درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The dominant thought in the Western environment laid the necessary foundations for the formation of Western civilization. In fact, the Renaissance's approach to God, humanity, and the surrounding environment gradually caused profound changes in human lifestyles at various levels, eventually replacing the traditional, meaning-oriented relationship between humans and their surroundings with a modern, meaning-deficient one. This study presents a critique of Western civilization from the perspective of Mahdist teachings. The article is written using a descriptive and analytical approach. Today, the West faces numerous challenges at various levels, to the extent that, according to Western thinkers, these issues were not resolved even with the emergence of postmodernism. This is because the civilizational system, grounded in Renaissance thought, adopts a materialistic worldview and denies the unseen in its perception of God, self, and existence.

One of the internal divisions of the Qur’anic text is the rukūʿ , which, as a semantic unit, provides significant potential for rereading the text and uncovering new interpretive levels. Nevertheless, this division has been largely neglected in many contemporary Qur’anic codices and rarely addressed in Qur’anic studies. The present study aims to propose and apply an approach of Qur’anic interpretation based on rukūʿ analysis, focusing on the tenth rukūʿ of Surah al-Naḥl (Q. 16:71–76). Conducted through a descriptive-analytical approach, the research proceeds in three stages: first, elaborating the proposed approach of understanding the Qur’an through rukūʿ units; second, applying this approach to the tenth rukūʿ of Surah al-Naḥl as a paragraph-like semantic unit; and third, assessing the findings by comparing them with the exegetical categorizations of other commentators. The results indicate that verses 71–76 of Surah al-Naḥl form a structurally and thematically coherent passage that can be identified as an independent semantic unit. Within this framework, the topic sentence, supporting statements, transitional sentence, and concluding sentences were identified. Furthermore, a comparative critique of three exegetes’ approaches revealed that neglecting rukūʿ divisions in existing commentaries has often led to semantic discontinuity, disruption of textual coherence, deviation from the surah’s main objective, and reader confusion. Accordingly, it can be concluded that a rukūʿ -based reading of Qur’anic surahs not only highlights the thematic independence of each semantic unit but also ensures their internal coherence and contributes to identifying the overarching purpose of the surah. This approach may thus serve as an effective model for Qur’anic exegesis and a means of avoiding the interpretive challenges resulting from fragmented exegetical categorizations.