Quran and Religious Enlightenment (قرآن و روشنگری دینی)

The purposefulness of divine actions is an important religious issue among thinkers. Belief in God's knowledge, wisdom, power, and justice requires the purposefulness of God's actions. This research is based on Rene Descartes' view on the answer to the question of determining the purposefulness of divine actions, which has been carried out through a descriptive-analytical method. In findings chapter, it explains Descartes' point of view in two areas of “the principle of the purposefulness of divine actions and the possibility of knowing the goals of divine actions. While confirming the first area of his view, in the second area and based on extra-religious evidence (reason) and internal religious foundations (Qur'an and hadiths), the raised misconception has been criticized and investigated. The result of the research shows that despite believing in the purposefulness of divine actions, Descartes considers it impossible to access and know the ultimate cause in divine actions due to human limitations, while in criticizing and confronting this matter and based on external evidence and teachings in the Qur’an and religion, divine actions not only have purpose, but also their recognition is possible and it has been acknowledged in various cases.

According to historiographical evidence, Surah al-Baqarah was the first Surah that was revealed after the Hijrah in Madinah. The variety and extent of the topics in this Surah caused it to be revealed two times during the first and second years of the Hijrah. During its revelation, the society in which the Messenger of God (PBUH) appeared was not uniformed, rather it was formed by scattered tribes, groups, and masses. The lack of a central government and a single religion had caused them not to have a common identity. Therefore, an important part of their political-social life was spending in war with each other. With the efforts of the Messenger of God (PBUH), this scattered society turned into a united form with an Islamic identity. Surah al-Baqarah has advanced the process of building a religious community in Medina step by step, and in this way, there have been suitable platforms for the vulnerability of the prophetic community. Since these platforms could create favorable conditions for the weakening and collapse of the internal cohesion of the prophetic community and as a result of the violation of the collective covenant and the scattering of the believers from around the Prophet (PBUH), in Surah al-Baqarah, through designing an engineering model, God provided the path of integration and cohesion in the prophetic society

The word “Shahr” is an important word in the calendar system of the Qur'an. As the main element of the Qur’an, words have a special place within its text. Therefore, studying and analyzing the meaning of Qur’anic words is a necessary method of understanding and correct interpretation of verses. This article aims to investigate the meaning of the word shahr in the Qur'an based on a descriptive-analytical method; Explaining the literal and idiomatic meaning, the application of this word in the Qur'an are as follows: the time to do or leave a certain task, measurement tool for valuing a specific phenomenon, one of the main bases of the calendar, and expressing God's genesis law in the number of months of the year. Some of the examples of shahr in the Qur'an are specific, meaning the crescent moon. In the cases where there is no specific example, it means the crescent moon in the customary and literal sense, which in order to observe caution and make calculations easier in custom, it is also used to mean a numerical month (30 days). Since God has based the guidance and development of humans on time, at the end of some of the discussed verses, God speaks about the piety and the need to pay attention to Divine limits, such as observing the limits of certain months and their rules

The Holy Qur’an has a single source and there is no difference between its verses. Therefore, some Surahs of the Holy Qur’an may be put together to get a better understanding of them. And based on the method of verbal and spiritual analogies, one Surah should be placed at the center and the its connection with other Surahs of the Holy Qur’an would be discovered. “The network connection of the Surahs of the Qur’an” is a new term that speaks of the structural and content relation between Surahs. The methods of network connections between the Surahs of the Holy Qur’an can be summarized in the thematic congruence between adjacent Surahs, congruence between a set of Surahs, congruence between the beginning of a Surah and the end of the previous one, congruence between two consecutive Surahs at the beginning or end, rhyme, common purpose, and common theme. This research analyzes the network connections of Surah al-Inshiqāq with its adjacent Surahs (Al-Infitār, Mutaffifīn, Burūj, Tāriq) with a descriptive analytical method in two aspects of structural and content congruence. In conclusion, this Surah has structural and literary connections, including the congruence of the beginning, rhyme, analogy, and literary imagery, which all are in one structural group. The research also shows that this Surah has content connections including the Unity of God, mentioning the events of the Day of Judgment, grouping of people in the Day of Judgment, and common purpose.

