فصلنامه تاریخ فرهنگ و تمدن اسلامی
پیاپی 10 (بهار 1392)

When studying Imam Ali’s role in spreading science and prophetic tradition، one faces the questions: how has scientific growth been carried out in Islamic countries during the first century and how have religious sciences been transferred to these countries and cities? Who have been those effective in this process and what has been Ali`s part in it and how has it been played? As has been truly claimed، Ali encouraged the Muslims to pay serious attention to science and knowledge (not just the science of religion) and established this process within the newly formed Islamic society of this period. It has been shown that، in addition to his direct activities in Kufa and Yemen، the role of some of his direct students like Ibn Abbas، Ibn Mas’ud، and Hasan Basri in the regions such as Mecca، Basra and Kufa has been noticeable and، therefore، current sciences in these areas in the first century have been due to Imam Ali’s scientific activities.

Cultural deviations and religious heresies during Umayyad period had increased the necessity of revising Islamic culture، especially the culture of Shi’ism. The most appropriate cultural، social، and political conditions were specific to the era of Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq، referred to as Imamain Sadiqain، that provided an appropriate opportunity for cultural activities. Imam Sadiq utilized the context and background presented in his era and، in this manner، he was able to design and manage the cultural system of Shiite society with widespread cultural activities. The paper has intended to introduce the most important consequences and results of Imam Sadiq‘s cultural engineering. Surveying resources، collecting and analyzing the data with an analytico-descriptive method، the most important achievements of Imam Sadiq’s attempts and activities may be counted as: development of Shia religion، systematization of the beliefs، formation of the political organizations، Shiite jurisprudence dynamicity، and formation of coherent educational system. In fact، Imam Sadiq`s cultural engineering provided the causes of the formation of cultural structure of Shia، on the one hand and on the other hand، he provided the grounds for dynamicity of Islamic culture and civilization.

The present paper is critique of the article “Popular Shi’i Mourning Rituals” (Article 44) from Shi’ism collection written by Dr. Chlkowski. Although his viewpoint upon Shi’i mourning rituals is written impartially, like the viewpoint of a lot of orientalists it has some deficiencies. With a descriptive statement, he explains the mourning rituals in different Shiite regions around the world. His basis to analyze these programs is founded on a symbolic view of an external viewer and without relying on the Shia sources and educations. One of the methods of recognizing the beliefs of a society is analyzing the present symbols of that environment from which the author has used to analyze the data. The present paper attempts to show that this kind of method could not be a correct statement of the Shiite rituals and educations and this method is accompanied with some problems and deficiencies. On two main points of deficiencies and advantages, the present study looks upon Chlkowski’s writing and analyzes the positive points of this article in the form and structure of a paper as well as the writer’s style and its deficiencies based on two content and methodological approaches.

As one of the components of marriage, “marriage portion” is an ancient tradition among Muslims which follows particular customs and methods. Although this custom is from those sanctified by Islamic Shari’ah, it underwent some changes. Some changes such as the amount of marriage portion and its being the right of woman herself taken as a substitution for the previous customs. This custom was subject to changes rooted in the Muslims’ livelihood during various Islamic periods and underwent evolutions. With all the Islamic emphasizes and formation of Mahrulsonnah within the Islamic society and insistence on its moral nature, a clear pattern was never followed by the Muslims. Based on various reasons, this category was passed through a path full of ups and downs and some evolutions happened for it in the Islamic society. It has been attempted to indicate an image of this custom during the first two Islamic centuries which is, to some extent, Islamic tradition realization.

The present paper is an attempt to review the opposition of Imams with different and various currents of Ghalian (from the beginning to Imam Sadiq’s period). On the one hand, there were groups which gradually and passing the time turned their initial beliefs to coherent sects during Imam Sadiq’s period; on the other hand, Imams, as the authorities of religion, appropriate to the time and the emerged conditions began to oppose the deviated currents such as Ghalian. Perhaps, one of the most important reasons of that period was the emerged political conditions that caused the conflict between the Umayyad and Abbasids. This made these groups to try to promote their own speculation confidently and convert themselves into groups with distinct leadership teams. The present study aims at analyzing the exaggerating current from the mentioned period to Imam Sadiq’s period i.e. the period in which Ghalian were reached their development and growth. Although Ghalianeh trends were never terminated in the Muslims’ society, the conflict of the Shiite Imams with these currents moved these groups to margins to a large extent and made the Shia perspective clear and distinct from the beliefs of such deviated groups.

Social contribution as a pivotal category in the Islamic society was gradually declined after demise of the prophet. At first, some people and groups retreated and sidestepped from politics and political interference. With the power to Umayyad, social passivity spread to an extensive part of the society so that the biggest crimes were occurred in this period but on the contrary, the society did not show any reaction. Among the effective factors of this procedure was the passive generating ideas of the Umayyad. The interpretation which the Umayyad and some of the Sahabah had about religious and quasi-religious ideas had effects on the recession of the society. The ideas of maintaining the community, fatalism, irja, and the divine caliphate were among the theoretical framework that by a different interpretation, Umayyad led the society to silence against their own operation. With a descriptive-explanatory method, the present paper explains the common religious and quasi-religious ideas during Umayyad period, and then it is attended to their influence on the social passivity. It appears that using these ideas to deprive the people from a spiritual contribution, the Umayyad disseminated social passivity to a wide range of the society.