نشریه معرفت فرهنگی اجتماعی
سال پنجم شماره 3 (پیاپی 19، تابستان 1393)

With the reference to the verses of the Holy Quran, it can be shown that one of the most important aims of sending prophets is the introduction of social laws in order to settle human disputes over worldly affairs and call them to other affairs and felicity. It is noteworthy that philosophers such as Avicenna have used similar argumentations to justify the necessity of prophethood in their discussions about politics and thinkers like Ibn-e-Khaldun have rejected such argumentations. Emphasizing on Quranic argumentations and verse 213 of Chapter two (Baqarah- Cow), particularly the late Allamah Tabatabaii’s commentary, the present paper proves that first divine law, independent from the time of the formation of early human societies, was the basis of their formation, and the second, development of human civilizations was impossible without divine law and any kind of order in societies is rooted in divine laws and such order was made possible by sending prophets and descending divine books.

In Shi’a commentators’ view, the intellective approach has a large capacity to theorize about act and one of it dimensions is typification of act which can prepare the ground for a more precise understanding and interpretation of individual's social act. The main question of the present research which uses an analytical method is the typification of act in Allamah Tabatabaii’s view and its interpretive capacities with emphasis on Al-Mizan Commentary. In Allamah view, act is divided into different types such as voluntary act, unwilling act, emergent act, acts resulting from positive counterparts, and habits and affections, which provides the sociologists with the possibility of deeper understanding and interpretation of act, evaluation of the degree of rationality governing the society, the degree of stability of behavioral models, the possibility of transforming behavioral models, the evaluation of the degree of joy and contentment in society, the comparison and evaluation of cultures and designing ideal behavioral models.

Allamah Tabatabaii, one of the pioneering and innovating thinkers in the area of social issues, made such attempts in interpreting and explaining Quranic verses that his view can be regarded as identical to most sociological discussions. Referring to his views related to social verses of the Quran, particularly the verses talking about life, book, consciousness, understanding, act, obedience, sin and common destiny for “nation”, it can be said that society as a social macro-structure has real existence and authenticity in Allamah’s view. On the other hand, since he explains human agency on the basis of innate nature, consciousness and will, it can also be said that his views is included in syncretism approach followed by an elaboration on mutual interaction between agency and structure. In order to explain this interaction, Allamah uses the concept of “shakelah i.e. structure” and believes that as structures can provide the conditions for the realization of man’s inherent and natural attitudes and in this way play an important role in the internalization of attitudes, rules, norms, etc. so individuals and social agents are able to effect the formation, change of reproduction of social structure by their own acts.

The present paper studies the dimensions of the four-dimension society (God, man, earth and relationship). In the first place, it is Glorified God who exerts definite and absolute influence on all domains of knowledge. Of course, with regard to man's acts of will the divine genetic will passes through man’s will. In the second place, it is the man who exerts influence, with his considerable human will power. In the third place, hidden creatures like angels should be mentioned, who are the Glorified God’s agents. Satan (and his followers) also try to make a kind of deviation in our thinking when we think about God, self, nature and others. In the fourth place, natural and social factors (based on man’s relationships) exert influence. All these influences are exerted in the light of God’s encompassment and presence and all these factors are a gleam of God’s existence: “and Allah encompasses them on every side” (Chapter 85: verse 20).

Using the qualitative content analysis method, the present paper reviews the ideas of the great thinker of the world of Islam, Allamah Tabatabaii, about secularization and by rearranging and adding complementary points to these views tries to offer a theoretical model conforming to scientific criteria with the capacity of explaining secularization in contemporary Iran. This model includes 58 factors influencing secularization, 30 of which are extracted from Allamah’s views and 28 other factors are added by contemplation on Quranic verses and traditions. Using an anthropological approach and particularly emphasizing on man's innate tendency towards religion, the second nature of secularisim and men’s inner inclination towards worldly attractions, this model focuses on more fundamental layers of secularization. The all-comprehensiveness of the model, however, gives the capacity for incorporating an important part of factors emphasized in the theories of secularization, especially the development of scientific thinking, elements of modernization, increase in wealth, welfare and security.

Religion as an undeniable reality is one of the social phenomena studied by most scholars of human and social sciences. Among social scientists, Durkheim is perhaps the most famous sociologist who has studied religion through the lens of functionalism and his studies has been and are cited by most researchers of the field. Although Durkheim’s functionalist approach can by useful and somehow liable against those who consider religion inefficient in modern life, the reality of religion and deep studies show that his reductionist approach failed to show the reality of religion and even its functional aspect, but also his superficial and super-structural studies has made most researchers unable to well understand the substance of religion which is the origin of most social outcomes. Among the views of Muslim thinkers, the present paper chooses the view of Allamah Tabatabaii, who is not only an expert of religion but also aware of functions of religion, to evaluate Durkheim’s functionalist view and compare these two thinkers’ views in order to show that the reality of religion is not in such a low position that Durkheim could provide it to researchers and seekers of reality through studying it externally.