فصلنامه شیعه شناسی
پیاپی 68 (زمستان 1398)

In the first and second World Wars, foreign forces ignored the fact that Iran proclaimed being impartial, and occupied it. Meanwhile, the reaction of the religious scholars and clerics as the religious leaders of the society was much important and influential. In the World War I, they proclaimed Jihad and inducted many forces for confronting the occupying troops. They even took part in those struggles personally. In the World War II, however, they did show no reaction towards occupation of the country. The present study seeks to investigate the reasons for different reactions of the religious scholars and clerics towards the occupation of the country in the first and second World Wars. To do so, we have used a comparative method of study. The findings of the study show that factors such as weakening of the scholars’ position through Reza Shah’s anti-religious policies, proclamation of giving up resistance by the central government in the Second World War, fruitlessness of any resistance against occupying powers considering what was experienced in the First World War, low level of damages in the Second World War, and the scholars’ attempt for reviving the status of Islam and clerics after Reza Shah’s resigning were all effective in different reaction by the religious scholars.

In the last two decades, after enacting the constitutional law in Afghanistan in 2003 and granting the freedom of religious and ethnic minorities, the religious identity became one of the issues of public concern. The present study aims at investigating the extent to which the Shiite students feel being treated with religious discrimination by welfare services, the Sunnite students, the individuals in the campus, professors, and personnel in Kabul University. The research method was of survey type and Pearson correlation was used for analysis and description of statistical data. The statistical population consisted of all Shiite students in Kabul University from 2016 to 2018. For this purpose, 262 subjects were selected through Cochran formula. The sampling method was multistage sampling in the form of a combination of cluster sampling. The results show that more than 80% of the Shiite students felt being treated with religious discrimination by the professors, individuals in the campus and by the personnel. They felt less discriminating behavior (30%) on the part of the Sunnite students and in getting welfare services. Factors such as sex, age, major, and ethnicity had no considerable effect in discriminating treatment, and thus, there is no meaningful relationship between students’ sex, age, major, ethnicity and discrimination. However, there is a meaningful relationship between the students’ denomination and discrimination.

The Shiite thought has had a revolutionary and changing effect on painting in contemporary Iran. And in three decades of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, i.e. from 1978 to 2008, this had a significant manifestation. The effect of the Shiite culture, especially the Ashura incident, on drawing in contemporary Iran is quite evident. Flags, weapons, roadsters, and the red and green colors in those paintings are all sign of stating events that are deeply rooted in the Shiite culture. The signs in the form of symbols are strong bearers of describing events and the Shiites’ being oppressed; and the revolution’s painting uses those signs and their concepts to communicate with the addressees through a figurative language. As to the content, the most important feature of the revolution’s painting is its use of the Shiite themes. In this article, while compiling and completing the opinions of the researchers on the content of the Shiite religious themes in three decades of revolution’s painting, we have studied the works pertaining to these years through an investigation and analysis of the content of the themes and the textual data in tables and diagrams. The investigations show that the content of the works have mostly been influenced by the Shiite doctrines and thoughts; and as for the technique and method of performance, those artworks have been created in a mixed form of realism and symbolism.

In the Iranian-Islamic architecture, using the art of mirror-works as a type of fresco based on light effects has a certain structural and semantic credit that makes it different from other types of fresco. The Holy Shrine of Ahmad bin Musa, known as Shah-Cheragh, is one of the greatest monuments wherein mirror-works have been used extensively in various types. Since a fundamental recognition of the instances of the traditional art can somewhat fill the identity gap in the contemporary art, comparative studies in those two spheres can be considered as a necessity in contemporary studies. Munir Farmanfarmaiyan, as one of the prominent figures in the Iranian contemporary art, enjoys a unique status in the international sphere. The studies show that this artist has been inspired by the semantic and formal features of the mirror-works of Shah-Cheragh’s shrine in his works. The present study has used a descriptive-analytical method in gathering data in the form of library sources and filed study to analyze them in the inductive way. The findings of the study show that, in the formal sphere, some of the main designs in the mirror-works in Shah-Cheragh’s shrine, such as muqarnas, qab-bandi and naqshina, have been used in Farmanfarmaiyan’s works as well; and in the semantic sphere, common features such as analysis of form, inducing motion, visual simultaneity, and representation of reality, which are among the most fundamental concerns of the modern art, have been manifested in both artistic spheres with similar formal and semantic goals.

No doubt, for various Islamist groups in contemporary Afghanistan, legitimacy is considered the most important and the most serious political issue. Legitimacy is the essence and the spirit of power, and the Shiite and Ikhwanid Islamists as two political mainstreams in Afghanistan have made great effort to legitimize their presence in the political arena of that country. The main idea in the present article is to show, with a comparative look, that why and how the Shiite and Ikhwanid Islamists dealt with the issue of legitimacy, and what the results for their thought and practice were. It seems that Hughes’ method for intellectual analysis of history that considers three stages of backgrounds, nature and consequences, prepares a proper framework for the comparative study of the subject. The findings in this framework show that the Shiite and Ikhwanid Islamists, despite some similarities in the three stages, have sought legitimacy in certain backgrounds, the nature and axes of their thought around the issue of legitimacy were different, and that different results and heterogeneous consequences for their practice have resulted.

The status and role of a Sheikh and a guide in any mystic order is of great importance, because the wayfarer in his path is in continuous need to the guides and instructions of a Sheikh to be able to cover all states and positions in a healthy and good manner. This role is much more prominent in Kebrawiya order and the related mystics consider a special importance for it. It is worth saying that among the mystics, this order is well-known for having Shiite leanings. Najmuddin Kebrawi, the head of that order, and his disciples, especially Majduddin Baghdadi and Najmuddin Razi consider a very high position for Sheikh in esoteric authority. The present article is of descriptive-analytical type and uses library sources to investigate the sheikh’s characteristics and qualities in the famous works written by those three mystics, i.e. Fawayih al-Jamal, Tuhfat al-Barara and Mirsad al-‘Ibad, and compares it with a Shiite look. To do so, the sheikh’s status has been analyzed from three aspects: sheikh and God, sheikh and self, and sheikh and wayfarer. This study shows that the three mystics consider the existence of a perfect sheikh necessary for guiding the wayfarer and disciple in their way towards Allah, because lack of a sheikh in any state would lead to the wayfarer’s deviation. Similarly, for the Shiite Imams and mystics, this is of great importance in guiding the nation and the wayfarers.