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Accurate estimation of required effort for software development plays an important role in the success of the software project. This is always a challenging issue due to the intangible nature of the software project. Therefore, a large category of researches have been performed to develop accurate tools to estimate the required efforts for software development. According to the presented papers in related works, the adoption of methods to identify the types of relationship between software project features and features affecting the required effort for software development have a significant impact on effort estimation accuracy increment. In addition, the effectiveness of various features on the software development effort estimation is different. So, the feature effectiveness determination is advantageous in increasing the effort estimation accuracy. This paper presents a new model consisting of sub-models for project features analyzing and it uses a new and accurate heuristic algorithm called Atom Search Optimization (ASO) Algorithm to configure tools and data modeling methods. The presented model in this article is designed in multiple layers and the sub-models are organized in separate layers. The organizations of sub-models are in such a way to increase performance of other layers and ultimately increase the final estimate accuracy. In accuracy evaluation of the proposed model, 3 data sets from real projects are used and the comparisons of the results with different methods are presented. Based on the results, the proposed model leads to significant improvement of final effort estimation accuracy.

In this paper, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method with dynamic boundary condition has been used to simulate 3D Fluid flow in the centrifugal pump. Severe fluctuations in the field of pressure and velocity is one of the major problems in this method. In this paper, the fluctuations have been corrected using Delta and Shift algorithms. The simulation was numerically performed with real fluid viscosity (laminar and turbulence). Validation of this method indicated that in the case of real fluid viscosity, the Delta and Shift algorithms should be used simultaneously to obtain good agreement with the experimental data. To validate the pump results, a comparison was made between the numerical outputs and the performance curves of pump EN 125-315 of Pumpiran Company under relatively similar conditions. The results of this comparison showed that the error of simulation of pump head, consumption power and efficiency values compared with experimental data were about 12, 5.5 and 16 percent, respectively.

This paper concerned with the perception, experience and interpretation of Khorram Abad women about Hijab. It employs a variety of theories related to gender, body management, and identity. The main question of the paper is how these women interpret the Hijab based on their social situation. So, the semi – structured interview with 40 women was used to collect data. The purposive sampling was used to find the informants and the data analyzed through thematic analysis. The qualitative findings demonstrate that despite of a sort of relationship between tradition and modernism about Hijab, there exist a reflexivity and demystification about the issue. At end, there types of Hijab, including of Traditional, Semi – Modern, and Modern, has been distinguished.

The author of the present paper views the status of values through a philosophical-logical approach from three perspectives: the question of "it is and should be", value relativism, and value neutrality or value partiality. Obviously, if Islamic sociology is seeking to act as a powerful and influential paradigm in the field of social sciences, it will have to clarify its position in relation to such paradigm issues in way that it is possible to make a comparison between them and current paradigms. Main items which have been highlighted by the author of this paper are as follows: possibility of deduction of normal rules from descriptive statement and vice versa; rejection of value relativism based on the acceptance of foundations of fitrah (fundamental nature) concerning legal and moral values; necessity of value partiality in science as an ideal; and seeking to increase objectivity of analytical and descriptive issues of sciences.

The concept of right-duty is originally a concept of Western philosophy (sociopolitical philosophy, moral - legal philosophy) and modern social sciences (theory of citizenship). This complex concept, as some kind of social balance equation in social interaction of self-other, has honestly excelled from this point of view and especially from that of the theoretical one and practically has led to the development of modern man and his civic status and consequently transformed subject into citizen. Since the literature of Islamic jurisprudence is a non-discourse one, there is no trace of this concept in it (both Shi`a and Sunni). But it can be found between the lines of Islamic teachings and texts. It can also be inferred from intellectual and ideological foundations of this social equation among Muslims, which refers to duty in one hand and right as a matter of an ideological issue, based on legitimacy of abiding by Islamic religious teachings in one’s life. Due to this, in this paper, using the technique of content analysis, the authors attempt to analyze intellectual and ideological foundations of right-duty social equation from the religious perspective. To this end - and not to make a comparison - we deemed it necessary to make a brief review of some theoretical and epistemological considerations of the equation, which is embodied in Western philosophy and modern social sciences and usually arranged in the context of citizenship theory. Likewise, it was also necessary to deal with intellectual and ideological foundations of right-duty social equation in religious discourse following the first part of this paper. Finally, it was necessary to present some documentations of conventional religious discourse in the Islamic world. Therefore, the author of the present paper analyzes two precious books: Nahj al-Fasahah (sayings attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him) and Nahj al-Balagha (belonging to Imam Ali, peace be upon him). One can find the origin of religious citizenship (which is a strange phenomenon in the contemporary Muslim) from the inferred findings of these two important and reliable books just as Western scholars have elicited the phenomenon of secular citizenship from political, social, and ethical philosophy.

