فصلنامه مطالعات تفسیری
پیاپی 27 (پاییز 1395)

The Holy Quran has dealt with the subject of divorce and its Iddah in verses 228¡ 229¡ 231¡ and 232 of Al-Baqara¡ Al-Ahzab/29¡ At-Talaq/ 1¡ 2¡ 4¡ 6¡ and 7. Accordingly¡ Iddah of divorce is a significant subject mentioned in the Holy Quran. According to this teaching¡ most of the divorced women have to wait for a while and refrain from marriage with others. Using the commentary viewpoints of the Fariqain’s commentators¡ the present study is an attempt to investigate the reason behind this waiting and whatness of its necessity for women and the reason that some women do not need to maintain Iddah after pronouncing the divorce rituals. In addition to providing answers for the related questions¡ the paper illustrates that Iddah is in accordance with principles of social ethics and it is a real teaching not a credit one.

The Quranic Allegory stating “They are raiment for you and ye are raiment for them” in verse 187 of Al-Baqara is a symbol for general outlining of the relationships and organizing mutual relationships between the spouses. The study which is an attempt to investigate this allegory in terms of verbal and conceptual aspects¡ explicates the literary and rhetoric points of this allegory after semantic analysis of the word “raiment” and its Quranic application. Then¡ the “mutual overlapping” characteristics between wives and husbands such as good association¡ unity¡ providing calmness¡ support and defense¡ being remained faithful to secrets and maintaining reputation¡ being adorned and beautified¡ provoking balance in marital behavior¡ exerting emotional and sexual commitment¡ caring¡ independency of personality¡ commitment to reciprocal rights and duties have been deducted from this clear and succinct statement so that the pattern of marital relationship is proved from perspective of this verse and manifestation of expressive miracle of the Holy Quran is clarified.

The verses of Jihad are among the controversial topics which have been taken into account by researchers especially during the recent century. The verses of jihad could be divided into absolute, bound, peace and benevolence ones. During the recent century, following Salafi commentators some of the contemporary researchers have mainly focused on the absolute verses and about the rest of the verses, they accepted some views such as manuscripts and consequently they have considered that “jihad for elimination of atheism and change of opinion” is necessary. Nowadays, Jihad for imposing ideology has given its place to some viewpoints such as “Jihad for overcoming barriers and freedom of invitation” and “Jihad is a mere defense” and based on the approach toward the bound, peace and kindness verses, the concepts such as peace and coexistence with unbelievers have become more highlighted in having the common ground of humanity. The common ground of these two viewpoints includes the absence of coercion on opinions. Studying the set of verses related to Jihad reveals that “Jihad for overcoming barriers and freedom of invitation” is defensible and the other two viewpoints are criticized.

The words “life” and “narrow” are mentioned in the verses of the Quran three times and once respectively. Commentators have mentioned different ideas about semantics of the expression “narrow life” in verse 124 of Surah Ta-ha which could be divided into two general groups of hereafter life and mundane life. It seems that the expression “narrow life” cannot be interpreted merely related to hereafter life and its meanings and representations in the mundane world followed by purgatory should be investigated either. According to facts and evidences¡ it is understood that “narrow life” in this world does not mean deficits in the worldly blessings and favors but it means lack of tranquility and heart peace in life and this combination is a mental and emotional state in which a person is afflicted with a kind of permanent anxiety. To prove this claim¡ the method of Quran to Quran has been applied.

The verse “We have neglected nothing in the Book (of Our decrees)” is one of the controversial cases among the commentators and theologians that one of the factors of this controversy refers to semantics of the word “Book”. Commentators have interpreted this word by different meanings among which¡ in most of the commentaries¡ the word “Book” has been interpreted as the Quran and the divine memory so that a number of the commentators have committed errors in interpretation of the majority of the opinions. Accordingly¡ some people believe that for most of the commentators¡ “Book” is the Quran and some others believe that “Book” refers to the divine memory. According to the effect of each one of these viewpoints on understanding and interpretation of the above-mentioned verse¡ various commentaries with different commentary inclinations have been investigated in this paper and along with explaining the different meanings of “Book”¡ different opinions of the commentators are analyzed in this regard and finally¡ based on the opinions of the majority of commentators and rational and textual evidences¡ the best viewpoint about commentary of verse 38 of Al-An’am is analyzed.

