مسعود صادقی

Death anxiety has been one of the most important concerns of human being since recorded history. This is a significant issue since the majority of thinkers have talked or written about it anytime anywhere. Since any approach toward death is affected by any individual’s worldview, three approaches may be distinctively argued on death and issues surrounding it: philosophical, ethical and mystical.In view of Imam Khomeini, the three approaches are intertwined. This paper intends to adopt a descriptive-analytical study on Imam Khomeini’s works in order to find and analyze his opinions about each approach individually. In philosophical approach, he follows Mulla Sadra’s line of thought about the issue of death, i.e. death is interpreted as the existential development of soul and its perfection. On this basis, Avicenna’s attitude toward death, its clarification and causes of death are criticized. His ethical approach toward death results in some consequences such as lack of death anxiety, readiness to embrace death, and adopting a non-absolutist attitude toward the material world. Death as a choice and mystical annihilation are two most important arguments in relation with death that have been covered in Imam Khomeini’s mystical approach. In this approach, he describes death as a means of “piercing the veil” that is interpreted in different ways depending upon the spiritual standing of individuals. In sum, although Imam Khomeini’s general approach toward death is in the same line with Mulla Sadra’s approach, his independent opinion and multidimensional personality have enabled Imam Khomeini to look at the truth of death from a higher position and meticulously analyze issues surrounding death.

In Imam Khomeini’s mysticism, contemplation is a stage that appears before observation. Expounding the prerequisites for realization of contemplation, Imam Khomeini has expressed the effects of contemplation and its benefits. In this paper, while paraphrasing the concept of contemplation in view of Imam Khomeini and its benefits, we will discuss two novel themes of “the concept of absolute contemplation” and “social contemplation” in his mysticism. Undoubtedly, the mystical clarification of the stage of contemplation based on individual theoretical foundations – that claims to have “a peaceful mind and a confident soul” in the heat of the governance and politics drives – will indicate a clear path and strategy for practical wayfaring. This research work, conducted based on library sources and through an analytical method, intends to prove the hypothesis of Imam Khomeini’s firm belief in pure spiritual state and the existence of an element named “social contemplation” in his mysticism, as a novel theme in Islamic mysticism.

The purpose of this study is to investigate Malik Bennabi's method in the acquisition of social cognition with emphasis on both his community survey strategy and his way of data analysis. The two main parts in this research are as follows: 1. Malik's social exploration method 2. His data interpretation method. To clear these issues, a systematic process was undertaken to read and critically classify the works of Bennabi. Investigations carried out in the present study yielded the finding that Bennabi considers environmental, civilizational, human and cultural aspects in the study of society. In cognitive analysis of society, his emphasis is on social subject priorities, social classes and their effectiveness, the quality of triple worlds, and the coefficients of internal and external factors. The authors of this study believe that by developing such studies on Muslim thinkers one can gain a clearer understanding of the theoretical structure of Muslim scholars' thought.

John of the Cross (1542-1591) is the creator of the four great, brilliant and admirable mystical works. Using symbols of negative-allegorical theology to follow the figurative language of the Bible, and mystical concepts in a systematic way, these works try to elevate seekers to the supreme perfection. In fact, the profound impact of John of the Cross on Christian mysticism of the Middle Ages was due to, most of all, a stage in mysticism, which is called "the dark night of the sense". This stage was introduced in his masterpiece, Dark Night of the Soul, which is known for its emphasizing the place of love in mystical path. Decoding the prominent parables of Christian mysticism, John of the Cross gives a Christian image of suffering and a dynamic theory of detachment that is far from desolation and has deep connection with the submission.

The geographical endeavor of Ahmad Ibn Anas Al-Udhri well known as Ibn Dalaee, transmitter and writer of Hadith and an Andalusian historian has been ignored in the existing biographies in about him. While Tarsic Al-akhbar va Tanvic Al-asar as the only remaining of work the reveals that he was not only familiar with the knowledge of his era like history and Hadith, but also he worked on Geography and shows that he preferred Geography to History. The present paper throush descriptive - analytical method has tried to study and categorize the geographical information of the book and to analysis this part of Udhri scientific life which has been ignored. The findings show that Uudhri has not remained limited on statements of its predecessors, but rather develps descriptive geography and its tools and types specially writing marvelous things (Ajacib).

In recent philosophical analysis of religious experience and discussion on the relation of beliefs and experiences، Ninian Smart is said to be، amongst such other philosophers as Katz and Hick، a maximal constructivist. Distinguishing theistic and non-theistic contexts of experiences، Smart suggests a two poles theory of religious experience، and draws attention to different levels of interpretation. He holds that cultural-religious contexts، including religious beliefs، influence religious experience، but it is not led to fully determine experience. Accordingly، he takes a position between essentialism and maximal constructivism. This position could call minimal constructivism.

In philosophical literature it has been enumerated different types of explanation such as scientific and ordinary, full and partial, causal and non-causal, functional explanations. By distinguishing these different explanations from each other, this paper provides an introduction to the discussion of theories of scientific explanation. The standard view about the nature of scientific explanation is the covering law model of explanation which is further divided into two sorts: deductive- nomological and inductive- probabilistic or statistical explanation. Difficulties faced by the covering model gave way to alternative models. And various alternative views about explanation have been developed, among them it can be cited Salmon's statistical relevance model which based on causal mechanism and Friedman and Kitcher's explanatory unification. This paper shows how later models avoid difficulties of earlier ones.