This paper examines the relationship between globalization and national identity in textbooks of social science courses in elementary, junior, secondary and pre-university. Nowadays, although the dominant idea demonstrates a certain kind of cultural orientation; general cultural orientation is also reproducing a continuous process with emphasis on the cultural adaptability and understanding in a parallel way. Multi-ethnic communities in order to achieve a systematic balance of national identity with the emphasis on general cultural orientation at home and production of multiple identities should increase their competitiveness and modernization. However, the nationalist discourse in Iran which has also been included in the curriculum is based on a radical "Ethnocentrism" that does not allow diversity and cultural fusion to exist, on the contrary attempts to destroy the cultural and ethnic differences. In this paper, the author challenges this issue and presents cultural and educational strategies on quality of national identity tailored to the information age and globalization. In the first part of the paper, theories of globalization and national identity and their contrast are discussed through theoretical approaches. In the second part of the study, using document and content analysis, he evaluates and approves concepts such as xenophobia, one-side oriented positive self-inductance approach and the absolute position of Iran in the international system in primary to pre-university textbooks of the social sciences. The third section is devoted to providing solutions. Due to its relation with globalization, civil nationalism in the field of national identity is discussed herein which can pave the way for textbooks to remain ethnocentric.

Social Security is one of the most extensive systems that are designed to meet people’s basic needs so that it now has about one -third of GDP in many countries and covers the entire process of people’s lives from cradle to grave. Social Security is not found in the Islamic teachings under such a title but it is seen under titles such as supporting the poor, lost, orphaned and gharimin and maintained through strategies such as zakat , khums , fay’ and anfal , charities , and endowments. In the last century a new pattern of social security emerged in the context of the intellectual and cultural foundations and Western industrialized growth which gradually stationed in Muslim countries. Since the new model was different from that of Islam, particularly in the insurance strategy, it was to provide Islamic world with an updated theory in this area. However, regardless of the few thinkers like Shahid Sadr, who fundamentally explained the Islamic approach to this phenomenon, Muslim scholars, especially scholars of jurisprudence, have not considered it in proportion to its importance and status. This paper follows the assumption that the existing legal literature especially in Imami jurisprudence is faced with a kind of reductionism regarding the importance of this issue due to lack of proper understanding of the nature of the new social security and considering social insurance the same as commercial insurance. The author of the present paper tries to explain the nature of new social security and its disadvantages and clarify the disparities between social insurance and commercial insurance. Restating the important issues and legal challenges of social security, he elucidates the need for fiqh to enter seriously into this realm and find solutions for them.

This research paper investigated the factors and consequences of including gender in official educational system with an Islamic sociological approach. In the model assumed in this paper Islamic sociology, without claiming to have the unique feature of the experimental methods and statistical techniques distinguished from current sociological approaches mainly in terms of ontological and epistemological foundations as well as theoretical aspects including explanatory, interpretive, and normative aspects. Through the main discussions of this paper comparison of Islamic approaches with competing ones was provided. The major topics of discussion, presented in this paper, were opportunity for scientific progress; educational content and the structure of educational institutes; review of sociological views in particular feminist approaches and finally Islamic views. This study showed that Islamic approach with attributing equal value to acquiring knowledge by both men and women and assuming some natural differences between them along with their many common features has not disregarded the impact of natural differences of men and women in its causal explanation of gender differences in education in one hand, and has prescribed some of these differences due to their positive social functions in the other hand.

The realization of human sciences is based on two main subjects: first, the methodological subject that means to design a model and formulate the paradigm parameters of human sciences from viewpoint of Islamic thought; second, the theorizing that is necessary for understanding and explaining of social reality. In this paper, the first subject, designing of a model and formulating the paradigm parameters of human sciences from Islamic view, will be discussed. In the methodology of human sciences, it is mentioned that each science has some fundamental ontological, anthropological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions. The epistemic system that resulted from those assumptions and entitled theoretical system, theoretical viewpoint, or paradigm, is one of the most important issues in the methodology of each science. The questions are these: what is the role of a paradigm in the methodology of human sciences? Which paradigm is an Islamic paradigm of human sciences? What is(are) the difference(s) between an Islamic paradigm of human sciences and a non-Islamic paradigm of human sciences? Because this paper has been applied the methodology of thematic commentary, its technique is text analysis. In the text analysis or according to Maurice Duverger, classic methodology, first, some questions are raised and then the answers are founded in the text. In the methodology of text analysis, there is a bilinear relationship between a reference to the text and a conclusion on each subject. It means that finding the answers begins with raising the questions and after studying the text, some parts may change the meaning of the other parts. As a result, the paradigm parameters of human sciences from Koranic view are divided into two groups: the first group called worldview consists of some ontological and anthropological assumptions; the second group called meta-theory includes some epistemological and methodological assumptions.

