معرفت

Searching for Transcendence and Other Worldly Virtues

   Professor Mohammad Taghi Mesbah

Recalling death is the greatest elixir that encourages man to survive in the world, to pin his hope on and to prepare for the hereafter. In religious thought, man’s life has five phases: embryonic life, infantry, puberty and adult phase, the purgatory, and life in the purgatory.

The first four phases of life are transient and prelude to achieve eternal life in the hereafter. In all these four phases, man is in motion and journey. He must make provisions. Good deeds and those performed to seek  God nearness to in this world are useful in the hereafter. the present article  explains Imam Saddjad’s (A.S) Monajat al-Raghebin( the supplications of the motivated) about provisions of, and pondering about the hereafter, according to believer’s viewpoint.

Key words: man, believer, provision, supplication, phases of life, the purgatory, resurrection

Educational Methods in the Qur'an                                              Abd al-Ali Pakzad

Islam is a set of beliefs, moral rules and principles. Religious man has not only orthodox belief in Islam and acts according to its rules, but also is adorned with Islamic ethics.

“Due to the fact that man is apt to be endowed with moral virtues”, the aim of revealing the Glorious Qur'an and sending messengers is to endow man with moral virtues, and to educate him using educational methods. The present paper investigates five educational methods of the Qur'an, using descriptive-analytical approach and explanatory method. Qur'anic educational methods include: exciting the virtues of moral disposition, giving advice and admonition, forgiving, doing liturgical acts, and providing goodly example.

Since the Qur'an is the book of guidance, it has everything needed to guide man. Furthermore, since the Creator of man knows all his characteristics and qualifications, all instructions that He mentions in the Qur'an are flawless. Hence, to achieve our innate goal, we must search the best educational method in the Glorious Qur'an and use its educational methods to educate ourselves and others, as well.

Key words: the Quran, education, educational method, moral virtues, advice and admonition, forgiveness, liturgical acts, goodly example.

Principles and Stages of Religious Education of children: with Emphasis on Words and Conducts of Apostle of God (may the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) Mahsa Fazeli

Religious education means to make a set of changes in man’s thought and belief to create a certain kind of deed and behavior that is based on regulations of a school of religious law. In the light of these changes, individual’s morals, habits, manners, personal and social behaviors and relations take a religious form. Since religious education begins from childhood or even before birth, it is very important and necessary to pay attention to religious education of children from personal, familial and social aspects.

Present paper defines the stages of religious education, its nature and principles, using a documentary study. Since the aim of all messengers, particularly the Holy Apostle of God, Mohammad, (may the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) have been to educate man, this paper deals with words and deeds of the Messenger of Allah (may the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) about religious education of children. The messenger of Allah (may the blessing and peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny), as the religious leader of society, had paid special attention to children and emphasized on their religious education. Furthermore, this paper investigates His Highness’s many reported teachings on the nature and stages of religious education (embryonic stage, infantry and babyhood, the first seven years, and the second seven years, etc).

Key words: education, religious education, principles of education, stages of education

Principles of Behavior Modification and change in the Conducts of the Fourteen Infallibles (A.S)                                                                             Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi Dehshiri

Present paper aims at investigating the principles of behavior modification and change in the conducts of the fourteen infallibles (A.S), using a documentary and analytic method. To this aim, general principles are inferred and extracted through investigating the conducts (deeds and words) of these men of honor. These general principles are as follows: the principle of preserving man’s dignity and worthiness, the principle of necessity of conducting behavior, the principle of using tolerant methods prior to severe punitive ones, and the principle of using indirect and practical methods prior to direct and oral ones. The conducts of the Fourteen Infallibles show that these men of honor paid attention not only to the change but also modification of behavior.

Key words: the Fourteen Infallibles (A.S), conducts, modification of behavior, change of behavior, principles

Rethinking about the Significance, Position, Challenges, and Impacts of Habit-formation in the Process of Islamic Education

Mohammad Rahmanpoor- Hassan-Ali Bakhtiar Nasrabadi

Different ways have been recommended to educate men in the process of Islamic education. “Habit-formation or forming habits” is a way that has been emphasized from the advent of Islam till now. Since education, to a large extent, deals with teaching, we must observe how the process of habit-formation takes an educational form, and how it can be an effective way in Islamic education of man.

Present paper discusses the position of habit formation according to religious, philosophical, and psychological doctrines, and investigates its educational consequences, obstacles and challenges. Furthermore, it explains the exact meaning of habit and elements influencing it. The research method is analytical- inductive.

The research findings show that although forming habits[ in human beings] can be an effective way in religious or Islamic education in some stages of life, particularly in childhood, its educational value in higher stages decreases because of its complete incompatibility with the process of logical thinking.

Key words: habit, education, challenges, habit-formation

Educational Preparation of Mahdism                                           Mohammad Ehsani

Mahdism is one of the important and current issues in society and has a direct relationship with man’s individual and social life. Some infuse that having  belief in the Appearance of al- Mahdi(Imam Mahdi) (A.S) has not any effect on man’s life. According to them, having belief in an absent and hidden person, who has not any relation with man, cannot solve any problem and show any way.

