پژوهشنامه مذاهب اسلامی
پیاپی 11 (بهار و تابستان 1398)

The safety of the travel path to the land of revelation, Mecca, for the practices of Hajj is one of the most important issues in fiqh. Considering the obligation of Hajj and the importance of continuing to keep the Ka’ba as a host for throngs of pilgrims, the issue of possessing or providing the ability regarding the travel path as a condition of the obligation of Hajj for those who are obliged to perform it is not yet so clear; thus, the nature of the ability regarding the travel path if unsafety of pilgrims leads to the cancelation of Hajj from the viewpoint of the fiqh of Islamic sects is a question that needs to be answered properly. Unsafety of pilgrims in the land of revelation and their path to it to perform the rituals of Hajj leads to the lack of ability regarding the travel path for those who are obliged to perform Hajj, and consequently, arises the obligation from them. If this results in the cancelation of Hajj for all Muslims, then it is up to the Islamic ruler to make arrangements for the Hajj rituals to be performed. This study, aimed at identifying the limits and conditions of the arguments for the ability regarding the travel path and its effect on the cancelation of Hajj in light of the description and analysis of the propositions of the fiqh of Islamic sects, was done using library data in a comparative manner, the result of which is that Hajj is not obliged if there is unsafety in the land of revelation and the travel path to it.

Understanding the meaning of words and the process of their evolution in the context of time and place has a great role in comprehending religious texts, and differences in understanding words greatly affect the emergence of intellectual differences and even sectarian divisions. Historical pieces of evidence suggest that with the advent of Islam, new words found their way into the public discourse, just as many words diverging from their original senses took on new meanings in public conversations. One of these words was "Ahl al-Bayt", which despite being a combination of two common words, took on a distinctly religious color and was widely adopted by Muslims. The question is: what are the differences in the approach of Muslims to explain the meaning of the word and which approach is accurate? The purpose of this article is to present the approaches and offer the espoused viewpoint with focus on Sunni sources through a descriptive and analytical method, and its findings indicate a distinction between the lexical meaning and the religious meaning.

Reform is one of the important issues in religious matters. The most important reform that the contemporary Ibadiyya have undertaken and has, of course, been very successful is the rejection of accusations. When faced with accusations from sects or personalities, the Ibadis were forced to reject such accusations in order to survive in the Islamic world. This paper, with a descriptive-analytical approach, deals with three important accusations and explains the Ibadis’ remarks in rejecting these accusations: 1. Associating Ibadis with Khawarij, 2. Resorting to violence, and 3. Disdaining the companions of the Prophet. It is to say that these accusations have greatly annoyed the Ibadis.

The emergence of Salafism and extremism in contemporary Afghan society is one of the major problems that has engulfed much of the community. This thought, among some of the Sunnis of Afghanistan, has created some sort of conflict and intellectual tension in the area of ideological and jurisprudential issues of the country and the Islamic community of Afghanistan. Salafi scholars regard Sufi sects, whose trends of thought are followed by the majority of Afghan Sunnis, as superstitious and heretical in religion, who have, through their impact on academic centers and tribal leaders, changed the minds of many students and followers of Maturidi school of thought and pushed them away from Maturidi rationalism. The emergence of religious and political groups and influential parties such as the Taliban and Afghan Arabs in political and social spheres is also a prominent consequence of this phenomenon. In this article I seek to examine this phenomenon and its political and social consequences.

Rationalism as a fundamental component and core material has always been an element of Iranian poetry and art, since social excellence and perfection of civilization depend on rationality and deployment of this element in the worldview. Although "naturalism" has been the dominant tradition of the Khorasani style, however, the poets of this style have not ignored rationalism, and wisdom-related themes in the poems of this category are evident. The purpose of this article is to investigate the position of this element in Sanā'ī's poems and mainly in Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqa. Examination of the content of Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqa indicates high frequency of the themes and concepts related to wisdom and rationality to this poet, just as the fact that the word ’aql (intellect) was repeated 13 times, khirad (wisdom) and its cognates were repeated 3 times, ‘aql kullī (universal intellect) was repeated 9 times and al-Lubāb occurred once in 22 verses of the first chapter of the poetry collection of Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqa illustrates Sanā'ī's rational and wise approach in the book.

Intercession is one of the common beliefs among all Islamic sects, where there only differences among them over the manner of its realization. One of the differences is about the intercession of the Prophet (s) after his demise, which is believed by Takfiri Salafis to be an example of polytheism. The importance of this issue and its damaging consequences for the excommunication of Muslims and increasing divisions makes it necessary to examine this belief in important Islamic sects. This research is designed to clarify the Shafi'i view, as one of the four Sunni jurisprudential sects, about the doctrine of intercession, and was conducted using library-documentary method for data collection and descriptive-analytical method for data processing. An examination of the views of Shafi'i scholars suggests that, contrary to the view of the Takfiri Salafis, seeking intercession from the Prophet (s) after his demise according to Shafi'i view is neither prohibited, nor does it lead to polytheism and heresy. Instead, it is a means of his reverence and one of the definite ways of attracting his intercession to visit the grave of the Prophet (s) and salute him next to his grave.