The paper attempts to investigate the Iran-Turkey public diplomacy in Iraq and Syria after changes in these countries. Iran and Turkey as two effective powers on the Middle East changes try to enforce their goals and policies of public diplomacy in Iraq and Syria based on the nature of states. The main questions are: how is the Iran-Turkey public diplomacy in Iraq and Syria? What are the effects of new changes in these countries on the Iran-Turkey public diplomacy? To respond those questions, the hypothesis of paper is that Iran and Turkey use both their public diplomacy (soft power) and hard power, in their regional competition, in order to stabilize and enhance their regional hegemony. Both countries have some different facilities and opportunities to take advantage of the public diplomacy in Iraq and Syria, but their relative success depends on their strategies and such successes and failures are not perpetual and in all situations. This paper applied the descriptive-analytical methodology and collected the data by the documentary-library instrument.

The present paper is to look at the works of Allameh Mohammad Taghi Ja'fari (RA) (1923 - 1998); who is regarded as one of the most prominent thinkers and intellectuals of Iran's scientific legacy[t1] , in a different way from the prevailing European views and tries to constitute a systematic framework of his attitudes on the issue of the relationship between structure and agency. This enterprise has been recognized as one of the most important issues in the field of sociology mainly arguable in the realm of social ontology. In this paper, by referring to his works it is initially tried to explore, articulate and develop Allameh Ja'fari's views and thoughts and then with a comprehensive outlook to all of his works it is attempted to infer sociological implications relating to this issue. Finally his precise theory would be explained by gathering its components which seems to be disseminated in Ja'fari's works. This research has a descriptive-analytical approach. It seems that Ja'fari has a dualist view to the issue of structure and agency. This means that his remarks do not entail any general rule about all structures and all agencies. He believes that every person is brought into existence with a preliminary nature and outside the chain of deterministic causes. In one hand, these basic features can bring a unique identity for each person and grant him/her an independent personality. On the other hand, people as social actors do not grow in a vacuum, but after the birth, will be affected by natural and environmental factors, pre-formed social structures and even particular instincts and his/her natural self. The type of individual life and how to deal with these influential sources determine the supremacy of the action or the supremacy of social structures.

Iran's economy has not experienced high growth rate during past decades despite huge revenue from oil export. This shows ineffectiveness of resource allocation in Iran economy. The cause of such a resource mis-allocation has been disputed by different theories. In this paper, a political economy approach is used to explain such an inefficiency and it will be shown that it provides a better and more comprehensive approach in compare to the rival explanations. The core idea of the paper is that institutional arrangement in the pollical system evolved after Iran revolution from one hand and the quality of institutions on the other hand leads to high social discount rate which dominates short-termism to long-termism. From institutional point of view, high quality institution helps to relax some political economy constraints and provide incentives for economic agents to follow long-term benefits rather than short term one. In the absence of high-quality institutions, supporters of the status-quo allocation prevail the forces who support reallocation to achieve optimal allocation. As a result, transition from current negative equilibrium to superior one is blocked. In another word, economic reform requires high-quality institutions which support reallocation of available resources. Otherwise, different political economy constraints prevent to prioritize superior allocation to inferior one.

There are numerous kinds of definitions and discourses of conceptualization for the collaboration among disciplines. Examining a wide range of the related texts represents various, divergent and also contradictory discourses back to this up. Carefully and critically examining the common perception of collaboration among disciplines, in this paper, authors introduce an alternative so-called pluridisciplinary.rn rnAnd, it is argued that pluri-disciplinary could be considered as an umbrella term for all other modes of collaboration among disciplines including multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdiciplinary. It is also contended that unlike the conventional perception of collaborations between disciplines, epistemological and instrument rationales need to be seen as a continuous integration, so such a holistic approach will lead to a new so-called discipline; transdiciplinary. It is also articulated that there is a hierarchical relationship between disciplines in the alternative. In this paper, simple knowledge in pluridisciplinary studies will be replaced by super-complex knowledge, so called; trans-disciplinary, as a new-fashioned discipline, emerges.