“Individualization” (Tafarrud), a fundamental principle of education, means that a person, despite similarities with his fellows, has psychological characteristics and unique abilities that distinguish him from others. It is important to pay attention to this principle in identifying the talents and abilities of people and their proper direction for correct education. This article investigates the role of the principle of "individualization" in education from the perspective of the Qur’an and Hadith and examines its position in education based on a descriptive-analytical method. Findings show that the differences between people are divided into two categories, individual and group differences, and for individual differences, there are two concepts of inter-individual and intra-individual differences. People have inter-individual differences in terms of faith, knowledge, talents and abilities, emotions, and feelings. In addition, in terms of differences in abilities and talents in a person, they have intra-individual differences. Also, there are social differences in terms of social position, gender, geographical location, etc., so that paying attention to these differences is effective in the formation of correct education. Therefore, in educational matters, in order to achieve educational goals, attention should be paid to individual and social differences.

Commentary writing on the Holy Qur'an has been a very important matter due to the position of this book among Muslims. Many works have been written in this field since long ago. One of the important points regarding the interpretations is their effect on the understanding of the Book by ordinary people and as a result, forming a public discourse of the Holy Qur’an. Extravagance (isrāf) is a Qur’anic term that occurs 23 times in this Holy Text. The discourse in the general culture of the meaning of extravagance brings the misconception that it has only a material and economic meaning. Based on this concept, many commentators have taken the task of justifying some of the uses of extravagance, such as “asrafū ‘alā anfusihim.” This research intends to answer the doubt by using etymological methods and structural semantics, in library tools. It concludes that there are two types of extravagance in the Holy Qur’an: first, the economic and material extravagance that is related to the consumption and can be seen in usages such as “kulū wal-shrabū wa lā tusrifū”. Second, which results from the application of the two mentioned methods, is equal to the mental state arising from excitement, greed, and lust. This meaning does not necessarily relate to the consumption, but appears in applications such as “lā tusrif fī al-qatl”.

Exegetical theories of human knowledge include human understanding of the divine word. No textual theory is formed in a vacuum. The prominent events and currents in the society, both political and cultural, create discourses in the society. Social events such as Marxism, liberalism, nationalism and other schools, the formation of international institutions and human rights, the occurrence of religious reformism, the fight against colonialism in Islamic countries, etc. during the last century created discourses in the society that caused changes in scientific attitudes and human and Islamic sciences, and then, the interpretation of the Qur'an. Compared to the traditional interpretation of the past fourteen centuries, these discourses placed in the form of a re-thinking or new-thinking interpretation. According to the claim of the immortality of the Qur'an, this validity is responsible for its relevance to the times. The interpretation and reading of the Qur'an is responsible for this update. Therefore, this article tries to refer to the effective discourses in recent centuries with the help of social issues and analytical approach and to measure the reflection of these discourses and the new and innovative opinions of commentators and researchers in the form of concrete examples of the impact of these discourses. The selected discourses are the discourse of religious reformation and return to the Qur'an, the discourse of new schools and isms, and the discourse of experimental sciences. However, there are definitely other effective discourses that cannot be discussed in this article. The purpose of this research is to gain self-awareness in discourse-oriented interpretations and attempt to conceptualize discourses. It is an attempt to provide a framework for some of the effective factors in interpretive innovation.

The infallibility of Imams (AS) is one of the true beliefs of Shiites, for the Imam is the messenger of God and the guardian of the Divine religion. This fundamental belief has been disputed and challenged by the Shiite opponents, among them are the misconceptions raised by Dr. Qaffārī. His doubts include, for instance, the doubt that this belief has been innovative concerning its background, the rejection of Shiite reasons for infallibility regarding the Qur'an and intellect, and the fruitlessness of this belief for Shi’a. This study, first, deals with the doubts of Qaffārī about infallibility and then answers the doubts and objections raised in this regard, relying on the verses of the Holy Qur’an and Shiite and Sunni commentaries. Referring to the Holy Qur'an, it is proved that the subject of infallibility is mixed with the position of Imamate and succession. Accordingly, the source of division among the Islamic Ummah is the lack of belief in the infallibility of the Messenger of God (PBUH) and his successors, which has caused seditions and disputes since the death of the Prophet (PBUH) until now. As a result, to come out of the current conditions of the Islamic world, Muslims should believe in the necessity of obeying the Infallible 'Ul al-'Amr.

