نشریه قرآن شناخت
سال دوازدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 23، پاییز و زمستان 1398)

Many commentators and some writers of anthropological works hold that the 30th Quranic verse of the Surah Ar-Rum argues for the immutability of Fitra (innate nature), but the irrefutable observation about the change in innate nature in terms of "intensity and weakness" and "actuality and strength" as well as the implication of numerous verses that innate nature can change and even decline, challenges this interpretation. The present study seeks to criticize the aforementioned view that the verse argues for the immutability of innate nature and provide a correct interpretation of the verse, using thematic interpretation. The research result shows that the mentioned verse concerned with the question of "variability or invariability of innate nature"; rather, the aim of the verse is to negate any sorts of "conversion" in God's "creation"; that is, the creation of God has laws that never change. The article also examines the idea of "the irreversibility and immutability of the tradition of God" to which the verses refer.

The realization of a society based on a developed religious culture depends on a full understanding of the civilized and cultural attitude of the Holy Quran. Achieving this objective requires some preparations, the first of which is to examine the question whether or not, according to the Quran it is possible to fundamentally modify human behavior. The challenging question is centered on three categories of Quranic verses. The first has a negative view about the behavior of the majority of human society; the second ignores the possibility of modifying specific individuals; and the third obliges preachers of religion to take no action under certain circumstances. According to the findings of this article, the first two categories are concerned with the historical and contemporary experience of human societies as well as Quranic anthropology and it is by identifying the intrinsic and extrinsic challenging factors in the development process of standard culture that they are completed. The third category is, in fact, the result of the realistic Quranic assessment of the effects which constitute part of the educational planning of the Quran. Consequently, while emphasizing the idea of planning to modify the human behavior of all mankind and expressing the possibility and necessity of the authority of standard culture in human life, the Quran dismisses the idea of modifying the behavior of all mankind on the basis of the divine law on man’s freedom of choice, even though the task of delivering the message of religion as an ample evidence is necessary well founded.

Using a descriptive-analytic method based on thematic interpretation, and referring to the meaning and types of dignity in the Quran, this article seeks to express the Quranic view of human inherent dignity and its vital prerequisites and components. The findings of the study show that the Quran considers that among the creatures, man has inherent dignity that governs his existential abilities and activities. According to the Quran, the physical aspects of components of human dignity covers wholesomeness of formation, shaping, bringing to existence, composing of human body in addition to some physical abilities, including external senses; and the spiritual aspect covers man’s ability to think and reason, Fitra (innate nature) and free choice. Among the existential effects and essentials of man’s inherent dignity referred to the Quran are his being worthy of safeguarding divine trust, worthy of being viceroy of God, having the ability to choose and change one’s own destiny and making use of the facilities and existents in the universe to achieve one’s own purposes.

The subject of the duality of the creation is raised by some Quranic verses and narrations. The question that arises here is whether or not this statement is compatible with the findings of human science. This article seeks to answer these two questions. Although scholars and commentators have, more or less, addressed this issue, no comprehensive research has been performed in this regard. At least four possibilities are offered about the meaning and purpose of duality: matching pair, having a similitude or an opposite sex, or being compound. This article, using a descriptive-analytical approach, indicates that each of these meanings is not only compatible with the word, but it also has a relative conformity with narrated arguments and can be the purpose of the arguments. Also these meanings also are in line with man’s scientific achievements and reason. In addition to the four mentioned possibilities, there is a possibility that a single word is used to mean more than one sense and it is also possible that there is a common denominator among the four meanings mentioned above and it is acceptable.

The Quran was revealed within a historical period of 23 years to comply with the requirements of the era of Prophet's mission. Therefore, one of the most effective ways of interpreting the Quran is using a historical approach to studying it. This article examines the question of “charity”, using thematic interpretation and a historical approach. This paper first examines history books and the poetry of the Jahiliyya (Age of Ignorance), the living and economic conditions of the people of that era and the culture of that society in the context of charity, and then, considering the Quranic verses about charity according to the order and time of revelation, it investigates the step-by-step process of the cultural and legislative development in this regard. Displaying such characteristics like the benevolence and generosity of Arabs, the Quran, during the twenty-three-year revelation could make that society gradually get out of such villains as boasting, bigotry, extravagance, etc. and give it a color of monotheism and affection for others.

A look at the theories about hijab verses shows that in the modern age, completely different views have been put forward about these verses. A group of modernists question the dominant idea about Muslim women’s hijab and consider the famous interpretation given by commentators about hijab verses to be influenced by the culture and way of thinking of the time. This article, using a qualitative method, reviews and explains the verse 31 of Surah al-Noor relating to (Abstinence from Revealing Adornment), points to the doubts raised about it and examines whether or not they are real in order to see the reason for questioning the dominant idea about hijab. Dividing the doubts into two types: content doubt and context and examining and criticizing them, the article comes to the conclusion that questioning the dominant idea bout hijab is affected by two factors: first, inattention to authentic narrations and citing weak ones in providing historical and interpretive examples and conception, and second, the influence of Western culture on contemporary westernized intellectuals’ thoughts.

Finding the relationship between Quranic verses contributes to a proper understanding of verses and to the understanding of some ambiguous concepts. In commentary books, a number of related verses are mentioned, and having pairs of verses in one paragraph in commentary books and books of Quranic sciences can demonstrate the conceptual relationship between Quranic verses. The software books of Jam’i Tafsir Noor published by the Center of Computer Research in Islamic Sciences devote special attention to extracting the most frequent conjunctions from the verses that come together in one paragraph. This study shows that using data mining techniques contribute to finding and showing the hidden correlations between the data. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation of this research has gone through two stages; in the first, the support and reliability coefficients, Lift criterion, Jaccard and cosine similarity were used to evaluate duplicate patterns, rules of coherence and accuracy of discovering the relationship between the verses and in the second, the results obtained from comparing this research with the work of other researchers show that the present research takes priority over the rivaling works.