The present inquiry aims at explaining the effectiveness of belief in Mahdism on educational duties of individuals, family, government, and the extent to which this belief exerts its influence on man’s life. The research method is analytical and descriptive. This paper provides answers to research questions through a religious approach, and holds that, waiting for  the Universal Saviour has many individual and social effects on man’s life as far as educational purposes are concerned.

Key words: Mahdism, education, preparation, educational effect, individual, family, government, educational duty

Functions and Techniques of Tolerance in Social Life                      Ali Husseinzade

The present inquiry investigates the significance of tolerance, necessary conditions and obstacles of its realization. It also investigates the samples of tolerance and the ways in which we put up with others. Its significance and role in healthy life is very important. This paper aims at explaining the position of tolerance, its limits, and decreasing or increasing its potential damages. This aim helps us find one of the best techniques to create stability and persistence in life, to bring peace and joy for family members, to secure their demands, to meet their needs, and to achieve happiness and felicity.

The research method is analytical-descriptive which is based on religious and psychological data.  The main findings of the research show that goodness and blessing, security, enjoyment, happiness, love, purging rancour(resentment), increase in sustenance, and success and stability in life are the positive outcomes of tolerance. Such behaviors as being secretive, exculpating, joking, echoic behaving, changing second order, eliminating the conflict, focusing on merits, performing opposite role, and self-restraint are considered examples of existing skills to achieve tolerance.

Key words: tolerance, satisfaction, peace, success, negligence, broad mindedness

Strategies for Developing and Institutionalizing Chastity

Mohsen Fattahi Ardakani – Fatemeh Hatefi

Chastity and continence are moral values which have been emphasized in religious texts and have a significant role in individual and social health, on which happiness and perfection of individual and society rely. To be sure, if individual and society commit to chastity and continence, it will achieve happiness. In contrast, a society that does not commit to moral principles, including chastity and continence, will not achieve happiness. No doubt, religious texts have also drawn up strategies to develop and institutionalize chastity and continence in the society.

The present paper investigates and explains modus operands to develop and institutionalize chastity and continence in Islamic society, using library method and documentary study.

Key words: continence, chastity, faith, veil, inheritance, education, instincts adjustment.

Gender Roles of Man and Woman in Family System                   Ali-Ahmad Panahi

The present inquiry aims at specifying the position of spouses marriage partners in family system according to religious doctrines, using a psychological approach and analytical- descriptive method.

A family system and gender role of spouses, like any other human and social systems, has an organization. In any organization, everyone has a special position for himself, which characterizes his power and influence on others. In a family system, too, every member should perform certain duties and responsibilities according to his/her special role. Furthermore, the position and hierarchy of family members are clear.  Many theorists on family, like Mino chin, Ghee Lee, and Goldenberg, consider clear and explicit intra-family hierarchy and performing respective and appropriate roles as presuppositions of family efficiency and exultation. According to them, placing family members, especially spouses, in their respective and appropriate roles is the criterion of family health and normality. Religious doctrines have paid especial attention to the gender roles of spouses which this research investigates.

Key words: spouses, gender, role, religious doctrines, coherence

Exploring the Deterring Factors Affecting the Researches of the Seminary Students Seifollah fazlollahi Ghomashi

The present research tries to identify the deterring factors affecting the researches of the seminary students in Qom, and to rank the solutions, according to the viewpoints of Qom seminary students in grade four. The research method is descriptive – survey, the statistical population is all seminary students in grade four, and the statistical sample is fifty seminary students who have been selected through simple random. The research instrument to gather data is a researcher–made questionnaire which consists of 35 items with 91% reliability, in order to identify deterring factors, and eleven solutions corresponding to the rank measurement with experts, face reliability.  Chi-squared test and the design analysis of variance including one-way (F) have been used to analyze the data. The research findings show that cultural factors, policy making in research system, individual, bureaucratic–structural factors, the way of providing research services, and motivation have respectively deterring effect on the seminary students’ researches. The most significant deterring factors are, respectively, hard access to experienced and specialized professors to give guidance and advice on projects, seminary students’ different preoccupations with making a livelihood, and their little familiarity with research methods.

Key words: research, deterring factors, the seminary students in grade four, Qom Seminary, solutions.

Features of Curriculum with Emphasis on Allame Tabātabāī’s Viewpoint

Mahdie Kashani – Reza-Ali Noroozi

Every educational system has elements and components, the quality and quantity of which are determined according to its cognitive fundamentals. One of these fundamental elements is curriculum, the aim of which is determined in terms of philosophical, scientific, psychological... principals.  Accuracy and stability of cognitive fundamentals will secure the final efficiency of a curriculum. Therefore, planners, in referring to epistemological components, must make sure of their comprehensiveness and accuracy, and then regulate the orientation of curriculum content accordingly.

The present paper, through investigating Allāme Tabātabāī’s philosophical and religious viewpoints and using an analytical-descriptive method, tries to prepare the ground for the formation of such cognitive fundamentals in order to be able to achieve some of the important rubrics about efficient curriculum. Considering the  studies which have already been done, it can be said this paper investigates four basic rubrics – features and characteristics of curriculum, branches of science, content of science, pathology of science- with a view on Allāme Tabātabāī’s viewpoints on the issue, and mentions their features and requirements.

Key words: features of curriculum, curriculum, Allāme Tabātabāī’