نشریه معرفت کلامی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 6، تابستان 1390)

One of the most important issues in the field of religious beliefs is the question of infallibility of prophets and Imams which makes up a considerable portion of religious literature and field Islamic sciences. However, there are phrases in the Holy Prophet and Imam's supplications and whispered conversations with God in which they attribute sins to themselves and ask God to forgive them. Those who deny Imam's infallibility argue that this act of the Prophet and Imam contradicts the idea of their being infallible. Explaining the meanings of repentance and praying forgiveness and casting light on their different aspects, the present paper tries to make explicit the relationship between this act of the Holy Prophet and Imams and infallibility, and show that not only there is no contradiction between seeking God’s forgiveness and infallibility but also there is a complete convergence between them. Furthermore, some instances of praying forgiveness indicate that besides the convergence between infallibility and praying forgiveness, there is a close correlation between the tow.

The present paper first deals with the definition of essential and accidental elements and explains the requisites of the idea of dividing the constituents of religion into accidental and essential. Then, it explains the refutations and criticisms directed to this viewpoint; and finally provides the true meaning, which religion adopts, for accidental and essential elements. This paper represents an intra-religious and extra-religious critique of the views of a number of domestic intellectuals who have been influenced by western philosophy, and philosophical hermeneutic subjects and philosophical historicism in particular. According to this viewpoint, most of Islam's genuine doctrines are regarded historical and time-bounded and lack permanent validity. The research uses a combination of analytical methods based on intellectual evidence and transmission.Key words:

One of the most important issues on which Abu-Zayd, a contemporary Egyptian thinker, presents challenging views is the nature of Quranic revelation. The present paper comments on his views on the nature of Quranic revelation. Therefore, the author criticizes Abu-Zayd views which are presented in his works through a descriptive-analytical method.The historicity of the Quran and its interaction with reality are the common core of Abu-Zayd's views about the nature of Quranic revelation. In his first theory, Abu-Zayd considers Quranic revelation as a man-made text and outcome of a verbal communication between God and the Holy Prophet. However, in his second theory, he defines the Quran as a kind of text and product of the Holy Prophet's religious experience, and in his third theory, he considers the Qur’an as a set of discourses.The proofs of the common core which Abu-Zayd uses to back his view contradict intellectual proofs and God's wisdom. The contradiction between his first view and those proofs proving the speaking of the Quran and the essential difference between the Quranic revelation and religious experience in addition to the incompatibility between the content of the Quran and experimental view of revelation are among the weaknesses in his second and third views.

The Prophetic tradition, "He who knows himself knows his God", is one of the well-known traditions that Muslim thinkers including philosophers, gnostics, commentators, and traditionalists often cite and try to shed light on. In expounding the correlation between self-knowledge and Divinity, these scholars strive to understand how these two are correlated and explain why self-knowledge essentially leads to the knowledge of Divinity and how self-knowledge contributes to the knowledge of Divinity. Two interpretation of this tradition have been given impossibility-based and possibility-based. In possibility-based reading, experimental, philosophical, gnostic and religious methods have been adopted to study how self-knowledge is correlated with the knowledge of God. Using a documentary-analytical method, the present paper studies and explains this tradition, and expounds the demonstration of self-knowledge in the light of this tradition.

Political theology is considered one of most important fields of theology. The present paper seeks to expound the nature of political theology and its aims, methodology and subject matter, through a comprehensive definition of theology. Using a descriptive - analytical method and explaining the most important definitions provided for theology, this paper offers a selected definition for theology and then analyzes political theology and its distinctive features according to the selected definition. Another aim of this paper is to explain the relationship of this discipline with political philosophy and political jurisprudence because political theology is sometimes confused with similar disciplines due to the disregard to the boundaries which exist between the disciplines. The researcher holds that the most important features of political theology are its reliance on religious doctrines and the political affairs, attachment to the Most High God' essence and attributes.

According to the prevailing view of theologians, legislative prophets in all previous divine religions were succeeded by propagating ones who propagated, explained, and interpreted the Divine Law of their predecessor through the revelation which came to them. However, the declaration of seal of prophethood by the manifest religion of Islam not only ended legislative prophethood but also declared the end of propagating prophethood. The question that arises here is: what is the secret behind the seal of propagating prophethood?Several proofs have been offered in this regard. What we understand from the Quranic verses and Infallible Imam's traditions is that every kind of knowledge about religion which man needs until the Day of Resurrection was revealed to the Holy Prophet at the time of the revelation of the sacred law of Islam, which, due to its comprehensiveness, differs from all pervious sacred laws. Therefore, the seal of propagating prophethood was also declared because no need for new revelation and propagating prophets remained. Using a descriptive- analytical approach, the research relies on Quranic verses and Infallible Imam's traditions to support its argument.

Imam Khomeini and Fakhr Razi are two thinkers who dealt with determinism and free will and each one adopted a special approach and different theological principles, and displayed different views.Adopting an Aharite theological approach, Fakhr Razi, who enjoyed a considerable expertise in theology, showed marked tendency towards determinism and relied more on proofs from transmitted science than intellectual ones. On the other hand, due to the special attention given by Imam Khomeini to this subject he tried, as a Shiah theologian, delve into the different aspects of this question and explore its philosophical and theological origins. Imam Khomeini provides through transmitted and intellectual evidence a more balanced view on determinism and free will, represented in the idea of intermediate position, between determinism and free will, which corresponds to his principles of faith and mystical foundations. This paper is a kind of developmental research in which a documentary–descriptive method is used and content analysis is given.