List Q&A

Islam teaches that religion is in the nature of human beings. To be human is to be concerned with religion; to stand erect, as men and women do, is to seek transcendence. Human beings have received the imprint of God on the very substance of their souls and cannot evade religion any more than they can avoid breathing. Individuals here and there may reject religion or a society may turn against its God-given religion for a short time, but even those events possess a religious significance. Men and women are created in the “form” (surah) of God, according to the famous Prophetic hadith. Here surah means the reflection of God’s Names and Qualities, for otherwise God is formless and imageless.

Men and women are created in the “form” (surah) of God, according to the famous Prophetic hadith. Here surah means the reflection of God’s Names and Qualities, for otherwise God is formless and imageless. 

Also, God breathed into human beings His Spirit according to the verse:

“I have made him and have breathed into him My Spirit” (15:29).

To be human is to carry this Spirit at the depth of one’s being and therefore to be concerned with religion and the author of all religion, who has breathed His Spirit into us.
According to Islam, as in all traditional teachings, men and women did not ascend from lower forms of life, but descended from on high, from a Divine prototype. Therefore, humanity has always been humanity and has always had religion. The first man, Adam, was also the first prophet. Religion did not evolve gradually during the history of humanity, but has always been there, in different forms but always containing the eternal message of Divine Oneness until, as a result of forgetfulness, its teachings were neglected and corrupted, only to be renewed by a new message from Heaven. Monotheism did not evolve from polytheism. Rather, polytheism is a decadent form of monotheism necessitating the ever newer revelations that have characterized human history.

Religion did not evolve gradually during the history of humanity, but has always been there, in different forms but always containing the eternal message of Divine Oneness until, as a result of forgetfulness, its teachings were neglected and corrupted, only to be renewed by a new message from Heaven. Monotheism did not evolve from polytheism. Rather, polytheism is a decadent form of monotheism necessitating the ever newer revelations that have characterized human history.

It is religion alone that can bestow meaning on human life, because it and it alone issues directly and in an objective manner from the same Divine Source as human life itself. Religion alone can actualize the potentialities within human beings and enable them to be fully themselves. It is only with the help of Heaven that we can become what we are eternally in the Divine Presence. Religion provides that supreme knowledge which is the highest goal of the intelligence and reveals the nature of that Reality which is also supreme love and the ultimate goal of the will. Religion is the source of all ethics and values, providing the objective criteria for the worth of human actions and deeds. It is also the source of veritable knowledge of both the Divine Principle and the created order in its relation to that Principle as well as the bearer of those principles that constitute the science of beauty and of forms in a traditional civilization.

Religion is the source of all ethics and values, providing the objective criteria for the worth of human actions and deeds. It is also the source of veritable knowledge of both the Divine Principle and the created order in its relation to that Principle as well as the bearer of those principles that constitute the science of beauty and of forms in a traditional civilization.

Islam cannot accept a human world in which religion is irrelevant. It can understand perfectly what it means to rebel against God and His prophets and has a fully developed doctrine concerning the nature of evil, the trials and tribulations of the life of faith, the dangers of unbelief, and the consequences of being responsible, as a being endowed with freedom to choose, before God. But the idea of humanity without religion as normal and a world in which the being or nonbeing of God is irrelevant and inconsequential as acceptable are totally rejected by Islam, which sees religion as the sine qua non of human life. Indeed, it is a human being’s relation to the Absolute, whatever that relation might be, that determines his or her relation to the relative. The loss of religion for the individual can only mean separation from both inner beatitude and the beatitude of the Beyond and, for a society as a whole, a sure sign of the disintegration of that society as a viable human collectivity.

