and other rhetorical purposes, are attempted to address in this article.

Given the propositions in the religious texts that apparently reflect the superiority of men to women, a number of Muslim learned scholars have regarded men as superior to women in one of the following aspects: 1. The intrinsic and dignified superiority of men to women; 2. The intrinsic superiority of men to women as not meaning the dignity of men; 3. The physical superiority of men to women. To prove their viewpoint, they have alluded to such evidences as the revelatory proofs and legislative evidences. While accepting the physical superiority of men to women, the writer critically reviews the other aspects of the superiority in this article.