درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This current study is an attempt for some scientific insights about the verse 45 of Surah Al-kahf. In this verse, God said, “And present to them the example of the life of this world, like water which we send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth mingles with it and [then] it becomes broken, scattered by the winds”. In common interpretations, the pronoun in the statement “it becomes broken, scattered by the wind” has been directed to plants not to water. However, in my new approach to interpreting this verse, the pronoun will refer to water, not plants, which is also linguistically acceptable. The purpose of this paper is to show that, despite the common interpretation of this verse, an alternative interpretation can be provided that is both linguistically and scientifically plausible. The results show that based on this new interpretation, it can be said that in this verse, the comparison of the scenario of life in relation to humans to the scenario of water in relation to plants is in good harmony with scientific findings about what happens for water in the plant. When water enters the plant, it can go through two pathways; transpiration or photosynthesis, in both of which a type of breakdown occurs for water. In the first pathway, i.e. transpiration, hydrogen bonds of water molecules are broken so that water is transformed from liquid to gas. In the second pathway, i.e. photosynthesis, the water molecules are broken into oxygen, protons and electrons. The products resulted (water vapor and oxygen) are scattered by external winds. Protons and electrons contribute to the electrochemical potential driving ATP and NADPH formation, or in another words, they are scattered by internal wind. Therefore, it can be said that referring to the phenomena of water breakdown in the plants and then its dispersion, in the verse, is an accurate expression that is also confirmed by science.

Some religious modernists believe that correct and scientific comprehension of the Qur’an is merely provided through historical and cultural study of the context of revelation time. Others, on the other hand, advocate that knowing interior and connected evidence suffices for Qur’an comprehension. Further, they say that exterior and unconnected evidence such as cultural and historical studies can have little effect on Qur’an comprehension. These various attitudes made us research them and represent a model to assess the dependency of Qur’an comprehension on cultural and historical conditions of revelation time. The present study examined works of scholars in this field such as Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Khorramshahi, and Tabatabaei through a descriptive and analytical method. Then, a model was recommended to evaluate the dependence of understanding of the Qur’an on the cultural and historical conditions of revelation time. The model includes four components: cause of revelation; vocabulary; subject matter; expressions which encompass twelve rules based on the features of verses in each component. Input of the model is one verse and its output is a dependent, independent, or semi-dependent mode.

Recognition the relationship of the verses inside a surah and structural research of that surah are new approaches that although there were detailed in earlier commentaries, but has been considered so seriously by more recent Qur’ān scholars. According to the science of surah recognition, every surah has a purpose and its own specific main subject, so that the all verses of surah circulate around it thereby the meaningful relationship between its verses are recognised. In this study, according to the method of surah recognition, the conceptive structure of the two Surahs Nās and ʿAṣr and the links and reciprocal interaction between the two surahs Nās and Falaq as a case study are reviewed. Therefore, this research revolves around two axes: Methodology of structural research in the Qur’ān; including topics like: Stages and principles of structural research, thematic units (Rukūʿāt) and gradual revelation of the Qur’ān, linkage and connection between the surahs, thematic axis or basic subject of surahs, difference between structural research and interpretation, and at the end of this paper, the meaning and structural cognition of the two Surahs Nās and ʿAṣr are discussed. Based on this research, the exact semantic connection between Surah Nās and Falaq was extracted, and then Surah ʿAṣr was conceptualized using the method of pondering (tadabbur); and as a result, it was concluded that Surah ʿAṣr, despite its small volume, is the most comprehensive and complete Surah of the Qur’an, which contains heavenly and life-giving Quranic teachings

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.

In this paper, we try to show, based on scientific evidence, that assigning consciousness to humans and calling the "world without humans" meaningless does not seem like a comprehensive approach. The intellectual foundation of this attitude is based on a kind of "spectral approach" in examining the phenomena of the world. To explain this attitude, we refer to evidence of scientific findings to show that our lack of understanding of the consciousness of other beings does not mean the lack of intelligence in them. We also show that many phenomena in this world are spectral. Then, based on the verses of the Qur'an and the concept of the dignity of beings from the perspective of Islamic philosophy, we conclude that other creatures also have a hierarchy of intelligence that we describe here as "the spectrum of consciousness".

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. 

Examining the orthography of the Qurʼan shows that the letter alif was omitted in some words, while it was not omitted in similar words. Scholars have offered various reasons for eliminating alif since the early centuries. Some of them regarded the way of writing the Qurʼan as sacred or proposed ideological explanations for it. However studying these justifications shows that they are not subject to scientific linguistic rules and are mostly personal opinions. Because based on the ancient manuscripts of the Qurʼan, we can find many contradictions for the proposed reasons, which shows that they are not general and true in many cases. Using the reasons presented in the books of Qurʼanic sciences and some interpretations of the Qurʼan and comparing them with the orthography in the manuscripts, this study shows that the orthography of the Qurʼan, especially in the case of writing alif, is a linguistic and scribal phenomenon subjected by some factors that developed the Arabic script in its early stages.

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.