Asghar Mohammadi; sahar kavandi; Mohsen Jahed
Abstract
AbstractThe root of “A M A N A”, "أ م ن" is one of the most central and fundamental concepts of the Qur'an and religious issues. According to Islamic theologians, multiple and conflicting interpretations of faith have caused some to accuse others of disbelief - the opposite of faith. Considering ...
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AbstractThe root of “A M A N A”, "أ م ن" is one of the most central and fundamental concepts of the Qur'an and religious issues. According to Islamic theologians, multiple and conflicting interpretations of faith have caused some to accuse others of disbelief - the opposite of faith. Considering faith as an epistemological-cognitive matter is used in two semantic areas: firstly, faith is achieved through reason and rational arguments; Second basically, the nature of faith is knowledge. The current research does not consider any of these two views to be correct and aims to explain the issue that faith can be achieved without any rational and epistemological reasoning. In order to prove this claim, first, a brief review of the theologians' understanding of faith has been done, to show that the lack of knowledge of faith and the necessity of obtaining it through rational reasoning is a theory that has its roots among Islamic theologians and is considered It seems that the arguments of this group are more defensible than the rival group. Then, with a brief look at some verses, evidences have been given that faith, from the perspective of the Qur'an, is related to the emotional-emotional sphere of a person. IntroductionSince the compilation of the Qur'an, this holy book has been exposed to views and opinions among Muslim thinkers, including commentators, theologians, philosophers, jurists and mystics. Ambiguity in some key words of the Qur'an has caused disputes and, as a result, categories that plague Muslims to this day. Although this is not specific to Muslims and is more or less seen in all religions and rituals, it is going on in an acute and double way in the case of Islam and the Qur'an. One of these concepts is the concept of faith, which despite the detailed discussions of Islamic commentators and theologians, but it seems that the truth of faith is still in the aura of ambiguity and there have been detailed disputes over it throughout the history of Islam. There have been researches in this field, where the viewpoints of Islamic theologians, commentators and philosophers have been explained and criticized. What is the truth and nature of the heart's acknowledgment that is stated in most of the views and what is the main role in it is the focus of this research and it seeks to discover the connection between science and faith and accordingly find the truth and the main pillar of faith. Therefore, in order to reduce the differences and apparent conflicts of the verses, there is no other choice but to return to the text and carefully review the views of Muslim thinkers. The structure of the Qur'an's worldview about God, man and nature must be obtained from the heart of the Qur'an's text, and this is important through the analysis of the main and flow-forming words, terms, and concepts of the Qur'an, taking into account the cultural and geographical background of the Qur'an's revelation. It is possible.Discussion and ResultsSince the perfection of a person and his salvation from the perspective of the Qur'an, as will be explained, is dependent on faith, and the lack of faith causes a person to fall, and on the other hand, as Islamic thinkers had already accepted that the happiness of a person depends on the realization of reason and its activity. Therefore, without paying enough attention to the logic of the Qur'an, they considered faith as a rational concept related to the power of cognition. In the books of Islamic ethics and Kalam, special attention has been paid to the development of reason and rationality, but almost no attention has been paid to the development of feelings and emotions. In this article, I would like to say that the concept of faith in the Qur'an, contrary to the general view of theologians, is not a matter of knowledge of the type of belief and opinion. Rather, it is related to human feelings and emotions. In the Islamic tradition, due to the predominance of Aristotle's view of man and the definition of man, they usually summed up the criterion of man's superiority in his intellect and rationality, and did not attach much importance to other aspects of man's existence. It was that in examining the key concepts of the Qur'an, the discussion was unintentionally going on intellectual matters. Another point is that the realm of human feelings and emotions was unknown at that time, and feelings and emotions were usually considered a subset of human will. Since Tetens, who was a contemporary of Kant, the field of feelings and emotions was recognized and emphasized as the independent field of a person. The theologians defined the word faith based on the definition given by lexicographers and made many efforts to analyze and interpret it, but none of them paid attention to the fact that faith may fundamentally belong to another area of human existence. The theologians considered faith as confirmation, and in this regard, they included both intellectual confirmation and heart confirmation in the definition of faith. Some people believed that faith is the same as science and it can be achieved based on rational arguments, but others believed that faith can be obtained through the heart. But they all had one thing in common, and that is that faith is a category of science and knowledge. Of course, this does not mean that faith has no connection with knowledge. Knowledge is a condition of faith, but it is not its camel. In the sense that knowledge is not a part of the essence and the core of faith, but it has the dignity and status of an introduction to it; Just as knowledge can be the prelude to any act or state or desire of a person. When we get angry or envious, we must be aware of the person we are angry or envious of, even though we have great knowledge; But this does not mean that anger and envy belong to the category of knowledge. A closer examination of the verses of the Qur'an can understand that faith belongs to the realm of feelings and emotions. That is, it belongs to the family of concepts such as gratitude, hope, hope, fear and the like. The opposite point of faith should also be emotional. Therefore, in understanding faith, we need to understand the mentioned concepts. As Izutsu had come to it in his books and showed it well.ConclusionThis article was intended to express the attitude of Islamic theologians about faith as briefly as possible and to find the correct meaning of faith. By examining the opinions of Islamic theologians, it became clear that faith is not just knowledge or practice, and it is not even possible to consider faith as a combination of both. What is clear is that faith requires knowledge and without it faith cannot be realized, but the truth of faith will not be knowledge. According to the point of view that faith is the confirmation of the heart, the conclusion was reached that faith is the actions of the practical intellect and the work of the heart, and it is one of human tendencies, not perceptions. According to this view, the verses related to faith can be interpreted and by looking at the verses collectively, there will be no ambiguity in this regard. According to the authors, no external model or paradigm is responsible for understanding faith. It is acceptable to have a model and paradigm in the understanding of faith that can provide a reasonable and justified interpretation of most - if not all - of the verses that contain the word faith or its derivatives. Otherwise, we will go astray in understanding it. By referring to the Qur'an, it becomes clear that faith is related to the non-cognitive domain of man, which is associated with reassurance, trust, and loyalty, and living faithfully means having trust and loyalty in God, the unseen, the angels, the prophets, and the book of the Qur'an
Morteza Hosseinzadeh; Sahar Kavandi; Mohsen Jahed
Abstract
The truth of knowledge was considered by western philosophers and epistemologists long time ago unclear sentence. They were mostly foundationalists or coherentists in the justification element. Muslim philosophers specifically paid attention to the problem of knowledge, and defined it as constant certainty ...
