The Philosophy of Life in the Current Shiite Culture

There are numerous approaches in the current Western social sciences for definition and clarification of culture, which are rooted in the Western philosophical principles and the development of modernism. These definitions constantly focus on the natural desires and the worldly interests of the people. Allameh Mohammad Taqi Jafari (1923-1998), one of current Shiite thinkers, considers such a culture as an inferior one which has disregarded some of the supreme human principles such as the holiness of knowledge. On the other hand, the superior culture roots in the unvarying principles of the developmental life of the man, which relies on the people's common sense and superb feelings. In this approach, culture refers to phenomena which have made the man's logical life comprehensible and naturally enhances the man through a spiritually purposeful life. In the Holy Quran, such a life is considered virtuous. From the view point of the current interpreter of the Holy Quran, Allameh Tabatabaei (1902-1981) and his followers, the virtuous life is characterized with three feature including the faith, good deeds and virtuous morality. Figuratively, in this view, the faith is like a root extending profoundly and strongly down the ground; the virtuous morality is similar to the body and the branches; and the good deeds are the fruits of the virtuous tree of the religion, which can constantly grow more in number.