نشریه مطالعات قرآنی نامه جامعه
پیاپی 136 (زمستان 1399)

Belief in the genetic guardianship of God’s saints is among the most significant Shiite theological-interpretive doctrines. By correctly explicating the genetic guardianship, Shiite scholars have sought to respond to the claim of its incompatibility with the Unity of Divine Acts. Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, one of the great Shiite scholars, while explaining the genetic guardianship and its relation to monotheism, has tried to dispute the claim of Shiites being polytheists and also of the total delegation of matters to human beings, and simultaneously, to clarify the incorrect interpretations of the Unity of Divine Acts. He has divided the semantic domain of genetic guardianship into five categories: the dominion of individual’s genetic guardianship over one’s self, the Divine permission of the individual’s dominion over all possibilities genetically, independently and by Divine will, the public guardianship over beings in an originated and non-independent way, the power of appropriation of a part of the universe using acquired sciences or in a gifted and Divinely inspired way, and the occupation of the universe in the form of breaking the habit, miracle and according to special materials and requirements of breaking the habit. While explaining and accepting categories 4 and 5 and rejecting categories 1 and 2, maintains that category 3 means the guardianship of a perfect human being such as the prophet and the guardian of time and of all beings and the administration of the organization of the universe in an originated and non-independent way. In Ayatollah Safi’s words, this third category does not contradict monotheism and will not cause disbelief or oppose necessity, and the generality of narratives is useful for proving guardianship in this sense. Yet they lack documents to prove their authenticity, and it is not possible to simply abandon the outward of the verses, which regards God as the unmediated agent of the phenomena of the universe, and the compatibility created between the third proposition of the philosophical rule, ‘nothing is emanated from the one but one’, and the remaining hadiths concerning the light creation of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the Infallible Imams (AS) is reasonable with three conditions.

One of the components of Al-Khouli’s proposed method in contemporary literary interpretation is the application of psychological and sociological analyses. Given the innovations of Al-Khouli’s perspective in these two areas and also their impact on the interaction of humanities with Islamic sciences, the main purpose of this article is to analyze Al-Khouli’s views on these two subjects. This significant aim will be fulfilled analytically based on library data, Al-Khouli’s interpretive works and Bint al-Shati’s commentary. The result of the present article is that due to the drawbacks of the Sunni school of interpretation, Al-Khouli, while referring to the Qur’an with a thematic interpretation and using psychological and sociological analyses, intended to grasp the Qur’an more accurately and prove the Qur’an’s ability to solve today’s problems and adapt the literary comprehension of the Qur’an to modern needs of the society, which are the strengths of his perspective and the ultimate and methodological flaws of Al-Khouli’s view have not had a negative effect on its sociological analyses. In psychological analyses, apart from Khalfullah’s idea of considering the Qur’an mythical, there are no defects in such analyses in Al-Khouli’s own works. Besides, the positive functions of psychological analyses can be observed in Bint al-Shati’s commentary. It indicates that this standpoint, in essence, is considerable in these two areas and should be validated depending on the type of its application in interpretation. Taking into consideration the correct interpretive rules and regulations, implementing the propositions of Al-Khouli’s view on these two issues, gives a more accurate and practical comprehension of the verses.

The present article, while expressing the importance of the position of family in the Qur’an, points out spouses’ mutual laws and duties in order to strengthen the foundation of family. Then, by mentioning the right to glorification and good association, the right to property and financial independence, and the right to inheritance, it seeks to analyze the views of some contemporary Sunni and Shiite commentators with social orientation, namely Muhammad ‘Abduh, Ibn ‘Ashour, Allameh Tabatabaei and Allameh Fazlullah on the interpretation of verses related to these rights using comparative comparison. These commentators believe that in the Islamic legal system, the rights and duties of husband and wife are divided between them based on their spiritual, natural and physical abilities. Despite their disagreements over denomination and differences of opinion about some fundamentals, there is much in common in their views on all three issues, such as the financial independence of husband and wife in the family and the subject of inheritance. In this article, the dissensions and their corresponding concepts in the verses have been addressed. The difference of views on the concept of attainment and some literary rules lies in the verse regarding inheritance.

The Qur’an is the code of Islamic civilization. The word “civilization” does not appear in the Qur’an. Yet some commentators have made a civilizational use of “’Ummah”, i.e., a group that believed in the Prophet of God. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present article studies comparatively the concept of civilization from the viewpoint of Allameh Tabatabaei and Seyyed Qutb, particularly in their interpretations with regard to the term “’Ummah”. Findings of the article reveal that the Qur’an considers the most significant factor in the emergence and continuity of human society to be the transcendental unity which transcends geographical, temporal, racial, kinship, and other such boundaries. Seyyed Qutb believes that by “’Ummah Wāhidah” in the Qur’an, the religion of Islam and the Muslim community are meant, and whoever does not hold an Islamic belief is outside the realm of the “’Ummah Wāhidah” and is among the ignorant society; whereas Allameh enhances the concept of ‘Ummah semantically, and argues for a universal meaning; that is, a group that pursues a single goal, both worldly and spiritual. The unity of ‘Ummah, however, is realized by being coreligionists in addition to convergence.

The issue of abrogation has been considered since the early Islam. Abrogation has two main pillars, namely the abrogating and the abrogated, and belongs to the realm of verses of rulings. Some Islamic commentators and thinkers have claimed abrogation of verses 20 and 169-170 of Sūrah Āli-’Imrān. The present article examines this claim with a descriptive-analytical method and criticizes it based on a number of reasons. The result of this research is that the claim of abrogation in the mentioned verses suffers from drawbacks including the abrogation of the Qur’an with a single report, acceptance of distortion in the Qur’an, restriction of the Qur’anic verses to a specific time, and the rejection of immortality of the Qur’an until the Day of Judgment. Keywords: the claim of abrogation of verses 169 and 170 of Sūrah Āli-’Imrān, the claim of abrogation of verse 20 of Sūrah Āli-’Imrān, the rejection of Immortality of the Qur’an, restriction of the Qur’anic verses to a specific time, the abrogation of the Qur’an with a single report.

The science of recitation concerns reciting the Qur’an which is the revealed Word and the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) eternal miracle. Thus, recognizing the differences in the recitations of Qur’anic terms and examining their role in interpretations is of particular significance. In the present article, instances of discord among the seven reciters on some words of Sūrah Al-Isrā’ have been studied and the interpretive discrepancies of these cases have been analyzed comparatively. Moreover, the amount of difference according to Hafs’s recitation from ‘Āsim, as the most well-known recitation, is illustrated in tables and diagrams and the role of differences in recitations of some words of this Sūrah in changing or not changing the meanings of its words and verses has been considered. In doing the research, we have used library resources and a descriptive-analytical method. According to the findings of this study, the claim about the non-existence of distortion in the Qur’an indicates that there is no distortion in the form of addition or removal in the Qur’an, not any type of distortion, for spiritual distortion has occurred in the form of various translations and interpretations. Although the issue of “discord in recitations” regards verbal distortion, the extent of its impact on the meanings of words in the verses of Sūrah Al-Isrā’ is negligible and eventually, the same meaning is often obtained from the verse. Every now and then changes have been made, such as exaggeration and emphasis or changes of address from third person to second person or vice versa, or from singular to plural or the reverse. In some cases, however, it has led to a change in the meaning of the verse. Out of 28 instances of difference in recitations of Sūrah Al-Isrā’, 12 cases are with semantic change and 16 cases are without semantic change.