نشریه معرفت کلامی
سال پنجم شماره 1 (پیاپی 12، بهار و تابستان 1393)

Revelation as “divine message for prophets to guide people” is the foundation and strength of divine laws and most valuable celestial substance for people on the earth, which is inextricably connected with man’s nature and destiny. Revelation falls into different and sometimes wrong analyses due to man’s inability to achieve it. Some regard it the outcome of mental anxiety and desire, intellectual genius, strong affections, religious experience and prophet’s dream-vision. These analyses are wrong, leads to some unacceptable outcomes- for, example, revelation is fallible and a human phenomena- and are incompatible with the explanation on two parties of this relationship: God and prophet. Given the unique role of revelation and the importance of its analysis on the one hand, and the status of invaluable Al-Mizan Commentary on the other hand, the present paper reviews the analysis of revelation from the view of this Commentary. A library method is used to gather data which are evaluated by a descriptive-analytical method. The results show that Al-Mizan Commentary, contrary of other methods of analyses, pays particular attention to the words of origin of revelation and its receiver and regards revelation as God’s presential words which have been revealed to prophets’ heart through manifestation, directly, from beyond the veil, or by angel.

Although Allamah Tabatabaii was expert in most religious sciences, he has not penned so much on bodily resurrection, which has caused disagreement among interpreters and propagators of his thoughts about his view on this kind of resurrection. In order to elaborate on his view on bodily resurrection, the present paper studies his anthropological views such as two dimensionality of man, authenticity, immateriality and eternity of soul, relationship between body and soul, the role of body in man’s identity and necessity of assembly of body and its quality. Its seems that although Allamah accepts most philosophical teachings of transcendent philosophy and uses them in interpreting Quranic verses on bodily resurrection, he does not accept Mulla Sadra’s theory that other worldly body is originator of soul and based on it, utilizes the principle of substantive motion for body as it is utilized for soul and proposes another explanation for bodily resurrection which can be compared with Modarres Zonooni’s view.

The verse of covenant is one of the most difficult verses, the commentary of which causes disagreement among commentators. With regard to the advantages and all-comprehensiveness of Al-Mizan Commentary, Allamah’s view on the commentary of this verse seems important. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper reviews and elaborates on Allamah view. He does not accept the existence of the world of pre-existence based on outward meanings of some verses and believes that the covenant of God’s divinity was taken from men in the world of angelic souls, without any individuality for men. Despite the advantages of his commentary of the verse of covenant, its disadvantages should not be neglected.

Man’s dignity as the basis of human rights and criterion for international and social interaction is of particular importance in different fields of human sciences. Allamah Tabatabaii, who is regarded one of the unique scientific figures in the world of Islam, generally divides man’s dignity into genetic and acquired dignity. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper elaborates on acquired dignity, criterion of dignity and its most important features in Allamah’s view. In fact, acquired dignity is man’s attainment to existential perfections and the state of nearness to God, the only way of which is God-orientation. Therefore, the more conscious and devoted man’s servitude towards God, the more he attains value and dignity.Since acquired dignity is attained by man’s voluntary attempts, it is a value matter and man can be proud of it, because man’s evolutionary move is attained gradually. Gradation and gradualness are two other features of acquired dignity.

In Allamah Tabatabaii’s view, “best interest” means that “a thing exists on the requirement of its main nature in such a way that proper and suitable goodness and benefit is related to it, without being corrupted and deprived from good effects. This meaning of “best interest” can be analyzed into five components: 1. “best interest” is an existential continuous fact; 2. “best interest” is the requirement of main nature of things; 3. the condition of requirement of nature is the lack of obstacle; 4. In case of lack of obstacle, the effect of requirement of main nature of things is the successive order of goodness and benefit suitable to the rank of things; 5. The main nature of things inclines towards “best interest”. The provided analysis of “best interest” is a general title that admits some conditions based on which is divided into different types as follows” “psychic and relative”, “relative and absolute”, “related to essence and act”, genetic and revealed”, “stable and changing”; “personal and social”, “material and spiritual”.

The idea of knowing God is regarded every individual’s most fundamental religious thought. Imam Sajjad’s saying, “O, my lord, my knowledge is my proof for thou” indicates a kind of this thought which should be analyzed. There can be two explanations for this phrase. One is that this phrase indicates knowing God by God, the concept which appears in different forms in the explanations of philosophers from Avicenna to Allamah Tabatabaii. This knowledge known as “proof of the righteous” is defined as the best way of knowing God, and its counterpart is external and internal knowledge. The second explanation for the above-mentioned phrase indicates the relationship with God and inclination towards Him. This explanation is obtained through paying close attention to another meaning of the term “proof”. From this viewpoint, Man’s knowledge of God is regarded the guide and means of his entrance into God’s court, talking to Him and making demand from Him.