درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The study of surahs' structure has attracted researchers' attention in recent years. One of the theories herein is the theory of Topic Sameness which acknowledges that each surah of Quran has formed on a single topic. The theory of Introduction and Explanation as one of the most important branches of Topic Sameness, proposes that the Almighty states the topic of each surah at the first section, elaborates it at different parts of the surah in the forms such as stories, signals of nature, and future predictions, and concludes from the stated contents at the final part. In this paper, we accordingly intend to study the two theories using NLP techniques for the first time. In this regard, based on the three methods of tf-idf, word2vec and roots' accompaniment in verses, the similarity of Quranic roots is computed. Then, the amount of similarity of the concepts within surahs to each other is calculated and compared with the random mode. The results show that the studied surahs hold the inner coherence between the concepts so that they have been formed on a single topic or a few topics related to each other. In addition, the study on the similarity between the first and the body sections of each surah shows that the structure of Introduction and Explanation seems to be true for many surahs by the designed methodology. At the end, by comparing the similarity of surahs to each other versus their order distance in Quran and their revelation time distance, we realized that the whole Quran is also relatively organized in terms of surah' ordering.

Time is the basis of human life in this world and it is not only his biological background, but also a background for his intelligent life. Man thinks about time and looks at it from the angles of different sciences; from physics to philosophy; and from cosmology to anthropology. The concept of "Time" has also received attention in the Qur'an, and due to the dedication of an independent surah to this concept and the oath to time has assigned a special place to it in the form of the concept of "al-ʿAṣr". The epistemological connection of this concept with the concepts of "Man", "Loss", and "Faith" is very important from an existential point of view, which organizes the current approach in this article. The existential and existentialistic condition of man is the condition of this world that requires timing. This is a possibility for humans, which indicates a time limit for humans. This situation is associated with the feeling of loss in the passage of time, which is absolute and inseparable from the situation of this world. This is the human condition and, of course, it is a condition that presents possibilities to the human being. Time passes on man and confronts man with the concept of eternity and immortality. Eternity is placed in front of man as a possibility to face an existential contradiction in order to achieve salvation as an existential concern by choosing faith in a transcendental and spatial origin and destination.

In the matter of the formation of the universe, the holy Qur’an mentions various phenomena, each playing a special role in the evolution of the universe. In this article, we describe two celestial phenomena that have been discussed in verses (Q.21:30) and 41:11, and we assess the possibility of matching these two verses with new scientific findings. Our approach in this study is that we first examine the plausible meanings of the verses through lexical, morphological, syntactic and interpretive analysis. Then we propose possible scientific phenomena compatible with achieved meanings of the verse and evaluate their conformity. Results of this study show that the reference of the Qur’an to the two phenomena, i.e., “coalescence and separation of the skies and the earth,” and “the formation of the sky from smoke,” can be compatible with the scientific phenomena of the Big Bang, the formation of the solar system and the formation of the earth and its atmosphere. 

One meaning of the word āyah in Qur’anic context refers to a sign, which is a divine miracle as attested in verse (Q.54:15): Certainly We have left it as a sign; so, is there anyone who will be admonished? The verse refers to the story of Noah’s Ark and his nation’s penalty, which is presented as a sign for posterity. There are various perspectives among interpreters about the reference of pronoun it in the verse, depending on whose antecedent, the verse can be considered as one of the verses expressing divine miracles. The present study tries to investigate the aforementioned verse and its miraculous aspects through an interdisciplinary method between the Qur’an and archaeology. Based on conducted studies, the word āyah implies to Noah’s Ark or the Flood phenomenon and rescuing a few of his nation who are the only survivors of humankind. Given archaeological studies, there is no certain evidence yet to confirm the remains of the Noah’s Ark and the verse cannot thus be considered as a scientific miracle. As a result, the miraculous aspect of the verse indicates giving notice of the unseen which is verified in verse (Q.11:49). 

Hail is an atmospheric rainfall with a complex mechanism. The Greeks were among the pioneers of knowledge in ancient times and they termed “hail” as “frozen rain” (Anaximander) and “instant freezing of water and moisture” (Aristotle, n.d.). These two meanings are inconsistent with current scientific facts. The Noble Qurʼan is the most authentic text to encourage Muslim believers to think about creation and strengthen their faith in the eternal power of the Creator. For instance, the mechanism of hail falling has been expressed in the verse (Q.24:43) with specific and gradual indications. In this research, first, by library method, different explanations of this verse were obtained from valid interpretive sources and then, the scientific findings of meteorologists and climatologists on hail were extracted from reference scientific texts on atmospheric sciences. In the third stage and based on comparative method, the scientific rules were placed next to interpretations to test the novelty and degree of the allusions of this verse. We found that the stages of hail falling included:“invisible water vapor rises from the sea,” “water vapor ascends into the atmosphere,” “reaching the condensation stage,” “cloud formation,” “convergence of ascending currents,” “formation of cumulonimbus cloud,” “growth of hailstones during successive ascents and descents by adsorption and freezing of ice needles,” and finally “their fall down over ground” respectively. Meanwhile, the steps in the Noble Qurʼan are mentioned in verse (Q.24:43) in the following order:“clouds movement slowly,” “clouds convergence,” “clouds accumulation,” “the formation of mountain-like clouds,” and “hail falling from the clouds.” The results also showed that likening cumulonimbus cloud in the verse (Q.24:43) to “mountain” have four respects that were beyond the comprehension of the people at the time of the revelation of the Qurʼan. Nowadays, these features are known to stationary and satellite meteorological instruments. These four characteristics are “cloud layer temperature,” “their constituent phase,” “troughs and ridges inside the cloud” and “cloud height up to the tropopause.” Based on these four characteristics, the Noble Qurʼan considered the cloud of cumulonimbus as similar as “mountains.” Meteorologists divide any cumulonimbus cloud into three floors, including cold at the bottom, super-cold at the top and intermediate in the middle. We find these three floors in the same way in the high mountains. These floors are the current rivers (liquid phase), snow and ice reserves (solid phase) and in the middle region a combination of two liquid and solid phases, namely water and ice. Images from the cumulonimbus from above the atmosphere show dark and deep valleys and light and raised ridges. The fourth feature is to be said, none of the surface phenomena are as high as the mountains. Finally, meteorological findings show that it is the only cumulonimbus that rises from the ground to a height of 12,000 meters and more.