Understanding Islamic Sciences ( or ) is a book which contains Morteza Motahhari's essential lectures and articles on Islamic sciences (logic and philosophy, theology, mysticism, practical wisdom, principles of jurisprudence and Fiqh).
Contents
Understanding Islamic Sciences consists of three volumes, the first of which includes two sections of logic and philosophy, the second volume contains three sections of theology, mysticism and practical wisdom, and the third volume contains two sections of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence and Fiqh. The author intends to make a general plan about Islamic sciences. The author Morteza Motahhari, explains that Islam is a comprehensive and all-encompassing religion, a religion that is not limited to a series of moral and personal advice, is a community-building religion. He says that Islamic culture itself is a special culture among the cultures of the world, with a special spirit and a series of special characteristics. It has originality and independent personality and has a special spirit and life. This book has been compiled for those who want to get acquainted with Islamic teachings and an attempt has been made to establish simplicity and brevity at the same time as accuracy in this series.
An important feature of the book Understanding Islamic Sciences is the form of the Motahhari's lectures. This series of discussions and lectures was for the first year students of the Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies of the University of Tehran, written with fluent and eloquent and understandable expression for beginners and for people with low acquaintance with complex Islamic sciences terms. The text of the book is easy for who not familiar with Islam, and has become very easy for understanding through the categorization of materials and the description of terms.
Logic
The logic is the law to think correctly. That is, the rules of logic are a scale and a tool that whenever we want to think and argue about some scientific or philosophical issues, we must weigh our reasoning with these scales and criteria so that we do not draw wrong conclusions. Logic is a tool of the type of rule and law that observing and applying it keeps the mind from making mistakes in thinking. The benefit of logic is to prevent the mind from making mistakes in thinking. Thinking is the movement of the mind from an unknown ideal to a series of known premise, and then the movement from that known premise to that desirable to transform it into the known. Logic explains to us that prior mental information will only be productive if it is shaped by logical rules. Logic is merely a tool of measurement, that is, it opens the right and the wrong.
Philosophy
If we compare the world to an organ, we see that our study of this organ is of two kinds: some of our studies are related to the details of this organ, such as the head or the hand or the foot or the eye of this organ, but some of our studies are related to the whole organ, such as when did this organ come into being and how long does it last? And does basically have a meaning about the whole organ or not? Does this organ have a real unity and the plurality of members is an apparent and unreal plurality, or its unity is a credit? Does this organ as a whole pursue a goal and flow towards perfection and truth, or is it an aimless and aimless being? The part of the study that deals with the whole organ of the world is "philosophy".
Theology
Kalam or Islamic scholastic theology is a science that discusses Islamic beliefs, that is, what one should believe in from the point of view of Islam, in a way that explains, argues, and defends them. The section of beliefs, that is, the issues and teachings that must be known and believed in, such as the issue of monotheism, the attributes of the essence of transcendence, public and private prophecy, and some other issues belongs to Kalam science. The rational part of Kalam is issues whose preambles are taken only from the intellect, and in such matters it is not enough to cite quotations (books and traditions), only the intellect must be used. The narrated part of Kalam is issues whose, although it is one of the principles of religion and should be believed in, but since these issues are a subset of prophecy, not preceded by prophecy, it is enough to prove the matter through divine revelation or the definite words of the Prophet.