Source: Islam; Religion, History, and Civilization 

The Night of Destiny (Leilatul-Qadr) is an important and blessed night which is, according to the Holy Quran located in the month of Ramadan. 
About this question there are several probabilities: 
1- What we mean by the multiplicity of the Night of Destiny in one year is that it may fall on the night of the 19th, 21st, and 23rd  of the month of Ramadhan.. 
2- What we mean by the multiplicity of the Night of Destiny may lie in the fact that there was such a night in the Prophet Mohammad’s (s) time and it was repeated after him. 
3- What we mean by the multiplicity of the Night of Destiny is that there is a time zone difference in various Muslim cities. This difference in the days of the month of Ramadan in different regions may be the reason for having the Night of Destiny in various times for each city. 
In response we should say that what people say is not based on viable facts. We don’t have more than one night of destiny and that is the night when the Holy Quran was brought down and the destiny of people was given shape. God says: “Truly we sent it down on the night of destiny” and not on any other night. 

For the second probability it should be mentioned that according to the Verses of the Holy Quran and various traditions the night of destiny is not limited only to the time during the life of the Prophet Mohammad (s), it reoccurs all throughout the years like the ‘feast of the sacrifice’ (Eid Qurban, also known as Eidul-Adha) which is repeated every year. God says: 
1-  “Therein descend the angels and the Ruh by Allah’s permission with all decrees" 
2-  “Therein (that night) is decreed every matter of ordainment.” 
In these two verses the verb “sent down” and decree both have been used in the present tense and imply continuity. 
We have various traditions that the night of destiny is repeated every year. On this night God’s decree for one year is sent down. 
For the third possibility it can be said that the time zone difference does not make the night of destiny fall on different nights. If Muslims don’t fail to realize the first night of Ramadan and do their religious duties and keep awake on the nights likely to be the night of destiny, they will certainly be blessed by God even if they have kept awake on the wrong night. It is obvious that some features of this night like the sending down of the angels on God’s apostles only happens on the real night of destiny. It can be understood from the traditions that the day of destiny is as valuable as the night of destiny. However some affairs like the management and the sending down of the angels happens on the night of destiny. God says:

In it the angels and the Spirit descend, by the leave of their Lord, with every command. [1]a

One’s trust in history can to an extent be attained through the clues, evidence, proof and fame that have been passed down generation after generation and from era to era. The clues and evidence for certain incidents in history are so many that hardly anyone can doubt in their occurrence.
Even if there are chances of forgery and alteration in some cases, such a matter has no effect whatsoever on our trust in hadiths, because we have the science of Rijal whose job is to introduce reliable narrators of hadiths to us and put aside weak and unreliable narrators; this science has developed different methods for the protection of the text of hadiths, most notably: presenting the hadiths to the imams and scholars, comparing copies, permission for narration, the indexical method, etc. It is through such means that a majority of the hadiths that are mostly gathered in hadith collections, especially the four major sources (Kafi, Istibsar, Tahdhib and Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih) have been evaluated and the reliable ones with acceptable chains of narrators have been identified.addition to all of this, the ulema (i.e., scholars) and jurists today, especially experts in Rijal and Dirayah, like watchmen, are making every effort to preserve and refine our valuable hadiths, which after the Quran, are the most important treasure of Islam.

The main stages of religion are as follows:
1- The “nafsul-amr” religion: What exists in the knowledge of Allah (swt) regarding the guidance of man to his eternal prosperity and salvation, is the “nafsul-amr” religion. In other words, the nafsul-amr religion is the way of life for man from the beginning to the end.
2- The “mursal” religion: The religion that has been sent down to man for his guidance through his prophets. In other words, the “mursal” religion is a portion or all of the “nafsul-amr” religion which is bestowed upon man via the prophets.

The theory that Dr. Soroush has presented regarding Islam being the seal of religions and has given rise to doubt in youth is as follows:
The divine religions and ideologies have been changing towards getting more and more comprehensive across the past ages and definitely the reason behind such changes is the growth of humans’ intellect, and no one can claim that such a thing hasn't happened regarding Islam, because not only hasn’t this growth of intellect come to an end, but has also gathered momentum; today’s human society and individuals who are the building blocks of society can in no way be compared to those of the advent of Islam. The rules that pertain to worshipping God can stay the same because they have to do with the creator and the nurturer of mankind and have nothing to do with the growth of the human intellect, but the social rules and laws and those that have to do with governing need to be updated, rules like punishment in Islamic penal law and blood money. The reason why Islam is the seal of all religions is not that it's rules will stay the same across time, but that man is no more in need of any form of divine revelation and Islam can guide mankind and help him legislate new rules and more efficient ones, this is why Islam is the seal of all religions...”, Please let me know where can I find the appropriate answer to the abovementioned theory and in which sources.

