مجله پژوهش های علم و دین
سال پنجم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1393)

The word science has gone through semantic change in different historical periods and in relation to the cultural and social circumstances of the time and thus has been used in various senses. A semantic study of word in the pre- and post-Islamic eras will reveal that the word has been used in different and even opposite senses. This means that، in the Age of Ignorance (pre-Islamic era)، under the time’s prevalent intellectual and cultural way of thinking، the word science was perceived differently than the age of Islam. Due to its historical importance and background، Mo‘allaqāt al-Sab‘a is a useful text for carrying out a semantic study of the word science in the Age of Ignorance. The Qur’an verses، as an important source from which Islamic principles and thoughts have emerged، can be useful for studying semantic change of the word in the pre-Islamic era. This study uses two aspects of semantic relationship، synonymy and antonymy، to do a semantic study of the word science in the Age of Ignorance and the Islamic era. In the antonymy method، the meaning of science has been determined through words which are used in the context as antonyms of science، and in the synonymy method، words which have been used as an alternative to science have been considered to specify the meaning of the word. In the Age of Ignorance، senses of the word science are basically related to the domains of personal experiences and one’s level of understanding the world around him، but in the sense of the word has gained some cognitive aspects in the Qur’an verses.

This paper studies basics of social congruence in the Constitutional Law and the Qur’an and their degree of conformity to each other. Various factors affect social congruence in every society، yet the role of the country’s doctrinal principles and positive law are very crucial. For analyzing the documents (which include full texts of the Holy Qur’an and the Constitutional Law)، this study focuses on teachings of the Qur’an and the principles of the Constitutional Law، and adopts a qualitative content analysis methodology using semantic classification، box plots and cumulative analysis of theme، which is the unit of analysis. The findings demonstrate that the teachings of the Holy Qur’an form the foundations of social congruence in doctrinal terms and in social and political aspects – a quality which is present in the Constitutional Law and is the bases for cohesive social behaviors. Moreover، social congruence is presented through several aspects، including values، cognition، role and dignity.

One of the important events in the history of the Islamic world which is often a source of pride for Turks and Persians is the battle of Malazkirt. This was a battle fought in 1071 between the Seljuq sultan، Alp Arslan، and the Byzantine emperor، Romanos IV Diogenes، and ended with the victory of Alp Arslan. The importance of this event and its short- and long-term political، social، economic، cultural and religious outcomes and effects in two different worlds، namely the Christian Europe and the Islamic world، have ever since drawn the attentions of many historians and scholars of the past and present. Many ideas have been proposed as to the fundamental reason (s) of Romanos defeat and Alp Arslan’s victory، and many factors have been discussed. None of the factors discussed in the primary and later sources and researches can be ignored or rejected، yet one important question one can ask about this battle is as to the place of religious factors and beliefs in this event. This paper hypothesized that spirituality and religious beliefs were not only a factor contributing to the victory of the Saljuq army، but they in fact formed the most important and fundamental factor. The fact the factor was overlooked in the non-Islamic (Byzantine، Greek، Christian، Armenian etc.) primary sources and that still there is no independent and serious contemporary research work on it led the author to offer an independent descriptive-analytical research work، based on primary sources and some other important studies، about the role of religious factors in the battle of Malazkirt.

In his reading of the teleological argument، Richard G. Swinburne tries to show that belief in God is plausible. He، however، argues that no proof for existence of God can ever establish mathematical certainty and that the set of such arguments only suggest that existence of God is more probable than the opposite. Swinburne makes a distinction between two types of order (temporal and special) and bases his argument on the temporal order. He makes a further distinction between two types of explanation: personal and scientific. He argues that scientific explanation is not capable of explaining the laws of nature and that one needs to turn to personal explanations for explaining these laws. For Swinburne، explaining the world using personal explanation is the simplest explanation one can give since it is free from any complexity. In other words، fewer the number of reasons needed to explain a phenomenon is، the easier the explanation will be. This paper argues that the concept of simplicity in Swinburne’s discussions is not without complexity and that it is vague. The paper further argues that the very assumption of existence of a metaphysical quality in explaining the phenomenon of order cannot be the simplest explanation، but rather، such assumptions makes the explanation more complicated.

This paper reviews and criticizes Francis Galton’s ideas on improvement of the races. Galton، a cousin of Charles Darwin، carried out statistical studies about UK’s important scientific، literary، sports and military figures from several generation and finally he claimed that intelligence and natural abilities of humans are transferred to them through heredity. He then proposed his thesis on improvement of the races، which is opposite to Darwin’s theory of evolution and is based on artificial selection rather than natural selection. Artificial selection supposedly increased intelligence of the human raise، which in turn would eliminate foolishness. Similar to domesticated animals، he argued، humans could be improved through artificial selection. By the early 20th century، Galton’s ideas had turned into a social movement in different countries of the world، including the UK، USA، and Germany)، resulting into legislation of unethical laws by the governments، including forced sterilization. In the Nazi Germany، improvement of races turned into an instrument for racism and committing horrific crimes. The idea of race improvement was never totally gone. Scientific advancements in the field of human genetics، the discovery of the DNA and decoding human genome، alongside a number of other factors، revived the idea of improvement of races in the early years after WWII. This new wave of improving races، unlike the first wave which was based on both scientific and pseudo-scientific beliefs، totally lied upon scientific beliefs and therefore could not be the subject of criticisms similar to those made of the first wave. Yet the idea of improving the races has always been subject of serious eithical criticisms due to its horrible outcomes and the many abuses that have taken place under the name of improvement. This paper tries to investigate and analyze important scientific and ethical criticisms made of the first wave of improvement of races.

Modern science has established that the sun’s rise and set are only apparel and that the sun’s apparel motion is the effect of the earth’s rotation around the sun and not the sun’s motion round the earth. Yet in an atmosphere where people could not imagine anything except the sun’s motion around the earth، the Qur’an stated that the sun is moving on a circular path. Today’s science has proved that the sun moves around the center of the milky way، but it will be wrong to claim that what the Qur’an says about the sun’s motion refers to this moving around the center of galaxy. The reason why such an assumption is wrong is that a wise and eloquent speaker would not say something which is improbable to be grasped by the immediate audience. Furthermore، if the Qur’an was referring to a motion other than the sun’s apparel motion، it would then make clear cases in order to clarify the point for the audience. Therefore it is plausible to argue that when the Qur’an speaks of the sun’s motion it is referring to its apparel motion، yet this point will raise no controversy between science and the Qur’an. The reason is that the Qur’an is not trying to explain a physical reality about the sun and is not referring to the sun’s motion as if explaining a scientific issue. But rather it aims to create an image which will increase faith and will draw their attentions to the creator.

Fruits are rich in vitamins، minerals and salts and consuming fruits has a significant role in the human health and in prevention and treatment of various diseases. Almighty God has mentioned the names of a number of fruits: grapes، pomegranate، palm date، fig and olive and has introduced them as fruits of paradise. Thus، there must be some physical and spiritual benefits in them. This paper aims to investigate therapeutic properties of these fruits from the perspective of the Qur’an and hadith and then make a comparison between them and findings of modern medical sciences. The goal is that the dynamic attitude of Islam، a powerful religion for all humans، will be demonstrated.