This paper aimed at discovering, investigation and analysis of axiological foundations of organizational justice from the perspective of Islamic ethics. The existing disagreement between realists and anti-realists on the values has been known as the most total fundamental controversy. This research paper was firstly to explore the axiological bases of theories concerning organizational justice. Secondly, it was to find answer for this question that whether theories of organizational justice are realistic or anti-realistic according to their axiological bases? Next, it investigated and analyzed these foundations based on Islamic theology. Findings of this study, which are obtained through content analysis method, show that current theories on organizational justice are subjective and anti – realistic in nature. The most underlying means for achieving this approach are relativism, pluralism, fallibility and infallibility and non-rational explanation of what organizational justice is.

Kaizen is the practice of continuous improvement. Kaizen was originally introduced to the West by Japan. Today Kaizen is recognized worldwide as an important pillar of an organization’s long-term competitive strategy. Kaizen is continuous improvement that is based on certain guiding principles. Kaizen or continuous improvement of tasks is a model of management aims at encouraging persistent endless perseverance and diligence. This paper, by reviewing the Islamic aspects and implications implicit in Kaizen model of management concerning incessant improvement and prohibition of laziness, investigates the instructions provided in the narratives of the infallible Shia Imams and scrutinizes the possibility of modeling their conducts in this field. The present study is developmental in terms of purpose and is conducted by analytical descriptive method. To collect the required data, library method of study, note taking and classification of statements have been used. In this paper, firstly, as much as possible it has been tried to derive Kaizen principles implied in Islamic sources and then related sources associated with this concept have been identified and analyzed. In addition to finding more exact understanding of this concept, Islamic view relating Kaizen implied in these sources can be explained and applied in this field. However, Kaizen is the implementation of a certain Islamic instruction. Scrutinizing this issue proves that Islamic scholars should pay special attention to the sophisticated instructions of Islam for using Kaizen at different levels of management. And they are recommended to carry on for a striking noteworthy presence in different areas of science and persist to extract scientific discussions of Islamic sources.

This paper examines the concept of conflict and conflict management in the view of Islam and other management schools and investigates this concept in different views of management and attempts to find the similarities and differences between Islamic approaches and the views proposed by scientific schools. The research method of this paper is library method of study using various sources in this field based on rational and narrative methods. The results of this study are as follows: for different related scientific trends there are three major attitudes about conflict. The first one which is recognized traditional view among other three present attitudes believes that conflict is primarily destructive and should be avoided. The second view belongs to the human relations school of management and supposes that conflict is natural and inevitable. The third and last view in an interactive way assumes both functional and non-functional conflict (i.e.; positive and negative conflict) and confirms that in some special situations managers are recommended to create conflict when needed. In fact, each of the above mentioned views go to extremes about conflict at times. Islam states clearly a balanced view on this phenomenon. Despite the belief in both positive and negative attitudes in this regard emphasizes that drawing a borderline between positive and negative conflicts depends on factors such as individuals’ intentions, personal ability, subject matter and especially conflict situations.

This study aimed to investigate the historical records and backgrounds of the Islamic public administration in the management literature of Iran and the world and within meta-theoretical and philosophical justification on the one hand and forming the basis of Islamic principles based on religious references and sources on the other hand. Accordingly, following methodology of the new public service movement, efforts have been made to formulate the fundamental principles of Islamic public administration. The first part of this research paper was to analyze and explore the evolution of knowledge of this movement. In the second part meta-theoretical and philosophical reasons for the current trend of management were provided. And the final part of the present paper presented the intellectual and practical foundations of the movement.

Numerous management papers emphasizes the importance of strategic thinking among managers, but the issue that has been paid less attention is the link between strategic thinking and values. This link connects moralities with business logic. This paper aims at illustrating and defining conceptual framework for the explanation of connection between ethics and strategic thinking. Based on content analysis method, this research paper examines concepts concerning business in Nahjolbalagheh. It attempts to extract central ideas implied in that noteworthy Islamic source. By evaluating their significance and frequency, these ideas will be our guide for understanding the connection between ethic and strategic thinking. In the model derived from the Nahjolbalagheh, Imam Ali (A.S.) based on a transcendental attitude gives business divine approach along with materialistic one. The model presents ethical indices influencing business by focusing on basic indices of business. It demonstrates thinking criteria in business according to the Nahjolbalagheh. Efficiency of strategic thinking requires presentation of the model that shows the criteria of business strategic in a perfect interaction with moral values and includes ethical content associates with a well-defined process.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue necessary for religious civilization called religious knowledge management (religion based). In the last twenty years, some studies under the title of knowledge management have been performed and the theoretical and practical potentials of these studies have revealed. Raising this issue we tried to answer this question that whether it is possible to use effectively from the knowledge of management to establish the new interdisciplinary studies such as knowledge management for religious civilization so that modern management courses which meet the needs of Muslim society in the field of culture and civilization can be founded. This issue linked with the complex problem of making sciences religious. So it seems that the proper presentation of the issue can provide the cooperation of management scholars and researchers especially the researchers of religious studies of the management. Knowledge management and its redefinition in religious civilization based on the foundations and principles presumed by Islam and knowledge traditions of Islamic world's scholars can prelude a new approach in the management of Muslim affairs and opens new horizons on scholars and practitioners of management. In this paper the methodological pattern required for formation of problems and theories in a civilization have been used. From the viewpoint of descriptive and analytical content, four journeys of the intellect (asfar al-‘aqliyya al-arba‘a) was the basic model of religious civilization including fifteen principles of such a civilization. These principles have been adapted from the ideas of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli.

