فصلنامه سراج منیر
پیاپی 15 (تابستان 1393)

The issue of the finalization of Quran’s text in the past few decades, from the viewpoint of western Quran scholars known as revisionists, has been criticized. This group, with John Wensbrough as their head, the author of Quran Studies, and his students, have skeptically reviewed all the documents and sources of Muslims that are used in the finalization of the text of Quran. One of these sources is the Islamic narratives which, in the eyes of traditional orientalists such as Noldke and Shwaly, are historical documents with a pivotal role in solving this issue. On the other side, proponents of revision consider these narratives invalid and have created a challenge in the path of Islamic sources, the most important of them being the Quran. In recent years, some western Islam scholars, with their pioneer being Harold Mutsky, have regarded these narratives as valid historical documents by criticizing the viewpoint of revisionists. Harold Mutsky, by criticizing the views of his predecessors and contemporaries, by dating the narratives and collecting and codifying the Quran, has determined the finalization of Quran’s text to be the third quarter of the first century, which shows the finalization of Quran to be after the passing of the Prophet (pbuh). In this paper, in addition to describing his method his dating and codifying the Quran, we have complemented the results of these narratives in finalization of Quran’s text. Afterwards, by considering other narrative evidences, the results of dating during the third quarter of the first century has been reinforced.

Unconditional following of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) is a sharia and intellectual matter, as a person, regardless of apparently considering himself as a believer, he is indeed not so if he acts based on his own liking or act according to the sayings of the Prophet (pbuh) whenever they are in accordance with his worldly tendencies or oppose the Prophet (pbuh) in case his sayings are not to his liking. In fact, such a person is either a dissenter or negligent regarding the truth of religion. Either way, he is not of or among the believers. A negligent person should be made aware and a dissenter should be avoided and, if possible, made known to the believers. Based on Quran verses and narratives, this work aims to investigate the necessity of following Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) and other infallibles, explain the matter of opposing these individuals of higher positions, and write about the effects and consequences of harming them.

In this article, the infallibility narratives in Shia valid hadith books, such as "al-Kafi, Maniyalakhbar, Alkhesal and Kafayatalasar" have been under textual and evidence-based studies and it has been specified that the most important document proving Imams’ (pbut) infallibility, is the texts of the Quran and those hadiths upon which there are consensus among the Imamiye. The main objective of this paper is to study the narratives in which the term “infallibility" was used and according to the survey, such narratives are about 47 Hadith and with eliminating duplicates, they are nearly 15 Hadith. In general, the narrator was investigated by Shieh scholars vote and it was found that most of the chain of infallibility narrations, are authoritative people. Of course some of them are not reliable, according to scholars, but a percentage of the unknown narrators, are those in the chain of tradition "Kalaamalzyarat" and since Ibn Quluyeh, in the preface to this book, has introduced all the book's narrators as reliable, a degree of reliability can be defined for the individuals. Among these narratives, most of them are Moanan Hadiths which include authentic and reliable hadiths. Checking the content of the narratives suggest that the prevailing traditions, virtues and attributes that a person needs to be infallible, from among these traits innocent, faithful to God, clearance of sins and imperfections. Checking the content of the narratives suggest that the prevailing traditions are the virtues and attributes that a person needs to be infallible, including infallibility from sin, being a confidante of God, being clean from sin and imperfection etc. Based on the investigations, it has been shown that these attributes belong to the imams and the prophet who are infallible from God.

Understanding the earth and its related issues is so diverse that has created an independent science called geology, and makes the mind of any person curious as to how these issues have been precisely known and explained in the Quran, Prophet Mohammed (pbuh)’s miracle and Imam Ali (pbuh)’s Nahj’albalaghah. This means that the Quran, at the time of its presence, has explained scientific issues based on the available scientific capacity [of the people]. This paper, using Quran verses and the valuable saying of Imam Ali (pbuh), has reviewed the available sciences in this text regarding the creation, shape, movement, creatures, end etc. of the earth and has finally made a comparison between these texts and present geology.

Magic is literally anything or any work whose source is secret and hidden, but in laymen’s term, it is often referred to the fantastic works done by various means. Magic is learnable and its origins is of the devil, so those who use magic are associated with demons. According to God’s emphasis in the Quran, it can be concluded that some of the branches of magic is real. Islam, however, strongly discourages going into these matters and using them, as is the case with Judaism in which magic is also considerably forbidden, although Jewish people have committed this sin greatly. Of course, learning magic is not forbidden on its own and requires its own individuals (because, otherwise, it would lead to personal and social or even family problems). In this study, after reviewing the literal meaning of the term magic and the words associated with it, magic is studied from the viewpoints of of Islam and Judaism. Also, it has been tried to study the expression of its subsidiaries, and distinguish examples of actual cases from false recognitions and review the rulings of Islam and the Bible around this issue.

Criticism and its acceptance has a special place in the Islamic community. Correct criticism causes a recognition of strengths and weaknesses and leads the way to progress and reform. To realize the main target of criticism which is the development and modification of the individual and society, as stressed by Islam, it is necessary to conduct a criticism based on correct principles and procedures. The best way to achieve the principles and procedures of criticism, acceptable by Islam, is using religious texts, that is the Quran and the words of the infallibles (pbut). By examining the criticisms that have been made in the Quran and Nahj’albalaghah, we can understand the principles and methods of right and constructive criticism.