فصلنامه تحقیقات کلامی
پیاپی 13 (تابستان 1395)

Avicenna provides two arguments to prove the essential knowledge for God and its inclusion to all beings. The first argument shows that because the necessary-existent God is immaterial, He can realize himself and consequently is aware of himself. In order to prove the awareness of all beings, the second argument is based on the essential knowledge of the necessary-existent and the implement of knowledge of cause to the knowledge of caused so that all beings are known by God. Fakhr al-Razi criticizes these two arguments in detail. In addition to representing the objections of Fakhr al-Razi on these arguments, in this writing we want to show the weak points of his arguments and explain his paralogisms that mainly originated from confusion of case with concept and concept with nature in human perception on God, consiodering God as the perfect cause for contingents, and his incorrect view of "relation" (izafah) in the discussion of mental existence.

One of the Orientalist claims against the teaching of Mahdawiyyah is that it is influenced by the belief in Soshyant, the Iranian Zoroastrian Redeemer. The origin of this claim can be found in the existence of belief in redeemer in the Iranian Zoroastrian sources and their alignment in many details. By the terminology of the word Soshyant and examination of its usage in Zoroastrian sources, the present article firstly rejects this claim and then, based on the study of the sources of the Zoroastrian writings, the examination of their authenticity and offering some evidences that show the impressionability of Zoroastrian sources by the Islamic teachings in the years after the Islamic conquest of Iran and the complete control of Islam on this country, it emphasizes the possibility of the claim contrary.

The Wahhabi arguments on tawassul (having recourse to the Saints) how much correspond to the Sunni thinkers' positions? In order to answer the question, the article's authors examine the views of Mohammad ibnAlaviMaleki and Mohammad ibnSaleh 'Othaymin from the Sunni scholars and show that the arguments of Wahhabiyyah are not accepted in this field. By referring to traditional texts, Mohammad ibnAlaviMaleki's arguments clearly prove that recourse to the Prophet and the late righteous prayer is an act in correspondence to belief in unity of God. But there are some weak points in these arguments that by resolving and reinforcing them one can bring about strong and comprehensive criticism on Ibn 'Othaymin and other Wahhabi masters' ideas. The Maleki'sview on the issue of recourse in much level is in agreement with Imamiyyah approach and believe in the correctness of having recourse to the Prophet and the late righteous prayer.

In encounter to the Shi'a arguments about the verses of guardianship (welayah) and succession (khelafah), the Sunni exegeses, especially Fakhr al-Razi, tried to criticize the Shi'a arguments in various ways and to devitalize these arguments and reinforce their own views. The present research examines the methodology of Fakhr al-Razi about these verses and analyzes his methods. Fakhr al-Razi's methods in encounter with Shi'a consist in: appealing to weak and false narrations, appealing to the context, appealing to literal discussion, vituperation to the opponents, not mentioning the opposite views and narrations, darkening the atmosphere of discussion and mentioning the different views without preferring any of them.

Qazi 'Abd al-Jabbar is one of the famous figures of Mu'taziliteKalam which is of considerable views in epistemology especially in the discussion of "nazar" (contemplation). In Qazi's theoretical system, nazar means thinking and arguing, and like other human acts, stems from his power and will and is his own act. From nazar and thinking gained another act named knowledge. Thus Qazi considers nazar and thinking that is the way of reason as the only way to gain the knowledge of God. From his point of view, the first duty of mankind is rational reasoning to know God. The present research wants to examine the role and place of nazar and its relationship with knowledge and awareness as well as especially its relationship with knowing God in 'Abd al-Jabbar perspective.

To analyze the divine act, the Muslim theologians used will and considered God acting as acting by will. According to them, the divine knowledge is not enough in realization of act but after will the act will be realized. The question of this writing is that according to Quran and hadiths which degrees and foreparts are needed in order to the divine act could take place. To summarize the research one can say that the verses and narrations in relation to the divine act are of three kinds: sometimes providence or will considered as mediate between the divine essence and act, that here the meaning of providence or will is creation of things. In another group of narrations the divine act is of seven degrees. In these narrations, providence (mashiyyah) means to will that is the undetailed determination of the world system in act knowledge and/or in brief writing the things in the table (lawh) and its knowledge creation; will (eradah) means completion and establishment of providence; measurement (qadar) means to measure what willed; statement (qaza) is to adjudicate the realization of the measured thing; satisfaction (reza) to this realization is named permission (ezn); book (ketab) is recording the thing with all characteristics in the heaven tables; and term (ajal) is the amount of the thing's life. All of these are divine act knowledge. In the third group of narrations, there is mention only the first four stages in addition to signature (emza) which is the emphasis on its statement and certainty. It seems that the essential stages of thing occurrence are providence, will, measurement and statement, and the other case are implications of these four degrees.