Sociological Metaphors in Islamic Texts

This article is concerned with sociological metaphors in religious texts as a issue of social theology. Social theology is a discipline that teaches us the views of religious leaders، i. e God، the prophets، and the Imams on human social life، through studies on religious sources (Quran and Hadiths). This type of research is، indeed، very important، for it teaches us the views of religious authorities that are necessary for the improvement of our social life، and is a complementary studies for that of sociological and social philosophy. This research can also be considered as an step towards formulating a Shi‘i / Islamic social theory. This type of research is essencially new and innovative. Three types of metaphors، i. e. organic، mechanical and (market and game) field theories، were dealt with and interpretated. Although these metaphors were existed in religious sources، they had not been studied by sociological approach. The initiative of this article rests on this type of sociological approach towards religious text studies. This type of research، brings the religious social texts to the scene of our daily social life and benefits from them for the promotion of social conditions and situations. However، multiplicity and plurality of sociological metaphors in Shi‘i / Islamic texts، at the same time، indicates that: Human’s social life has a very complicated and ambigious nature، which can talk about its existence only through، metaphore، comparison and allegory