فصلنامه ثقافتنا
پیاپی 30 (1390)

Orientalists have conducted many studies in the field of Quranic research. Since they are alien to the Islamic culture and the language of Islamic sciences, their studies suffer from certain shortcomings. They have also translated the holy Quran into Latin languages. The present paper is an attempt to critically study the Oreintalists’ studies of the holy Quran and its translations

The present paper is an attempt to study recent uprisings in the Arab world with special reference to the uprising in Egypt in order to cast a look at the future prospects. Egypt is facing certain challenges and opportunities. In order to use the opportunities it is necessary to understand civilizational development and priorities and formulate proper policies and plans. In fact challenges stem from wrong priorities and dissociation from Islamic identity of the ummah, state and society as well as neglecting Egypt’s connections with the Islamic world.

طThe present paper focuses on the role of Mecca in unity of Islamic world. Special attention has been paid to the role of libraries in Bab ul Islam in uniting the Islamic culture. The existing memoirs indicate that there had been a hanger among Muslim thinkers and ulama for science and knowledge. They in fact gained access to rare books in these libraries.

The present article is an attempt to review Labaik, a book written by Algerian author Malek ibn Nabi. Attempts have been made to extract Nabi’s thought from the characters of the book. The author, who is one of the pioneers of Islamic awakening, considers Hajj as one of the factors for preservation of Muslim identity and awareness. The main character of this book, who is a coal seller full of drawbacks, undergoes huge personality changes after going on pilgrimage to Mecca.

Creativity is to create something new, but innovation is to introduce some alien thing to religion. Islam encourages the first one, but is opposed to the second one. How could one make a distinction between the two so that creativity is not labeled as innovation?Attempts have been made in the present paper to study innovation and shed light on the significance of opposing innovation to preserve religion. Hence Individual reasoning (ijtihad) which is creativity on the basis of rational and canonical criteria has been studied in this paper as well.

There are different stances towards rationality in the Arab world. These differences stem for different intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which include personal and psychological factors, turning back to the Islamic culture, as well as backwardness of the Islamic world and materialistic progress of the Arab world. When the Arab intellectuals face criticism of rationalism in their Westernized self, their stances towards this criticism differs from person to person. Rationalism in the Arab world normally turned back to Islamic culture and even at times neglected it.

Muslims pay special attention to psyche and psychological illnesses and have written outstanding works in this regard. Abu Hamid Ghazzali is among those who have written some works on this topic. His viewpoints are different from those of Greek thinkers and even those of Muslim philosophers. His experience is based on Islam and mysticism. Due to interconnection between mysticism and psychology, Gazzali established a new psychological school.

Mulana Rumi was connected to the Islamic world in many respects, including his human, trans-national dialogue as well as his Arabic poems and his trips to Damascus and Tripoli. Moreover he is present in the Arab world due to his influence on great Arab mystic, Ibn Arabi. Many attempts have been made to introduce Mulana in contemporary era, including writing of books, articles, translation of his poems and holding seminars.The present paper is an attempt to discuss Mulana’s transnational discourse and also to review some works that have been written on Mulana in the Arab world.