معرفت

The High Aspirations of God’s Friends

Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Misbah

Abstract
In his whispered prayer of the knowers, Imam Sajjad deals with the subject of knowledge and love of God. The more one’s love towards God is, the greater his knowledge of God will be. Paying great attention to the worldly things, however decreases one’s zeal and love and knowledge of God. This is because the darkness and veil of this world hinder one from grasping the truths about the universe. Imam Sajjad asks God to assign him amongst those from whom darkness of the heart and doubts in beliefs are removed.
Open-mindedness which is a sort of one’s feeling of great joy and readiness for work, thinking, worship and affection that bring one closer to God. One can, through God’s proximity, become God-like and acquire divine knowledge and affection.
Keywords: open-mindedness, love, knowledge of God, good pleasure, divine relinquishments.

A Review of Applying Commentary Rules in Majma'l Bayan Commentary

Mahmood Haji Ahmadi, Ali Akbar Babaii
Abstract
Understanding a text in general and the Quran in particular depends on certain rules which should be taken into consideration in understanding and interpreting the text. The extent of following these rules by the interpreter, his skill in applying them in interpreting the text, that is, explaining the meaning intended by God and following the rules of Arabic and the formal rules of dialogue, are of great help in this regard.
Majma'l Bayan, by the late Tabarsi has always been regarded as one of the main all-comprehensive Shiite commentaries. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper seeks to show to what extent has the late Tabarsi followed the rules of commentary. The research findings show that he has carefully abided by these rules. He has been very successful in using some rules including relying on correct recitation, separation between commentary and (spiritual) hermeneutics, Arabic literature and making use of context clues. However, his work is not quite accurate in some other aspects, such as delicacies of meanings-rhetoric, judgment about traditions and use of science and methodology.
Key words: commentary rules, Majma'l Bayan, Tabarsi, correct recitation, context clue.

The Stage of Exploratory Study of Quranic Theorization

Mustafa Karimi
Abstract
The only way for achieving guidance and transcendence and easing the material and spiritual sufferings that inflict Islamic societies is through the Qur'an; that is, by extracting the theories of the Qur'an on different subjects and actualizing them. There are two general ways for understanding the Qur'an. The first is the sequential interpretation which emphasizes on understanding the individual's intention and divine purpose of every single verse; and the second is theorization and thematic interpretation, which seeks to understand the theories of the Qur'an on different subjects by compiling and classifying all the related verses and on the basis of a systematic examination. Relying on correct principles and passing through all the stages properly and invulnerably are necessary for understanding the views of the Qur'an. One of these stages is the explorative study of Qura'nic verses. This stage is of great importance because It is in this stage that the ground for Qur'anic theorization is prepared.
Using a descriptive-analytical method and a library-based survey, the present article investigates the pathology of the stage of exploratory study in order to provide a good ground for correct Qur'anic theorization and overcome some of its shortcomings.
Key words: The Quran, Quranic theorization, thematic interpretation, exploratory study, methods of exploratory study, damages of exploratory study.     

Freedom of Qur'nic Verses from Inconsistency in the view of the Quran and Hadith

Esmaeel Sultani Beirami
Abstract
One of the features of the Holy Quran is it's being devoid of any kind of inconsistency and defect that contradict with its being divine. Proving this feature of the Quran is one of the preliminaries to prove the miraculous aspect of its consistency.
This paper seeks to through a descriptive and critical analytical approach confirm that this feature is characteristic of the Quran. The existence of inconsistency in the Quran is against divine wisdom; moreover Surah Nisa 82 explicitly rejects such inconsistency. In some other verses, some Qur'nic features like "being free from crookedness" have been emphasized, which indicates its being devoid of inconsistency. Many narrations show the congruency and consistency among Qur'anic verses and also provide an answer to the verses that are thought to have contradiction. Considering every single Qur'anic verse contrasting the verses with one another and proving the congruency among them is one of the rare ways of proving its consistency which is examined in two sections: "congruency and relationship among adjacent verses" and "congruency of non- adjacent verses".
Key words: the Quran, narrations, the miraculous aspect of the Qur'an consistency, freedom of the Qur'an from contradiction, the proofs of consistency in the Quran, the verses which are thought to have contradiction.

A Critique of the Gradual Interpretation with Emphasis on Hadith Commentary

Ali Akbar Shayeste Nejad
Abstract
Gradual interpretation is one of the approaches to the Quran commentary. Up to now, Shia interpreters have not compiled a complete commentary based on this approach. Sunni interpreters (Al Qazi and Druze), however have dealt with it. Some thinkers have considered it necessary for reconstructing the history of Islam and some have deemed it necessary for a better understanding of the Quran. Some have considered it as a unique approach and denounced the other commentaries. The writer's aim is to show that gradual interpretation is not superior to ordinal interpretation. This paper is a fundamental type of research, and the author proves his claim through a content analysis method and descriptive and library–based approach. The paper concludes that, considering the impossibility of determining the exact order in which the verses and the chapters were revealed and not emphasizing on the certainty of this kind of interpretation and superiority, etc by religions leaders, some consider the drawbacks of Druze's Hadith interpretation and gradual interpretation as a kind of innovation and novelty in interpretation but its advantage over ordinal interpretation is not provable.
Key words: interpreters' motivation, gradual interpretation, fundamentals of interpretation, Meccan and Medinite, Druze, hadith commentary.

