piety

Piety for Muslim women is an internal source of agency, which motivates their social presence and fulfills their political commitments. In spite of the prevalence of Orientalist views on Muslim women for centuries, a new space has opened under transnational feminism in recent years to re-consider their socio-political interpretations. The present paper discusses the situation of women in West Asia, where global terrorism has emerged with a recently developed counter-terrorism outlook among Muslim women. Defending the Shiite sanctuaries in Syria and Iraq against the Takfiris symbolically embodies this counter-terrorism ideology, for which hundreds of Muslims have sacrificed their lives. This study explores the ideas and ideals of Shiite Iranian and Afghan women who have lost their husbands in Syria or Iraq fighting against the ISIS. Deep semi-structured interviews depicted their definitions of “martyrdom” as a new and transnational identity. In addition, the analysis of their understanding of opportunities and challenges, within the family or at a social scale, revealed five major themes: a) transnational solidarity of the Islamic Ummah, b) the significance of jihadi culture to preserve the global peace, c) strong Shiite leadership/Wilayat-al-Faqih, d) motherhood a simultaneous opportunities and challenges, and e) intersectionality of motherly challenges for Afghan women.

The main Purpose of this study is to explore the Nature of piety from an anthropological perspective by reflecting on the Qur'an and comparing piety construct with self-control. Methodologically, conceptual analysis was used. Verses from the Holy Quran that share the root of taqwa were taken into consideration. Based on anthropological foundations of piety in holy Quran , the process of piety entails a goal-oriented valuing of options and making preferences at the moment of selection. The selection can be based on instinctive, intellectual or religious criteria but it contains all three phases of diagnosis, preference, and practical commitment to preferred option. This structure of piety is comparable with self-control. Overlap of Islamic and psychologic perspectives in explaining the basic structure of piety and self-control is very impressive. Although Piety as a monotheistic life concept will ultimately separate from self-control but overlapping of anthropological elements of these two concepts are essential

A constant yet complex question in the history of political thought is that of justice, which has been discussed by all political thinkers. Yet, different answers have always been provided to the question what justice or a just act is or what decision can be considered to be a just one. Nevertheless, as a concept throughout history, justice is also a topic constantly dealt with in divine religions, especially in Islamic thought. In Islamic thought, justice is by itself of such significance that it has been frequently discussed in the Holy Quran as well as in the tradition and, subsequently, has been one of the most controversial religious concepts analyzed by Islamic thinkers including philosophers, theologians and Islamic jurisprudents. The present article studies the concept of justice according to Imam Ali, especially because he is the only Infallible Imam throughout the history of Islam who functioned as the head of the political power and led the Islamic society through complex political events and with wide gaps.