نشریه معرفت فرهنگی اجتماعی
سال پانزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 58، بهار 1403)

The social thought of Islamic thinkers in the Qom seminary is deeply rooted in the history of jurisprudential, theological, ruling and moral thought, but has had significant developments and growth in the last century. It is highly important to study this topic and show the capacity and originality of religious thought in the field of social thoughts. Considering the social aspects, this research aims to identify the most important axes of development of the social thought of the Qom seminary in the last century. It investigates this subject in three axes of thematic, methodological and applied developments. The wide scope of social issues, the diversity and evolution in approaches (including jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, ethics, and comparative and critical approaches), as well as the emphasis on the two elements of time and place have caused the expansion of contemporary social thoughts. Besides, the mutual interaction of the theoretical and practical fields of social thought is the third axis that shows the development of the social thought of the Qom seminary thinkers in the last century.

Islamic sciences, Hadith, Tafsir (interpretation), Fiqh (jurisprudence) and Kalam (Islamic speculative theology) have been reinvigorated in the contemporary period. Using the theory of basic methodology and analytical method, this research explains the reasons and grounds of this rise. The revival of Hikmat-e-Sadrae, the development of experimental sciences, the emergence of scientific competitors and Western philosophies and sciences, and most importantly, the inadequacy of existing works, are among the epistemic factors of this issue. Paying attention to the needs of the day, adopting global and approximate approaches, establishing scientific centers, compiling scientific works and trying to expand scientific interactions are among individual factors. With regard to sociopolitical grounds, one can mention the emergence of colonialism, authoritarian governments, confrontation with the West, Islamic revolution, changes in the educational system and the division of scientific work. Epistemic factors (by playing a causal role), and individual and socio-political factors (by playing a numerical role) have contributed to the development of the aforementioned sciences in contemporary Qom.

Since man is a perfectionist being, he prefers collective life over individual life so that he can reach his desired goal. According to Farabi, social life can bring human perfection, and solitary life - although not impossible - cannot lead man to happiness and desired perfection. Avicenna goes beyond and believes that it is impossible for man to achieve perfection; Society is really a context for providing happiness for mankind. It is obvious that it can lead man to happiness only if it is tranquil and peaceful, has the necessary coherence and solidarity and is not chaotic and disorderly, because otherwise, no one will have the strength to survive. Therefore, knowing the factors and the mechanism of the emergence of social cohesion in societies is one of the main concerns of social thinkers who have put a lot of effort to reach the desired answer. According to the realities of human life, they have listed several factors to create social cohesion. "Religion" has been considered as one of the most important factors in this regard. In this article, after briefly stating the influence of religion and revelatory values in this important subject in human society, the author refers to objective and historical documents and his own experience and shows that the Qom seminary has taken a very effective step in creating social cohesion in Iran’s society through direct factors, such as Shia authority , religious bodies, face-to-face preaching, Hijrat plan, as well as indirect factors, such as ijtihad and inferences of rulings and explanation of revealed values.

Progress includes different dimensions of insight, structure and behavior. The progress of a society depends on various internal and external factors. Scientific and religious centers of any political system are among the most effective internal factors. In Iran, the Qom seminary is an influential scientific and religious institution that has played a major role in the progress and social political developments of this country since its establishment. This role has been growing since the 1340s due to several reasons. Using a combination of descriptive, analytical and interpretive methods, this article seeks to explain the role of the seminary school, scholars and clergy in the socio-political progress of Iranian society. The research findings show that, under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, the Qom seminary and the clergymen have had a great impact on the political and social progress of this country in terms of insight. Studying the two other fields, i.e. structural and behavioral, requires an independent research.

With the emergence of the new subject of "social history and lifestyle" in the West and the East, Iranian writers and researchers also studied the social history of the Iranian people, which resulted in good works. The research topics in this area were clear to some extent and the researchers paid attention to some parts of this history focusing on the social life of people. The lack of this type of research in the field of social history and lifestyle of Ahl al-Bayt and Shiites was noticed by the students of the field, and using the structure of studies on social history and Islamic lifestyle, some treatises were compiled in this regard. The result of such studies led to the addition of four units of social history of Shiites to the curriculum of the specialized centers of the Qom seminary in the field of Shia history. In other educational and research institutions of religious sciences, special attention was paid to the course of social history at MA and PhD programs, and finally, in addition to expert training, the students of the Qom's seminary wrote books, articles or master's and doctoral theses with the title “The social history of the Shia” and took an effective step in introducing their customs, symbols, lifestyle, relationships and social systems.

The clerics have always had a good relationship with people and have been considered a refuge in the adversities of life. The connection and friendship of the clerics with people is the epistemological result of the knowledge that was formed based on epistemological foundations and organized the social life of people and the social and epistemological conduct of the Shiite clergy. Due to the promotion of scientific literature diverging from these principles, one of the biggest dangers is the divergence of the morals and conduct of the clergy from people. One of the manifestations of the connection between people and the clerics is their physical convergence; but today, due to reasons such as the development of divergent cities and the daily activities of the clerics, they have considered it expedient to live in separate settlements from ordinary people, and special neighborhoods and towns have been built for them. This spatial separation has given rise to the idea that the clergy want a more comfortable life, and that companionship with people deprives them of peace. This leads to social separation. Using historical approach and descriptive-analytical method, this research examines the social contexts of the residential separation of the clergy and its consequences. The research findings show that change in lifestyle, change in the way of living, seeking comfort, staying away from the harms of modern urban life, numerous intellectual and executive occupations, etc., have led to the clergy’s preference for living apart from ordinary people. This trend never existed in the Imam-Ummah style the continuation of which, based on religion and ethics, would cause convergence and unity between the clergy and the people.

Missionary work is one of the main duties of religious institutions in the Islamic society; and the Islamic Seminary - as a religious-scientific institution - has emphasized the importance of missionary work since its establishment. Missionary work is affected by people’s social needs and demands on the one hand, and develops according to the society’s rulers and the structure of the Islamic Seminary as external factors, on the other hand; which all requires historical studies. The Islamic Seminary of Qom has experienced the two periods of before-revelation and after-revolution of Iran since its establishment. In the pre-revolutionary period, there were some external factors, such as the Pahlavi approaches to modernize people’s social life, and thus the society’s new needs created some new requests from the Islamic Seminary during the era of Haj Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha’eri and Mr. Borujerdi. This created the need for changes in its various parts, including missionary work. After the revolution, missionary work had another tremendous change due to the changes of the government structure and paying attention to people’s social needs in relation to religion – as an external factor - on the one hand, and accordingly the structure of the Islamic Seminary – an internal factor - on the other hand. Some of the results of these changes are the establishment of missionary institutions, updating missionary works and efforts for making it effective and responding to people's needs. In addition, knowing the social-political conditions of the society in order to change the different parts of the Islamic Seminary, ---- by social knowledge, that by knowing the social conditions, transformational activities were carried out. I have analyzed the above-mentioned relation(?) in this research, examining historical documents related to before and after the revolution of Iran and using the method of qualitative content analysis in order to examine the content of the description of the duties of missionary organizations.