Paying attention to these points can be beneficial:
1- The fact that the prophet of Islam was the seal of prophets making Islam the seal of religions is pointed out in verse 40 of surah Ahzab, and what is meant is that there will be no prophets after the prophet of Islam.
2- The reason why Islam is the seal of all religions is that: 
Firstly, it is an utterly comprehensive religion, because there was no limitation neither regarding the prophet that the religion was not revealed upon, nor to the people it was sent to and those who practiced it, therefore Islam was able to explain all of what it had to say, and secondly, the fact that Islam was immune to alteration.
3- Islam consists of changing and stable elements. Distinguishing between the two is done through the method that the Imams have established which is known as "Ijtihad". Ijtihad and the immunity of the Quran (the key source of Islam) to distortion has prevented the alteration of this religion.
4- Deducing the global and unchanging elements of Islam, thus reaching its core, can only be accomplished through the right method, which is a fiqhi (jurisprudential) and analytic one, and the development of science and technology and other humanly sciences (that have nothing to do with religion) such as sociology, etc., have nothing to do with it. Of course, they can help with the changing and conditional elements which are the methods and instruments used to carry out religion, and their development will certainly have an impact on these elements, but at the same time, will not change the primary and unchanging ones to changing and unstable ones. It must be noted that it isn't true that the only stable elements in Islam are the ones related to worship and that all others are prone to change; there are many social and political Islamic laws that are also stable and unchanging.
5- What was mentioned above as the viewpoint of Mr. Soroosh is merely a conjecture that is not backed by any reasoning and the fundamentals of this theory have been challenged in many ways. This theory is based on conceiving the social laws of Islam as conditional and changing elements of Islam, on the ideology of secularism, etc., which all come from having a false picture and understanding of Islam.
6- As we explained before Islam, the seal of religions, wasn’t limited as far as the people it was sent for were concerned, but this does not mean that all people reach the amount of knowledge and intelligence to be able to comprehend and understand all of the truth in a correct manner, rather, it means that generally the people of the time of Islam's emergence bore the capacity to keep and protect their religion’s heritage.

Depending on the contexts, freedom has different meanings and the limits of freedom are different with the difference of its meanings:
1- Freedom in the sense of existential independence, something exclusive to an absolute being and to God, the Exalted who is not constrained by anything.
2- Freedom in the sense of free will which is a philosophical and theological concept. That is, man is free and he acts of his free will although he might be bound by some legal and religious limits.
3- Legal freedom (freedom to choose a residence, clothing, job, wife and freedom of expression and belief etc.) which according to Islam and Shi’ism is limited to the observance of man’s material and spiritual interests.
Civil or social freedom discussed in politics can have something to do with our discussion in this article. The focal question in regards to social freedom is: How far can a state or the law constrain individual freedoms?
The answer to this question is that according to the political thought of Islam, neither excessive freedom, which leads to evil and destruction, is prescribed nor is man forced to accept any kind of unjust and oppressive government that may destroy his dignity and make an inert and yielding individual out of an active, responsible and free one.

Two aspects come to mind when we think about life on other planets:
1. Are there any signs of life, existence or living beings on other planets? Is it possible for human beings to live on other planets? And, can Man travel to these other planets?
Of course, answering these questions is the responsibility of astronomers and researchers in the field of natural sciences.
2. If living on these other planets is possible then what is Islam's ruling on human beings living there? And how can one carry out his or her Islamic duties there?
However, these questions must be answered by Islamic Legal Authorities and Religious Scholars. According to the general laws and regulations of Islam, if an action does not have any harm to an individual or society as a whole or so long as it does not create any other problems then it is okay to do that action. And as for carrying out one's Islamic duties, one must refer to the Legal authority which he or she follows.