In this paper we will explore the relation between the actors’ understanding of time and the problem solving strategies in a complicated situation. Drawing on ethnography and conversation analysis we will focus on the institutional interaction order governing the scenes these movies exhibit. Using phenomenology and Ernest Pople indices, we aim to analyze the understanding made of the time in these conversations. In doing so we will consider the moment in which the violators rationalize the reasons behind their violations. The results show that while the time that law, the police and even the road technologies rely on is homogeneous and linear, the drivers employ the expressions connotating an iterative understanding of time. The paper concludes with showing how the law breaking drivers base their conversations on a nonlinear time to manage the difficult situations they are involved with. This suggests that far from a universal category, time is a category constantly taking different shapes in different everyday encounters.

This study is designed to investigate the behavioral implications of "Activity-Based Costing" (ABC) in managerial accounting. The objective of the paper is to distinguish the major differences that exist between the ABC and other traditional costing systems. This objective is achieved through the use of an analytical framework and with the aid of an il1ustration. Following illustration presents the practical runifications along with the behavioral implications of the use of ABC in both manufacturing and service oriented companies in different countries. From the logic of the illustration, it becomes evident that ABC, as a revolutionary costing method, among other benefits, has the capacity of being used as an effective managerial problem solving tool. In Addition, the article presents and studies the relevent behavioral factors in the form of following four theses: 1- international, societal, and organizational climate, 2- managerial culture, 3- methods of managerial performance evaluation, and 4- existing organizational control environment. The paper concludes that the apllication of the ABC to different settings and utlizing its benefits, requires the fu11 recognition of its behavioral implications.

Serving and serve are among the most highly valued notions introduced in religious texts and presented in Muslim religious leader's sayings and actualized by their conducts (Sire). Although vast discussions have been put forward by managers in our country on the related topics, but yet, this notion and its examples have not been revealed through a scientific and comprehensive model, where it is for four decades that servant leadership modelhas proposed and performed in some western countries. In order to fill this gap and with emulating Imam Khomeini as a worthy model, the present study aimed to review his thoughts about servant leadership. This research paper tried to find answers for these threefold questions based on Imam Khomeini's approach; what is servant leadership?, why is it necessary and how is it possible? Then, it suggested a comprehensive model. In this paper, which is considered as a fundamental research with an exploratory-descriptive methodology, to study servant leadership from the viewpoint of Imam Khomeini content analysis method was used. For gathering and determination of related notions for servant leadership, first; theoretical foundations and different views of western scholars through later years were reviewed and hence, after studying 22 volumes collection of "Imam Khomeini's Sahifeh"related contents were derived and for each one a code was attached to and also their frequency were enumerated. In order to design a comprehensive model for servant leadership from the viewpoint of Imam Khomeini Nvivo 8 (software for qualitative research method) was used for analyzing the data. This model includes 3 dominant notions, 15 popular notions, 35 organizing notions, 110 major notions and 22 minor notions. Their interrelationships have been shown through presented model. Finally, some suggestions have made for future studies.

This paper examined the relationship between the two basic criteria "virtue" and "competence" in Islamic Management. Studies showed that from the perspective of management scholars in the West virtues and technical competencies have been taken identical and primarily in Western management paradigm no distinction has been drawn between these two measuresin most cases (MC Cowli and Lawtan, 2006). Regarding the fact that virtuesdefinedsomewhatdifferentlyin Islam fromwhat has been inthe West by the dominant view, in this paper by using semi-structured questionnaires and interviews it is tried to answer this question that does virtues have the same value as technical merits and competencies or is there significant difference between them in Islamic management which its basic valueshave differed somewhatfrom thevalues ofWesternmanagement? The statistical population for this study was as follows: a group of faculty members anddoctoral students of management at University of Tehran, University of Tarbiat Modarres and University of Allameh Tabatabaei, well-knowledgeable in principles of Islamic management and also number of Hawzah scholars, typically experts in the field of Islamic management. Findings from the data analysis showed thatrespondents, besides making distinction between virtues and competencies, in most cases have not taken these two criteria necessarily identical from the perspective of Islamic managementand contrary to popular opinion in the West and subsequently in Western management paradigm, virtue and competence criteria are two separate and somewhat different criteria from each other.