The Behavioral Factors of Spouses’ Compatibility from Qur'anic viewpoint

Hamid Vahidian Ardakan – Mahmood Rajabi
Abstract
Family, its stability and ensuring the compatibility between the spouses are among the highlighted issues in the Holy Quran. On the other hand, the family’s stability has important individual and social effects on the life of spouses and society. The present paper seeks to clarify the behavioral factors of the spouses’ compatibility from the viewpoint of the Holy Quran. The methods used in this research include gathering information, investigating expository narrations and analytical data processing.  
A study of Qur'anic verses shows that the behavioral factors for the compatibility between the spouses are as follow: observing religious precepts, trust in God, behaving within chastity precinct, preparing the ground for enjoying Divine grace, devout obedience to God, patience, observing the spouse’s rights, holding on to the social values of behavior and observing the husband’s rights in his absence.
Key words: compatibility, spouses, behavioral, the Holy Quran, narrations.

The Behavioral Factors of Deviation from religion in the View of the Quran

Mohammad Zahedi, Hamid Aryan
Abstract
Deviation from divine religion is ascribed to insightful, environmental, behavioral, and attitudinal factors. The present paper which aims at identifying and studying the detrimental behaviors that cause doctrinal deviations from the Qur'anic point of view, analyzes the behavioral factors of deviation from the religion in the view of the Quran. a descriptive –analytic approach is used in this study. According to the Quran, the behavioral factors of deviation from the religion include: oppression, impiety, crime, jealousy, lying, disobedience, breach of promise, prodigality, not giving donation, idle talk and plutocracy, each of which, as Qur'anic verses state, leads to man’s doctrinal deviation. From the viewpoint of the Quran, oppression causes aberrance. Impiety results in a covering on the heart. Crime leads to separation from God. Disobedience causes denial of prophet’s messengers. Jealousy leads to disbelieving prophets. Lying causes hypocrisy. Breach of promise results in hardheartedness and denial of the Doomsday. Prodigality leads to going astray and companionship of Satan. Plutocracy is the root of insolence and blasphemy. Not giving donation corresponds to polytheism.
Key words: religion, deviation, causes of deviation, doctrinal deviation, behavioral causes of deviation.

The Qur'an and the Behavioral Obstacles to Attaining Divine Love in Relation to Members of Society

Hussein Taj-Aldin, Mustafa Karimi
Abstract
In order to attain divine love, we need to know the obstacles to it and try to remove them. On the basis of existential dimensions of human being, these obstacles are of different kinds: doctrinal, attitudinal, and behavioral (relating to inner and outer organs). Behavioral obstacles are those which hinder one from knowing God, self, members of society and nature. This research deals only with the behavioral obstacles to attaining divine love in relation to the members of society from a Quranic perspective. The method of data collection is a library-based and note taking. The findings of this research show that some unbecoming behaviors with the members of society impede divine love, including corruption in the society (like waging war and slaughtering of generation) encroaching upon other people's right in order to retaliate, betrayal (attributing ones' sin to others and treason) stating cross words about the others, contradiction between words and actions and pompous arrogance. These improper behaviors constitute a kind of encroaching upon the rights of the others.
Key words: love, enjoying divine love, behavioral obstacles of inner organs, obstacles to divine love, hatred

The Criteria of Speech in Islam

Ghodrat Zolfaghari , Sohrab Morovati , Mohammad Reza Shirkhani
Abstract
In any society and language, speech and the way of delivering it is a daily necessity of man’s life. Therefore, religious teachings, specifically the Holy Quran and the narrations of the Infallible Imams (peace be upon them) contain explicit and implicit references about speech and its components. Based on an analytical, library-based approach, this study which refers to the verses of the Holy Quran and the words of the Infallibles (peace be upon them) points out the important criteria of speech. In order to achieve this aim, the question concerning how and why speech is delivered has been analyzed in the light of Qur'anic verses and narrations. The findings of the study show that such features like purpose_centredness, richness, stating the truth, using tender words, honesty, frankness, vitality and vivacity, general reverence, avoiding calumny and falsehood etc. are among the main criteria of the effectiveness of a good speech.

Key words: effective speech, impressive words, good speech, the criteria of speech, speech in the Quran, speech in the narrations of the Infallibles.