The exegesis of Tabatabaei and the Hermeneutics of Hirsch: a comparative study

This thesis is a comparative study between Hermeneutics on the one hand and exegesis of the Holy Qur'an on the other. Its objective is to discover whether there are salient points of convergence between the two disciples, and whether issues germane to the Hermeneutical tradition in the West have been referred to and/or employed in Muslim works of Qur'an commentary. To this end, the works of one of the most prominent Shi'ite philosophers and exegetes. Allama Mohammad Hossein Tabataei, have been analysed and compared with the perspective and methodology of E D. Hirsch, one of the most important hermeneuticians in the Western World. Hirsch has been chosen since, in the opinion of the author, there is a considerable number of commonalities between the Hirschian approach to hermeneutics and the exegetical methodology of Tabatabaei and other Shi'ite Muslim interpreters of the Qur'an.. Hirsch, as an objectivist, along with a number of other Hermeneutical scholars, are critical of those who subscribe to philosophical Hermeneutics, such as Heideger and Gadimer. The same approach is taken in Tabatabaei's works, thus providing a strong rationale for an academic comparison of these two scholars. For this reason, this thesis attempts to study the theories of Tabatabaei and Hirsch in order to highlight the similarities and differences in their works. The central hypothesis is that while small differences in approach exist, there is much common ground, and that it is possible to use certain facets of Hirschian hermeneutics in the interpretation of the Qur'an, thus modernising some of the existing exegetical approaches employed by Shi'ite scholars.Since the aim of this thesis is to compare the interpretive works of Tabatabaei with those of Hirsch's, an introductory chapter has been dedicated to the study of the evolution of Shi'ite exegesis from the beginning to date. Tabatabaei's Al-Mizan has been chosen as the foremost work of Shi'ite exegesis in the modem period. Furthermore, a complete chapter has also been dedicated to Tabatabai's exegetical modus operandi as reflected in Al-Mizan, in order to arrive at a better understanding of his perspectives. This research arrives at the conclusion that philosophical Hermeneutics and Epistemology have opened new horizons on which we will always be dependent. Whatever interpretive theories with regards to the understanding of the text are accepted, or whatever the tendency as far as literary criticism is concerned, or whatever ideas are accepted in the arena of philosophy of human and social sciences, the discussion of the nature of understanding in general cannot be avoided. This does not mean that Hermeneutics is limited to these new theories. Rather, the opportunity always exists to introduce new interpretive theories in connection with the understanding of the text. It is indeed possible to study these discussions in detail in a separate sphere independent of the other branches of Islamic sciences and arrive at a number of stable principles in the interpretation of the text in Islamic research

A Study on the Social Movements in Contemporary Islamic Thought

Today, Islam is not restricted to the geographical borders of only a limited number of countries, but now covers the though, cultural, tribal and language borders of nations from Asia to Africa and can be counted as one of the most important and fastest growing religions in Europe and America. Whilst this spread is a means of delight, it has suffered from a type of ideological dismantling. Contemporary Islamic though can be categorized into five main groupings: 1. Anti- rational Salafism, headed by Ibn Taymiyyah and Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahab, 2. Anti –Western Religious Revivalism, headed by Sayyid Jamal al-Din Asadrabadi, 3. Anti- Religious Protestantism headed by Akhund Zadeh and Taqi Zadeh, 4. Reformist Protestantism headed by Shariati and 5. the movement of forming an Islamic civilization, led by the unique architect of the 20th century, Imam Khomeini.These schools of thought, at times contain ideas that are quite similar, but at others are extremely contradictory. It is this issue that has made research concerning these schools and ideas even more essential. Elements such as irrationality, being anti-western, reactions in the face of the waves of modernity and political theories based on religion can be mentioned as being some of the most important factors in the appearance of these trends. It is the aim of this paper to explore the backgrounds and latest developments of these thoughts over the last century in a descriptive – analytical way

A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of the Scientific Publications of Universities: A Study of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences during 1992-2018

The evaluation of universities from different perspectives is important for their scientific development. Analyzing the scientific papers of a university under the bibliometric approach is one main evaluative approach. The aim of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis and visualization of papers published by Hamadan University of Medical Science (HUMS), Iran, during 1992-2018. This study used bibliometric and visualization techniques. Scopus database was used for data collection. 3753 papers were retrieved by applying Affiliation Search in Scopus advanced search section. Excel and VOSviewer software packages were used for data analysis and bibliometric indicator extraction. An increasing trend was seen in the numbers of HUMS's published papers and received citations. The highest rate of collaboration in national level was with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Internationally, HUMS's researchers had the highest collaboration with the authors from the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, respectively. All highly-cited papers were published in high level Q1 journals. Term clustering demonstrated four main clusters: epidemiological studies, laboratory studies, pharmacological studies, and microbiological studies. The results of this study can be beneficial to the policy-makers of this university. In addition, researchers and bibliometricians can use this study as a pattern for studying and visualizing the bibliometric indicators of other universities and research institutions

An investigation on the effects of supply chain management on improvement of firms’ financial performance

Supply chain management plays essential role on improvement of the efficiency of production systems. It helps firms meet their expectations, deliver their products on time and build a good brand. This paper performs an empirical investigation to study the effect of good relationships among various suppliers on financial figures in an Iranian automaker. The proposed study investigates the effects of seven variables including communication, cooperation, commitment, compatibility, organization climate, dependency and trust on two financial figures including return on assets and return on equities. Using structural equation modeling, the study detects that communication, dependency and trust influence positively on return on assets. In addition, communication, cooperation, trust and commitment have positive impact on return on equities