In general, due to the preceding of psychological approach over sociological approach in describing organizations, the role of governments and business organizations in developing countries has been argued in this paper. What has been neglected in the related scientific literature inside and abroad the country is role of NGOs in social development. NGOs that their numbers are increasing on a daily basis are divided into two categories of sacred and non-sacred. Some debateshave been made about NGOs, but conceptualizing faith based organizations which are NGO and sacred, has been remained obsolete. A faith-based organization has double effectiveness than other NGOs in providing social services and that is because of its faith capacity. This paper which is a case studysought to reveal the importance of these organizations more than ever before. To do, primarily with explaining normative rationality and conceptualization of faith based organizations, creating this type of organization was justified. Then, it studied these types of organizations. Finally, the role of faith-based organizations to provide social services was discussed.

Recently, a method for multi-exposure images fusion based on structural decomposition of images into three parts including signal strength, signal structure and signal mean has been introduced. In this paper, we seek to use this decomposition, for images fusion in other fields, including multimodal medical, multi-focus, and infrared and visible images. To increase the fusion quality, besides the introduction of the proposed weighting factor in the structural decomposition, contourlet transformation and the pyramidal structure have also been used. First, each of the K input images are represented into low frequency and high frequency subbands, by using contourlet transform. Then, all the corresponding subbands (resulting from the same scales and directions) are fused with each other, separately and in an iterative process. In this iterative process, first, a separate pyramid structure (including approximation and detail layers) is created for each of the corresponding K subbands. These layers are obtained by the down-sampling of subbands and structural separation based on the proposed new weighting factor. Then, the fusion is performed in the reverse direction of the pyramidal structure and the fused image of the K corresponding subband is obtained. By repeating this process, the fused image will be obtained for all the corresponding subbands. At the end, the final fused image is obtained by the inverse contourlet transformation on the fused images of the subbands. Several visual and quantitative comparisons, with 7 common methods in this field, have been made. In the visual aspect, the proposed method shows the highest quality.

The present paper is concerned with sociological analysis of religious conversion with concentration in conversion from Christianity to Islam. It aims at the causes of religious conversion from Christianity to Islam. In theoretical part of this study, the author deals with psychological, social, and sociological approaches. In practical part of it, he tries to find a proper conceptual framework so he utilizes the Lewis R. Rambo's seven-stage model: context, crisis, quest, encounter, interaction, commitment, and consequences. This seven-stage model is employed within the research method framework of reanalysis theory while giving a biographical account of 30 new converts to Islam through a semi-standard interview. According to concepts, categorizations and life stories of new converts, the author concludes the following elements: incompatibility of previous predisposition; obtaining new approaches to Islam; lack of knowledge and convincing response in their previous religion; and the existence of convincing and promising teachings, rituals, and charisma in Islam.

The author of the present paper tries to view the ontological foundations of sociology from the Quranic perspective. Using the verses of the holy Quran, he considers God, man, earth, and the relationship between man and other men as four main components of a human society. Centralizing two elements, i.e. man and his relationship, he makes an analysis of either of them and then deals with two other elements and their impact on these two element. Such an approach has turned the current man-oriented sociology into a God-oriented one within which man is just a trustee. According to this view of the Quran, man is a two-dimensional being: celestial and terrestrial, i.e. he has an infinite desire both for virtues and vices. This will also occur in human society which is the product of individuals' thoughts, views, moralities and tendencies. In this approach, three elements of power, cognition, and opposite tendencies pave the way for the most distinctive feature of man, i.e. man's free will. According to the Holy Quran, too much involvement of man and human society in animal tendencies and external affairs (nature and earth), on the one hand, and man's oblivion of his divine self and disobedience to God, on the other hand, will result in man's individual and collective alienation. The most important factor for removal of this stat is obedience to God and knowledge of real self. The author finally concludes that in order to have a full view of human society we should always pay due attention to two main elements of society, that is, man and community. The sort of relationship between these two elements and God and nature has an important impact on man's individual and social behavior.