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The truth of knowledge was considered by western philosophers and epistemologists long time ago unclear sentence. They were mostly foundationalists or coherentists in the justification element. Muslim philosophers specifically paid attention to the problem of knowledge, and defined it as constant certainty corresponding reality. In consideration of ternary definition of knowledge, it can be deduced that Muslim philosophers accepted the corresponding theory in truth element, and accepted foundationalism in justification element. Though, epistemological model of Sadra is different from those of Muslim philosophers in consideration of different evaluations of statements, and emphasis on different role and place of proof and mystic intuition in reaching knowledge, and on the other hand, by accepting that knowledge is existential, and by reducing conceptual knowledge to immediate knowledge. Understanding of Mulla Sadra's theory requires examining his method of the justification element. Various aspects are indicated to distinguish between the Transcendent Philosophy and other philosophical schools. In this view, mystic intuition can play a justifying role. From viewpoint of Mulla Sadra, what should be followed are proof and mystic intuition. In the Sadra’s system, revelation is the criterion for evaluation of mystic intuition. So, reaching knowledge demands the existence of proof or mystic intuition, and the truth of the latter should be evaluated by the revelation. Epistemic system of Sadra is formed by three elements of proof, mystic intuition, and revelation being interrelated to each other. Explaining the epistemological role of proof, mystic intuition, and revelation addresses the context of justification, uncovering the theory of the Transcendent Philosophy about the knowledge. Methods This study describes the problems, analyzes them, and in some cases, criticizes them using a literature review. Results and discussion After determination of the ternary epistemic elements, viz. proof, mystic intuition, and revelation, it can be concluded that real knowledge is gained through proof or mystic intuition. In an initial look, it seems that proof and mystic intuition are different, but since he believes that real knowledge is the immediate knowledge, it can be believed that proof and mystic intuition are single and the same, and that the reality of both is the existential encountering with non-material reality. Each of proof and mystic intuition is preparing a cause for encountering non-material existence and gaining knowledge. After considering the theories that set forth the justifying element in the Sadra’s system, and examining their faults according to this system, another theory is reached herein about justifying element, which is not just foundationalism or coherentism. Conclusion In our opinion, in consideration of epistemological foundations of the Transcendent Philosophy, one cannot believe that Mulla Sadra's theory of justification is the same as those of other Muslim epistemologists. Mulla Sadra's theory of justification is a compound one that authors named it as “existential foundherentism”. From the viewpoint of Mulla Sadra, proof and mystic intuition (purification of the soul) are the preparing causes for the existential encountering of non-material existence, and consequently, for justifying the beliefs. Coherentism of Mulla Sadra and his reliance on proof is the realm of conceptual knowledge. This means that in the realm of conceptual knowledge, he believes in two kinds of statements, i.e. foundational and non-foundational, and justifies the latter by the former. Mulla Sadra's cohrtentism implies his belief of conceptual knowledge to be compatible with immediate knowledge, the latter being compatible to the former. In consideration of Mulla Sadra's foundation, the reality of proof and mystic intuition is unique and the same, and that reality is immediate encountering the object of knowledge. This encountering, as a result, is a product of proof or purification of the soul, that is, both promote the existence of the knower and put him/her in the presence of object of the knowledge, and just here, object of the knowledge attends for the knower and the identity of knower and known occurs. The compound theory named “existential foundherentism”, pays attention both to the role of proof and the mystic intuition. Although in some of his works, Mulla Sadra only emphasizes the proof for justifying the statements, his final viewpoint is to follow proof or mystic intuition, and that proof proves, hence it cannot be incompatible with the mystic intuition, and real proof is not against to the mystic intuition.