The present paper has dealt with analyzing the relation between divine names with the content of verses in Surah Al-Imran in the verses ended in two names including “the compassionate and the Merciful”¡ “The Alive and The Eternal”¡ “the mighty and the wise”¡ “forgiving and merciful”¡ “All Embracing” and “All Knowing¡ Mighty”¡ and “Able to Requite”. Having considered the word order of the majority of the Quran verses and also the organization of the verses within the verses to be obligatory¡ the relation between divine names and the concepts of the verses is an inevitable thing. This relation has been represented in several forms which include: “the relation with the verse itself”¡ “connection with the previous or the next verse”¡ “relation with the two previous or the two next verses” and “the relation with general content of several verses”. About the first three cases¡ connection between the beginning¡ middle and end of the verses is possible and regarding the expression “the relation with general content of several verses”¡ denying the divinity from anyone other than God has been mentioned in Surah Al-Imran as the most important religious issue and the names the Alive¡ the Eternal¡ the mighty and the wise are connected to it.

In the Quranic verses including verses 30 to 33 of Al-Baqara¡ the teaching of “names” to Adam¡ the one who God selected as caliph on earth¡ has been mentioned. However¡ according to the vague statements of the Quran and lack of necessary coherence and uniformity in commentary narrations¡ the commentator’s opinions are different either. Here¡ three different viewpoints are proposed: the first viewpoint is related to the surface meaning of teaching names and it refers to teaching the name of objects. In addition to the name of objects¡ the second viewpoint presents the features¡ accurate meanings and domain of objects in this teaching. In the third viewpoint about names¡ a philosophical-mystical analysis is proposed and it is interpreted beyond the illustrating realities of the natural world. Here¡ the first two viewpoints are strongly criticized and the third one is defensible. Meanwhile¡ based on some narrative evidences¡ we can discuss the science of names and relation of the teaching of names with forging caliphate from another aspect which is more in harmony with the structure of the verses. Based on this aspect¡ the names are interpretable as the common names of some specific persons from Imams and divine authorities.

The Holy Quran has mentioned human fetal features in different verses such as Az-Zumar/6¡ Ar-Ra’d/ 8¡ Ash-Shura/49 & 50¡ An-Nahl/78¡ al-Insan/ 2 and Al-Hajj. Taking the recent commentators’ ideas on the Quran and findings of the modern science into account¡ this paper intends to investigate seven features of human fetus including being located in the triple membrane¡ fetal feeding¡ sex¡ ignorance¡ senses¡ death and malformation as well as easy childbirth when completed and it studies the similarities and differences mentioned in commentary of the Quran and the modern science. After centuries¡ science has been able to mention six features from the seven features mentioned in the Quran while there is a difference in that the mentioned features in the Quran are general but science has mentioned the details either. Fetal features and their correspondence with experimental sciences have provoked human surprise.

Two stages of death and revival are mentioned in verse 11 of surah al-Qafir. Fariqain’s commentators and theologians have disagreement with each other and proposed different viewpoints. Eight viewpoints have been proposed in this regard among which only two of them are based on context. Based on the context of the verses and due to the whole of the Quran verses it is concluded that this verse does not seek to state all stages of human death and life from the beginning to the end but as unbelievers confess¡ the two deaths refer to death from mundane world to purgatory and death from purgatory to the day of blowing the trumpet and the two revivals refer to revival in purgatory or purgatory life and revival in resurrection day after the second blowing of the trumpet. Therefore¡ based on the above verse¡ the stages of death and revival are as follows: death from mundane world¡ revival in purgatory and start of purgatory life¡ death from purgatory life at the time of the first blowing of the trumpet¡ and revival in resurrection day at the time of the second blowing of the trumpet.

One of the verses related to appointment of Imam Ali to imamate in the day of Ghadir is verse 3 of Al-Maidah. There are controversies among the Fariqain’s commentators about revelation and determining occurrence of this verse. Citing verses and hadiths¡ the Shiite commentators explicitly believe that this verse is about announcing Imam Ali’s Vilayat and succession on the day of Ghadir¡ but some of the Sunnis’ commentators assert that the day of Arafah is the time of revelation of this verse and they believe that it is the day of completion of God’s ordinances¡ statutes and traditions so that no other ordinances from god’s statutes have been revealed to the Holy Prophet and religion has been completed. Some other Sunnis’ scholars believe that the verse is revealed in the day of Ghadir and it is related to Imam Ali’s succession. Analyzing the commentary viewpoints and opinions of some commentators such as S’alabi¡ Razi¡ Siyuti¡ Alousi¡ and Zahili¡ the paper addresses the verse of “Ikmal” by criticism and makes it easy to prove the Shiite commentary thought which is the same as confirming Imam Ali’s Imamate and Vilayat.