Investigating the missionary career and audience knowledge of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) in publishing and spreading Islamic knowledge

Academic Thesis in Master's Degree in Propaganda and Cultural Communication

Abstract

The present research is an attempt to explain the preaching career of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) for the dissemination and expansion of Islamic teachings and his audience. In this research, after describing various schools of communication, finally, a synthesis of the school of transmission and ritual communication has been presented to describe the missionary life of the Holy Prophet. In the following, based on the epistemological system of Shia thinkers, an acceptable definition for the word propaganda has been tried. Based on the given definition, any action that leads the human personality in the direction of divine values ??is considered as propaganda. Regardless of whether it is a direct transmission of religious awareness to the audience or not. In the following, based on historical documents, an attempt has been made to explain the specific cultural, social and political conditions during the life of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) in which Imam was active. In the historical discussion, by using the document-library method, the necessary historical items were collected to investigate the Prophet's preaching career. First, by explaining the historical studies, he showed that education, mourning gatherings, Hajj, publication of hadith, poetry and literature, writing and debate were the most important preaching methods of Imam Sadiq (a.s.). In each of these cases, relying on the literature of communication science and the foundations of two transitional and religious schools, it was shown that each of these cases was a preaching medium for the Imam to spread divine knowledge. In the end, it was found that the imam, in order to spread divine knowledge in the society, as much as he emphasized the presentation of direct religious knowledge, he also emphasized preaching in the framework of the school of religious communication. The Imam's emphasis on holding mourning gatherings, the reward of crying and crying only for martyrs and writing special poems about the event of Ashura are some of the historical examples of this claim. Finally, by mentioning the main audiences with whom Imam Sadiq (a.s.) had contact, it has been tried to investigate and analyze the type of Imam's encounter with these people.

Key words: propaganda, Imam Sadiq (a.s.), media, mourning, Hajj, hadith, audience analysis

The current ruling the world today is an atheistic current. It is an indisputable fact that the trend ruling the world today is a blasphemous and one-sided trend and the value criteria governing international relations and equations are proportional to the nature of this global trend. That is, non-atheistic standards and extraterrestrial and transcendental value systems have no sovereignty over the world today. This hegemony and in Adorno's terms, it is a confusion of consciousness to such an extent that it is difficult to make people aware of this hegemony. The first step of this awareness is to make people aware. The explosion begins when the disfigured man realizes the disfigurement of his human identity. The petrified body of the imaginary human society gently and quietly comes to life little by little and shakes, moves, contracts, expands, and in front of the astonishment of the magicians of legends, it becomes aware of its divine reality, and its self-awareness, in harmony with its fierce rebellion against the existing system, creates a new chapter. It is the same as a liberating and just movement, the independence and freedom of nations is one of its direct results. This is where the important role of human and divine preaching occurs and shows its importance more than ever. If preaching is the backbone of the world system of atheism, and if imperialism is to deceive nations and keep the human masses in modern ignorance, then divine and human preachers are in awakening and guiding them in the path of divine growth and excellence. It is in this direction that the heavy responsibles of advertising and the science and techniques of the theories around it are determined. God says in verses 104 and 105 of Surah Al-Imran: "Muslims must invite the people to good deeds and enjoin them to do good deeds and forbid them from doing bad deeds, and they are truly the mediators of the guidance of the people."  Therefore, Mitan claimed, the importance of Islamic propaganda is equal to the importance of the awakening of human societies in order to realize the ideal of the prophets. Advertisements that serve to awaken people's awareness. 

Statement of the problem

The present study seeks to describe a section of the history of Islam. In fact, the research describes and describes a section of history through the lens of communication science.A topic entitled "Review of Imam Sadiq's preaching career and audience analysis and its audience analysis in the publication and spread of Islamic knowledge" requires a deep study of his history and classification of his behavior based on communication points of view. So it can be considered a kind of historical study. Some basic issues are considered important in any historical study. The first question is the question of the origin and formation of the historical matter. (Faramarz Qaramalki, 2008) Based on this question, the following research after explaining the adopted theoretical foundations should answer the question that the historical matter (preaching career and audience of the Imam) took place in what conditions and context and in what form and manner and by which person and persons. This is the issue that Sarukhani describes in the book Methods of Research in Social Sciences as follows: "Historical knowledge is not achieved with the lives of the rulers and rulers of the time, but their lives are also known and analyzed within the total groups called society." (Sarukhani, 2018, Vol. 1: 257) The present research is also based on the same logic in the first step in seeking answers to the same questions. He and the world became Islam, so knowing the social and cultural contexts in which the Holy Prophet organized his actions is the first priority. For this reason, the researcher has put the description of the social and cultural situation and the situation of the Imam's lifetime as the first priority of his research work and has been in the position of sketching the overview of the era of Imam Sadiq (a.s.). This stage is the same stage that has been named in the studies of religious methodology under the title of beginningology or contextology (Faramarz Qaramelki, 2008: 276).

The second stage after contextology is the question of how the historical event develops after its origin. How did the historical event develop? What forms did he find? To what extent did it penetrate and in what areas and with what orientations did it move? (Ibid.: 276) Based on this, the expansion and description of the methods used and the orientations governing the preaching methods and audience analysis of the Imam in the publication of Islamic teachings is one of the other main axes of this research. In this part, the researcher seeks to classify and describe the methods used by the Imam in spreading Islamic knowledge. Another problem in this part is the description of Imam's audience and his behavior with different categories of audience.

The importance and necessity of research

Undoubtedly, only the theoretical plan of Islamic values ??is not enough to propagate Islam. In verse 143 of Surah al-Baqarah, the Holy Quran introduces the Prophet (PBUH) as a witness and an example for people to follow. Building an Islamic individual and society based on Islamic standards and values ??and introducing concrete examples of Islamic values ??is of great importance. This action makes the practicability and response to the modern needs of Islam clear and evident. Islamic values ??cannot be spread only through theory. Some theoretical sciences can be proposed and explained even without design of concrete examples and models, but Islamic values ??can be published with a theoretical design and presentation of practical examples. The grueling struggles of prophets and true scholars were not only for the theory of Islamic teachings, but with their struggles and sacrifices, they have shown concrete examples of these values ??to history and humanity. In Islamic propaganda, efforts should be made both to outline the basics and theories and to show concrete examples. Based on these premises, it can be stated that talking purely theoretically about the merits and demerits of religious propaganda without explaining the preaching practices of the prophets and imams is incomplete. If we consider that the epistemological system of religion-based propaganda is different from the epistemological system of political, commercial and commercial propaganda, then the description of the preaching and communication methods of the religious leaders who dealt with the matter of preaching in the basis of the religious epistemological system is one of the important points that should be considered in the academic configuration of preaching.

In addition to the above point, examining the life and preaching career of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) is of great importance in several ways. First of all, due to the spread of various ideas and thoughts, this time is an arena where different schools of thought have sent their cultural possessions and thoughts to the society. So we are not faced with intellectually closed and identical universals. In such an environment, on the one hand, believers must be protected against the biased and non-biased doubts of different schools, and on the other hand, along with other schools of thought, authentic Islamic material must also be presented. Operating in such a platform, with these considerations in mind, faces many complications. Another point is that the cultural and social conditions of the time of Imam Sadiq (a.s.) are strongly faced with the issue of cultural diversity of different Muslim ethnic groups.