درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The concept of myth within the Qur’an has been a subject of extensive scholarly inquiry among Orientalists, offering diverse perspectives and methodologies. Angelika Neuwirth, a prominent Qur’anic scholar, has made significant contributions to this field by examining the Qur’anic historical narratives and proposing a connection between these narratives and the concept of myth. In her view, myths function as narratives that employ archetypes to illuminate and interpret the world. To substantiate her claims, Neuwirth adopts a contextual approach, drawing upon the methodologies of biblical criticism. Emphasizing microstructures and contextual details of Qur’anic verses, this approach aims to uncover the origins of the stories and historical narratives in the Qur’an, attributing them to the social and theological milieu of early Muslims. It posits that these narratives are deeply rooted in the socio-theological milieu of early Muslims. Aligning with this approach, Neuwirth characterizes numerous Qur’anic stories and events as myths that have been shaped by archetypes embedded in the collective unconscious of the Qur’an’s audience. This paper employs a descriptive-analytical methodology, coupled with a comprehensive review of relevant literature, to critically evaluate the methodological underpinnings and presuppositions of the contextual approach to Qur’anic myth. Neuwirth's perspective is examined as a representative of this scholarly trend. The findings of this study reveal that, beyond methodological shortcomings, Neuwirth's approach is subject to several criticisms. These include an overemphasis on context as the sole determinant of Qur’anic knowledge, a neglect of the fundamental distinctions between the Qur’an and the Bible concerning the concept of revelation, and an overlooking of the distinct processes of compilation and canonization that shaped these two texts.

Despite the scientific and technological progress seen in the human world today, we are witnessing the disproportionate growth of violence in human society. It is, thus, necessary to talk about tolerance in such a time. The purpose of this study is to examine tolerance within the framework of Sadra's philosophy. The theoretical foundations of tolerance in Transcendent Theosophy will be explained in four categories: epistemology, methodology, ontology, and anthropology. Though Sadra has been influenced by Aristotelian virtue ethics, he takes a step forward and analyzes tolerance from an ontological point of view, understanding it not as a merely moral virtue but as an ontological-existential perfection towards Godlikeness "ὁμοίωσις θεῷ" [homoiōsis theō] which is the very essence of wisdom. Tolerance and violence in Sadra’s philosophy constitute two pyramid-like structures reciprocally. The pyramid of tolerance has reason and justice at its pinnacle while on the top of the pyramid of violence lie ignorance and injustice. Thus, pro-tolerance behavior is resulted from a rational mindset and pro-violence behavior has its origin in ignorance and idiocy. Outcomes of tolerance are the increase of wisdom, social dignity, and influence on people while stagnation, social humility, and isolation result from violence. It is needless to say neither tolerance is always applauded nor violence is always despised. This is why one can speak of the wrath of God and His saints in a meaningful way. Rather it is because of the conditions and their relation with reason and ignorance that we can reach a judgment in this regard. The study is concluded by a reality-based account of Sadra's treatment of his opponents which is followed by an elaboration of his tolerance-centered approach.