In addition to verification of Sayyid Jamal a-Din Asadabadi's social thoughts and views, the author of the present paper tries to prove that Sayyid Jamal a-Din Asadabadi has been a pioneer of intellectual movement among the Islamic seminary students. He holds that Sayyid Jamal a-Din Asadabadi had a good knowledge of ideologies, movements, philosophical school of thought in the West, world geography, and social changes of the contemporary world and viewed them from the viewpoint of an intellectual Islamic scholar. He then makes a list of Sayyid Jamal a-Din Asadabadi's intellectual elements. They are as follows: reform in religious thought, deliberation on Ijtihad, world development, approximation of Islamic sects, modernism, social developmentalism, nationalism, rule of law, belief in social freedom, critical view of current situation, and rationalism.

Religion is an institution which influences the social political structure of communities. The influence of religion in communities that their social groups and individuals tend to religious norms and beliefs is much wider than other communities. Beliefs and deeds are two main components of a religion. Beliefs are consisting of all teachings, views, thoughts, and ways of action. Religious deeds are the product of religious beliefs. The continuance of religious beliefs depends on rituals and their proper performance. In the light of the variety of religious ceremonies and rituals in our country, the present paper tries to make an assessment of functional state of these ceremonies in relation to religious beliefs and values. It aims firstly at measuring the participants' awareness of the goals of religious role models (Imams) and secondly detecting the possible pathos of participants' ignorance of these goals. The data were collected using a survey method. Statistical population of the study consisted of 74 mourning groups from Tehran which were selected by the simple random method. Some results indicate that participants' awareness of the goals of Imam Hussayn, peace be upon him, was higher than those of other religious role models. It also shows that their awareness of the goals of Imam Ali, peace be upon him, was lower than those of other ones.

The main question of this article which deals with the social and cultural conditions affecting the formation of utopia according to the Quran is: What characteristics does it have that make it distinctive? To investigate this question, the author of the present paper first makes a qualitative content analysis of the exegesis of the verses of the Holy Quran, and then according to the "Grand theory" concepts are coded and classified. He finally identifies the utopia of the Qur'an with two basic characteristics: piety and social control. The utopia depicted by the Quran is not just a mode of utopia in mind, but a utopia which realized in the past and will realize in future. There is no obstacle for its realization in the present conditions as long as those two features are present. In fact, this article is about the realization of the Quranic utopia.

A new analysis of the cognitive nature of sociology of religion is the main theme of the present article. The author of this paper also makes a comparison between cognitive - theological nature of religious sociology while giving a description of them. He presents a critical review of the views of the pioneers of classical studies of religion like Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel and recent traditions in cultural studies of religion such as composite studies of religion, cultural studies of religion, media studies of religion and virtual studies of religion. The most discussed current issues in the sociology of intellectual and religious traditions and a wide range of social, epistemological, theological approaches to religion such as the sociology of religion to social theology, theological sociology, sociological theology and phenomenological sociology of religion were also critically reviewed in the present research study.

This paper assumes and therefore does not discuss negative effects of the structural evolutions which have stemmed from secularization on religious propaganda in TV programs. Rather, it deals with those inefficiencies and dysfunctional outcomes arising from the same processes, policies and patterns of religious media propaganda. Among them, we have discussed creating new rituals and quasi-sacraments, weakening traditional religious rituals, myth creation, worldliness, converting religion to commercial goods, mixing religious and mundane propaganda, giving paradoxical messages to the beholders, neglecting spiritual aspects of religion, superficiality of religious beliefs, and involvement with the interests of political parties. Our discussion is based on Islamic thought and communication theorist’s comments.

The present paper makes a preliminary survey of process of sociability in exegeses of the Quran. The questions are: What is sociability? How does it happen? What is the role of will? The survey is done through a qualitative content analysis of the interpretations of the Quran, coding and classification of the concepts. Results show that the process of sociability is a requirement of human nature by which man has internalized values and beliefs through his knowledge and action. The essence of the person has been gradually created. He is the very values, beliefs and norms, in a way that they are nor separable from each other. In this view, beings are constantly trying "to get", "to become". His knowledge and actions are constantly shaping his personality and nature. The result indicates that the more a man acts in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Quran, the more successful he is in religious sociability.

Given the important role that foundations of anthropology play in identification of social science paradigm and discriminating it from competing paradigms, this paper has a descriptive-interpretive approach to the Islamic texts – the Holy Quran and Hadith – and tries to introduce some of the anthropological foundations of Islamic social science paradigm using a literature survey method. These foundations are as follows: features of activities, rationality, decision, choice, mutual interaction with surrounding variables, association with paranormal variables and eventually a common nature, human nature and evolution. At the beginning, they are linked through fewer intermediaries to an Islamic explanation of human behavior.