The Qur'an, like other holy books, has smaller sections that are called "Surahs" based on the Qur'anic verses. The significant and privileged position of the Qur'an is accepted by all Islamic religions, and the effort to preserve this position, along with the divinity of its words, has caused most of the debates that refer to the structure of the Qur'an to be considered Tawfīqī (non-arbitrary) matters. The arrangement of the verses and the scope of the Surahs is one of the things that there is a consensus on their being non-arbitrary; However, there are two general views regarding the naming of the Surahs of the Qur'an. Most of the Qur'anic scholars believe that based on narrative and rational reasons, the naming of Surahs is one of the non-arbitrary matters; while some experts have considered it as a matter of ijtihād2. The acceptance of each point of view will have different jurisprudential effects. This research is of a qualitative type and has investigated the mentioned issue through a descriptive-analytical method based on content analysis. This study by inferring the arguments of both views and relying on the historical analysis of the stages of naming the Surahs of the Qur'an, has preferred the view of Ijtihādī-oriented naming. Of the most important jurisprudential effects of accepting ijtihād in naming Surahs of the Qur'an is the permissibility of accepting new names for Surahs, the point that the Qur'anic names do not imply the valuing of people or the subject, the impossibility of inferring jurisprudential rulings by referring to the names of the Surahs or proving the virtue of names, etc.

Grammarians and commentators disagree about the syntactic role of "Asbata" in the verse "…va qaṭṭa'nāhumuth-natay 'ashrata asbāṭan…" (وَ قَطَّعْناهُمُ اثْنَتَیْ عَشْرَهَ أَسْباطا) and have proposed several roles for it. According to Arabic grammar, the accusative of specification (tamiz) the numbers eleven and nineteen must be singular and assigned. The accusative of specification (tamiz) the number "twelve" in the above verse should come in the form of "sabṭan", while it is plural and accusative, which is against the grammar. For this reason, four grammatical roles are mentioned for it in syntactic and explanatory sources. Christoph Luxenberg, the author of the book "Syriac-Aramaic reading of the Qur'an", believes that the grammatical role of "asbaṭan" is distinctive accusative of specification (tamiz) ; But not according to the Arabic grammar, but according to the Syriac grammar. He considers the difference of opinion of grammarians and commentators in the role of "asbaṭan" due to their lack of familiarity with the Syriac Aramaic language and its influence on the Arabic language and the Qur'an. The current research has reviewed Luxenberg's point of view in this regard with the library method and comparative approach. Although there are some similarities between Syriac and Arabic syntax, the results indicate that Luxenberg's claim is not true.

Social issues and social participation and deviations are important issues in divine discussions and teachings. In a number of verses of the Qur’an and the Testaments, the issue of social participation and feeling of anomie has been discussed with similarities and differences. The questions raised here, “what cases and examples of the meaning of anomie are expressed in the Holy Qur’an and the Testaments?” and “what is its relation with social participation?” This research studies and analyzes the issue in the Holy Qur’an and the Testaments, using the comparative study and the descriptive-analytical method. In conclusion, if the members of the society consciously organize their actions, participate with each other, and obey the commands of God and the Prophets, problems and dilemmas mostly will be solved by themselves and the society will move towards happiness and prosperity. In contrast, if the participation and mutual solidarity of people in the society are lost and disobedience to the divine commands and opposition to the divine prophets become widespread in the society, members become abnormal. In case this situation spreads in the society generally, the society will suffer from anomie, abnormality, and disorder.

The existence of differences in the interpretive opinions of Muslims is undeniable, and one of the serious issues in exegetical discussions is to find the root of the differences in the opinions of commentators of the Holy Qur’an (especially in presenting traditional or modern interpretations). Commentators have different preconceptions and views on various issues, especially about some verses related to women. Some commentators have a traditional view and some have a modern view. This essay examines culture and gender and their role in providing traditional and modern interpretation. The method of collecting materials is desk study and the method of processing them is descriptive-analytical. After the investigations, it was found that different presuppositions and cultures play a role in presenting different interpretations and an example of traditional commentary about women can be seen in the commentary of Banu Amin and an example of modern interpretation can be seen in the opinions of Amina Wadud, and their opinions also had problems that were pointed out. The factors causing modern interpretations are: 1- The flourishing of human reasons; 2- Journeys; 3- meeting special people, 4- Cultural and social conditions.