A New Tsunami Hazard Assessment for Eastern Makran Subduction Zone by Considering Splay Faults and Applying Stochastic Modeling

Tsunami hazard imposed by possible rupture of splay faults is important as it may significantly intensify tsunami heights locally. The Makran Subduction Zone (MSZ) in the northwestern Indian Ocean can generate large thrust earthquakes that could trigger significant tsunamis. In this paper, the effects of possible rupture of splay faults on the tsunami hazards of eastern MSZ are studied by developing a framework that uses stochastic earthquake rupture models and considers uncertainties related to rupture location, rupture geometry, seismic moment split ratio, earthquake slip asperity location within a fault plane, and earthquake slip heterogeneity. To quantify these uncertainties, 484 different parameter combinations of tsunami sources are considered systematically. The geometry of splay faults is developed using the most recent marine seismic surveys of the tectonic structure of the MSZ. A moment magnitude of 8.6 is considered as a scenario magnitude. The results of this study are generated in two parts, by considering average sources and stochastic sources. Results show significant local amplification of the maximum tsunami heights due to splay faults. For instance, the maximum wave height in Pasni, Pakistan can be amplified by a factor of four due to a single splay fault rupture scenario of average sources.</p

Earthquake Disaster Risk Reduction in Iran: Lessons and ‘‘Lessons Learned’’ from Three Large EarthquakeDisasters—Tabas 1978, Rudbar 1990, and Bam 2003

This article addresses three large earthquake disasters in Iran: Tabas in 1978, Rudbar in 1990, and Bam in 2003. Lessons and "Lessons Learned" from these three earthquake disasters were investigated together with their contributions over time towards earthquake disaster risk reduction in Iran. Many lessons from 1978 Tabas, 1990 Rudbar, and 2003 Bam did not become "Lessons Learned" and they were identified again within the dramatic context of other earthquake disasters in various places of Iran. Both lessons and "Lessons Learned" from Tabas, Rudbar, Bam, and other earthquake disasters in Iran require a sustainable long-term framework-an earthquake culture.This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://​creativecommons.​org/​licenses/​by/​4.​0/​), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were mad

Top Ten Journals Publishing on COVID-19: A Scientometric Analysis

Objectives: This study aimed at identifying and visualizing the scientometric indicators of top ten highly productive journals publishing documents on topics related to COVID-19. Methods: on April 4, 2021, using 36 COVID-19 keywords derived from MeSH retrieved all relevant global publications indexed in Scopus. Then, all studies were limited to top 10 highly productive journals in this field. An Exploratory and descriptive analysis of bibliographic data (number of publication/citations, journals, highly cited documents, highly cited/productive authors/countries, co-occurrence map of keywords, and co-citation map of sources) by using Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer software packages were performed. Results: The top ranked journals in publication numbers belonged to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (N=1304, 16.2%), Plos One (N=1158, 14.4%) and BMJ (997, 12.4%), respectively. The Lancet (N=69983), JAMA (N=42553) and the Journal of Medical Virology (19089) ranked first to third as to received citation numbers, respectively. Mahase, E (N=180, 2.23%), Lacobucci, G (N=126, 1.56%) and Rimmer, A (N=82, 1.01%) were ranked first to third as highly-productive authors, respectively. However, the highest-ranked authors in their citations/document indicator were Cheng, Z (3691), Gu, X (2736.25) and Xia, J (2269.66), respectively. First to third ranked countries in receiving citations were China (94776), United States (51621) and United Kingdom (32339), respectively.&nbsp; Out of top 10 contributing countries in producing documents, United States (1976; 24.5%), United Kingdom (1372; 17%) and China (894; 11.1%) ranked first to third, respectively. Keywords co-occurrence and clustering showed that clinical manifestation and dissemination of the disease as well as its epidemiology have been heavily considered.&nbsp; Discussion: This study offers important quantitative information on journals working on the disease. Identifying most productive journals can help potential researchers collaborate with researchers from pioneering journals and contribute to top journals for making influential works on COVID-19 and consequent knowledge on the control and treatment of the disease

The Effectiveness of Meta-cognitive Skills Training on the Motivational Structure and Academic Performance of Drop-out Students

Background: Meta-cognitive skills training through giving meaning to information and making a logical connection between new and previously learned content, enables students to learn better and improve their academic performance. The present study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of meta-cognitive skills training on the motivational structure and academic performance of drop-out students.Methods: This study considered as semi-experimental research which has used the pretest-post-test with control group design. In this study, the statistical population included all drop-out male and female students of the Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University (They entered the university in 2014 and considered as drop-out students for at least two years). Thirty students were selected using the purposive sampling method, who randomly divided into two groups of experimental (n=15) and control (n=15). Meta-cognitive skills taught to the experimental group within four sessions. The Motivational Structure Questionnaire (MSQ) and academic performance report card were used to collect data. Covariance analysis and SPSS-24 software used for data analysis.Results: According to the results of covariance analysis, there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (P &lt; 0.001). Therefore, it can conclude that meta-cognitive skills training a significant effect on the motivational structure and students’ academic performance.Conclusion: Due to the results of this study, it is imperative that university officials pay attention to the effect of the meta-cognitive training program on the motivational structure and performance of drop-out students and provide the proper context for relevant skills training in the counseling department, the department of social affairs and educational field