دريچه اي بر نقد اجتماعي در قرآن (جامعه جاهلي و بخشش)

An Glance at Social Criticism in the Qurʹan (Pagan Society and Generosity)

brief look at the Holy Qurʹan would clearly show that some of its verses have been revealed in criticizing the pagan (jahili) community contemporary to the time of Revelation, a criticism that is free from the deficiencies and defects of human criticism. Different kinds of criticisms — such as social, literary, historical, and psychological — are seen in the Holy Qurʹan and this allows us to name the Qurʹan as the first book of the Muslims. Although the appellations of many of the above-mentioned criticisms are newly devised, most of them are in truth rooted in the Qurʹan. The present research is a brief glance at the most significant features of social criticism in the Qurʹan and its difference with a human-type criticism as well as statement of various methods used by the Qurʹan in examining the pagan and Islamic conducts of that era. In this respect, the writers examine the issue of bounty and generosity with the pagan Arabs and conclude that their attribute of generosity is not as strong as it has become known to be and the attribution of generosity to the pre-Islamic Arabs has been greatly exaggerated. The writersʹ reasons for this claim is the writings of some historians, Nahj al-Balagha, the thoughts and behavior of the vagabonds and tramps (sʹalik), and more important of all reference to the Holy Qurʹan. That is to say, contrary to the pagan poetry that usually introduces the Arabs as very generous, the Qurʹanʹs emphasis on the necessity of infaq (spend in charity) would reveal a kind of contradiction to the contemporary reader in a reverse balance manner.