Ahl al-Hadith and Imamiyya disagree on how to determine the limits of the meaning of divinity [Rububiyyat], and consequently on the meaning of polytheism in divinity, but both share the belief that the polytheists of Mecca attributed partners to God in divinity and providence of the world, and thus worshiped idols. In fact, it was the belief in divinity of idols that led the Meccan polytheists to worship them. In this regard, the mission of the Prophet (s) was to dissuade the Meccan polytheists from polytheism in divinity and consequently from polytheism in worship, and guide them to monotheism in divinity and then to monotheism in worship. So unlike Wahhabism, Ahl al-Hadith and Imamiyya hold that the Meccan polytheists not only followed polytheism in worship, but also polytheism in divinity, and basically this false belief was the source of polytheism in worship. Accordingly, it should be said that Ahl al-Hadith, to whose works Wahhabis refer, consider the polytheism of the Meccan polytheists as polytheism in divinity and polytheism in worship as its concomitant.

The right path is one of the fundamental teachings of the Qur’an, which from God’s point of view is only one path. It is on this basis that in the Qur'anic culture, the right path is divided into two categories: "existential" and "legislative". Considering that God the Almighty has created the system of existence based on monotheism and justice by His all-inclusive mercy, and has established and moved the beings on the existential right path, in this culture, the existential right path is "immutable", "unalterable" and "incontestable", and God, the Almighty, has existential proximity to all beings and existential dominance over them. Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī proves the existential right path based on two middle terms—absolute ownership and the becoming or transformation of contingent beings toward the Exalted Existent—and Ayatollah Jawādī Āmulī explains it in terms of two middle terms—absolute divinity and movement of contingent beings whose mover is the Divine Essence. Assuming the existential right path, this paper seeks to prove this type of path, which is based on the relationship between "the Divine Truth and the beings", from the viewpoints of the two great exegetes of the Qur’an, Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī and Ayatollah Jawādī Āmulī.

Drawing upon a descriptive-analytical method, this paper firstly defines, examines and compares the exegetic approaches of Ibn Taymiyya and Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī, and by introducing their exegetic methods, in the next step, explores the consequences of the two exegetic approaches for one of the most important Quranic themes – the distinction between clear and ambiguous verses and the interpretation of each one in their views. In the last step, this paper evaluates these views, and thereby will compare the two exegetic approaches – that one is on the basis of hadiths and the other based on an intellectual method. It seems that the exegetic approach of Ibn Taymiyya on the basis of hadiths is not a reasonable and reliable method to interpret the ambiguous verses of the Qur’an. In contrast, the prior objectivity of intellect in the method of Allāma Ṭabāṭabā’ī distinguishes clear verses from ambiguous ones in a systematic manner, and maintains both canonical principles and intellectual exploration in parallel with interpreting both groups of verses..

Religion needs to be explained, defended, and promoted, and the first stage of this was carried out by the Prophet (s) and his infallible progeny (a), and in the next step, it is up to religious scholars to do so, one of whose methods is debate. There have been narrated many debates from the Infallibles and the theological and religious scholars, which include some explanations and interpretations of the principles and foundations of religion by the Infallibles or their defenses thereof. So, it is important for us to get acquainted with these debates and particularly to know what themes and areas were subject to skepticisms at that time and how the infallible Imams have discussed and responded to them. Having a look at the theological arguments of the Infallibles (a), this article aims to provide an account of the issues raised in these arguments in Iḥtijāj of Ṭabarsī, and analyzes the role of these arguments in the growth of theology. Although a study of the arguments of the Infallibles (a) requires a considerable background, a research with the purpose of reporting the themes raised in the theological arguments of the Infallibles and analyzing the growth of theology based thereon is unprecedented.

In the thirteenth century AH, with the emergence of a person named Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsā'ī among the Shiite scholars, new principles were introduced in Imamiyya methodology that were deployed by the successors of Aḥsā'ī and became the origin of some new teachings. This methodology eventually resulted in some heresies and divisions in Shia that finally led to the establishment of Shaykhiyya. The most important principles of Shaykhiyya methodology include the belief in elimination of some verses from the Qur'an, the belief in apparent meanings of hadiths as proofs without regard to the method of the Usulis, relying on a hadith merely based on it being transmitted by reliable transmitters, ignoring the method of scholars of rijāl and dirāya in authenticating hadiths. The deployment of these methods had consequences such as excluding the Divine Book from, and including fabricated and weak hadiths inconsistent with the common sense, in sources of religious knowledge, which in turn resulted in devious and exaggerated beliefs. In this paper, the principles of Shaykhiyya methodology have been reviewed using descriptive-analytic method and criticized using the method of library resources.

One of the obligatory acts of prayers is recitation of Sura al-Ḥamd or al-Fātiḥa, over which all Islamic sects have consensus. After reciting Sura al-Fātiḥa, it is obligatory to recite another sura of the Qur'an, which is a matter of disagreement among jurists in several ways. One is the necessity of reciting a complete sura or the possibility of resting content with the recitation of a few verses, and the other is the permissibility of reciting the suras containing obligatory prostrations. This study based on the hadiths from the Prophet (s) and the Ahl al-Bayt (a) examines the latter issue, namely, the permissibility of reciting the suras containing obligatory prostrations (‘azīma) in obligatory prayers. In this paper, we begin by introducing the concepts of sura and ‘azima, and then discuss and analyze different issues regarding the permissibility of reciting the ‘azīma suras in prayers, using library method. In the end, we conclude that the recitation of the ‘azīma suras is permissible based on certain hadiths and other arguments.