درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The narration of the life of some of the past tribes who lived after Noah has been mentioned in detail or in summary in the Qur’an. The fate of these tribes has mostly ended in divine punishment, which based of the geographical location, the type of sins of the people, and other reasons, this punishment has had different external manifestations, such as storm, ṣayḥah, sinking into the ground and drowning in water. Since the function of ṣayḥah (which is translated as loud and strong sound) as a destructive force is not as clear as the other punishments mentioned, the main goal of this research is to scientifically explain the function of ṣayḥah as a divine punishment. Due to the semantic similarities of ṣayḥah to sound wave (a type of pressure wave), the proposal here is the correspondence of ṣayḥah to shock wave which can be defined as a strong sound wave with a large amplitude. Recent advances in science have shown that this type of wave has a very high destructive power and has the ability to cause serious damage to living tissues of the body.  In this research, first, the different meanings of the word ṣayḥah have been studied according to Arabic lexicons, and then the verses of the Qur’an related to punishment by ṣayḥah that some past tribes have suffered have been carefully investigated. After studying the possibility of the destruction of the ṣayḥah, both in terms of the Qur’an and the latest developments in physics, as a suggestion for scientific interpretation, shock wave, which is a type of sound waves, has been proposed as a possible example to the punishment by ṣayḥah.

This article examines the beliefs of modern Muslims regarding miracles and supernatural claims. It looks at how modern Muslims have had to interpret most of the miracles mentioned in the Qur’an metaphorically or naturally in order to avoid accusations of error. It also examines the views of Muhammad Asad, who argued that the stories of miracles adopted traditional myths as a site for teaching morals. The article further explores the interpretations of naturalists, who interpret miracles in ways that do not contradict empirical observations of naturalism. Finally, it examines the influence of European and Christian ideas on modernist Muslims, and the silence of modernist commentators on the similarity in their ideas with some Christians who wrote a few generations before them. The conclusion is that modern Muslims have had to interpret miracles in ways that do not contradict empirical observations of naturalism, and that there is no tangible evidence that modernist Muslims have been influenced by the ideas of Europeans or earlier Christians.

The Lebanese scholar Chibli Mallat, analysing Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr’s work, affirms that the Iraqi intellectual proposed a completely new comprehensive theory of the Islamic State, focusing on constitutionalism and economics. Following Mallat’s intuition, this paper will focus on the second aspect of al-Ṣadr’s work. It will deal with the use of thematic Quranic exegesis (al- tafsīr al-mawḍūʿī ) in al-Ṣadr’s main work on economics, Iqtiṣādunā. The article will argue that al-Ṣadr’s use of this kind of exegesis is determined by his will to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Islamic vision of economics as a central part of a new Islamic society. Furthermore, the paper will argue that in al-Ṣadr’s work, this new conception of Islamic society is also voted to propose a valid alternative to capitalism and Marxism, both as economic systems and conceptions of society, fighting Western cultural influences and Epistemic colonisation. Henceforth, the article will frame al-Ṣadr’s effort to build a comprehensive critique of Western Epistemic colonisation within the concept of Cultural Hegemony and Counter-hegemony as defined by Asef Bayat and Antonio Gramsci and analyse his endeavours within this framework. To highlight these points, the presentation will provide an overview of the use of al-tafsīr al-mawḍūʿī in a short selection of passages from Iqtiṣādunā, drawing on the methodological framework provided by Gramsci, Bayat, and other scholars.

This paper seeks to explains the way in which the Qur’ān historically established its identity through its use of asmā’ al-Qur’ān ( al-qur’ān, al-kitāb, al-furqān, and al-dhikr ). In doing so, it combines the analysis of the literary feature and the historical chronology of every single use of asmā’ al-qur’ān terminologies during its formative period. This analysis requires the use of al-tartīb al-nuzūl approach—that of al-Jābiri—integrated with discourse analysis to understand the process of identity building of the Qur’an. According to this study, the Qur’ān language was the tool through which the Qur’ān distributed its power, both explicitly and implicitly. The implicit mechanism manifesting itself as the Qur’ān’s positional play between the traditional shi‘r and earlier scripture in order to influence the Quraish’s psychological state. The explicit mechanism is that it clearly declares itself to be the Arabic scripture ( Qur’ānan arabiyya ). Asmā’ al-Qur’ān plays an important role in both strategies. There would be no better way to gain influence for the Arab community, which valued language and had a strong emotional attachment to it. Even though few believed in it, the identity of the Qur’an had been successfully established through both strategies in its first seven years.

The existence of several causes of revelation for the first verses of Surat al-ʿAnkabūt and verse 60 of this surah, and talking about hypocrisy and migration (Hijrat) in this surah have caused some commentators to believe in the discrete revelation of it. While the multiplicity of causes of revelations about a verse leads to them becoming distrustful and invalid. Proposed reasons for rejecting these causes of revelations are: their multiplicity on a fixed subject, the existence of conflicting narrations, the anxiety in the mentioned narrations, having additional sections in some narrations compared to others, lack of coordination of cause of revelations in assigning the cause of the revelations to a specific verse or specific person, the existence of some causes of revelations of the excluded verses that shows they are Makki in opposition to the Quran and syntactic reasons based on the connection and coherence of the excluded verses with previous and subsequent verses. In this research, through descriptive-analytical method the causes of the excluded verses of Surat al-ʿAnkabūt have been criticized and the reasons of those who believe in exceptions have been rejected.

One of the phrases that has been considered by most commentators with the approach of empirical science is “the darkness of the three (the three veils of darkness)” in the verse (Q.39:6). They have interpreted this combination as the three darknesses of the abdomen, uterus and amnion-chorion. A view has also been put forward by contemporaries, which considers it as the spaces between the abdomen and uterus, the flesh of the uterus and the amnion, the amnion and the fetus, and has considered such an interpretation as an example of the scientific miracle of the Qur’an. In the meantime, another approach can be taken and based on the descriptive-analytical method and with the focus on the interdisciplinary approach, what is the “darkness of the three” is examined. Accordingly, by relying on the symbol of “complete and dense indifference and shapelessness before creation” for “darkness of the three,” this phrase can be considered as the platform for the formation of protein structures (based on genetic information contained in DNA codes), which are the cornerstone of the structure and biological processes of living organisms (without the production of proteins, no biological processes will be formed and no cells and organs will be made). It should be borne in mind that this interpretive possibility is also compatible with the components of the scientific miracle of the Qur’an. 

Some exegetic comments narrated from early scholars do not relate neither to the Quranic context, nor to lexicographical and linguistic evidences. As a case, such irrelevance can be observed for the verb faraḍa in the verse (Q.24:1), as well as the verse (Q.28:85). Regarding methodology, this research used both traditional lexicographical and linguistic etymological inquiries. The result of the research is the fact that both verses are speaking of the philosophy of the Quranic surahs being revealed gradually in separate parts appropriate to social occasions and the challenges in prophetic era.