Semiotics is one of the new methods in the field of humanities which has been used like research methods, especially in the realm of "knowledge of connotations" and "understanding communication mechanism" from the 1950s onwards. The ancient Greeks are considered to be the earliest followers of Semiotics. Semiotics can be said that has always been in close proximity to Structuralism and in accordance with its model. In this paper, we introduce a typology of two prominent scholars of semiotics and analyze the relationship between signifier and signified as a constitutional relation from their viewpoints, then, review Saussure and Pierce views from the perspective of Islamic Philosophy and in the light of the opinions and views of Mulla Sadra and Avicenna.

In this paper, aiming at recognizing Muslim civilization, both culturally and socially, the author tries to consider the principle of "commanding right and forbidding wrong" -which is construed as one of the most important examples and methods of social control, that is, "hasbih" or "ihtisab"- as an indicator to assess the strength and cohesion of society's value system, since the rise of Islam to the present. Based on the status and quality of this social phenomenon, the Islamic civilization is divided into three periods, "individual", "group" and "state". Reasons for degradation or failure and weakness of each case will be carefully assessed. Finally, the author concludes that social supervision in civilizations attributed to Islam is quantitatively growing but after the demise of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his household) and removing Shiite Imams in the Abbasid era and thereafter, its quality has decreased drastically and come into being hypocritical. In many cases, it has been completely dissolved and destroyed.

According to differences of opinion with regard to the structure of the agency, the purpose of this paper is to obtain views presented in the Holy Quran which is achieved through qualitative content analysis of the interpretations of the Quran, coding and categorizing the concepts and categories. Research findings indicate that the Holy Qur'an considers man under the influence of social structures. However, many verses of the Holy Quran reveal that act is the maker of man's character and identity. Based on the Holy Quran man is always responsible for his own actions and would not under any circumstances disclaim it. It can be concluded that though the influence of structures is an unavoidable, the principle of agency and act is an inviolable principle.

The present paper views the strategies for boosting trustworthiness from individual and social perspectives. In Islamic ethics, trustworthiness is regarded as a moral virtue. It is the indicator and sign of faith and piety and one who betrays the trust placed in him has no religion. To establish social security, increase productivity, gain more profits and overcome their competitors in the competition, communities, companies, organizations, and business entities try to increase trustworthiness among the people and their employees. In this study the analytical-descriptive method has been used along with narrative approach to explore ways of enhancing trustworthiness in both individual and social aspects. Based on the findings of the present research study some strategies for enhancing trustworthiness are: internalizing trustworthiness, increasing awareness, focusing on human nature, introducing patterns of trustworthiness, identifying characteristics of an ideal society and encouragement and appreciation of trustees. This article will try to address them.

According to differences of opinion with regard to the structure of the agency, the purpose of this paper is to obtain views presented in the Holy Quran which is achieved through qualitative content analysis of the interpretations of the Quran, coding and categorizing the concepts and categories. Research findings indicate that the Holy Qur'an considers man under the influence of social structures. However, many verses of the Holy Quran reveal that act is the maker of man's character and identity. Based on the Holy Quran man is always responsible for his own actions and would not under any circumstances disclaim it. It can be concluded that though the influence of structures is an unavoidable, the principle of agency and act is an inviolable principle.

Social justice, based on its various principles such as ontological and anthropological principles, has complex dimensions. While reviewed from different perspectives, it becomes even more complex. One of the defining principles for illustrating social justice is the type of approach to individual and society. According to the individualistic approach balance has not much scope in social justice theory for and Social Justice is followed in the form of "poverty removal". But according to Shahid Sadr and Shahid Motahari’s views, as they believe in individualism and socialism, the balance can contribute to the explanation of social justice. According to the second approach, inequality is defined in terms of the imbalance and at odds with social justice. The individualistic view of social justice is solely defined by means of poverty removal and in consistence with inequality. While explaining the attitude toward "individualism and socialism" from balance perspective, the author of the of the present paper takes into consideration that understanding social justice in Islamic system is possible when the dimensions of society which is associated with the structure of society is deeply explored. So he deals with the issue of stratification and social cohesion in the knowledge of sociology and investigates the relation between social justice and inequality in Islam. The result is that Islam seeks dignity of people and public consent through establishment of justice in satisfaction. By preventing the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, Islam provides individual people of society with equal access to opportunities and maintains their dignity and consent.

In this paper, the role of factors of religiosity and piety in social relations has been analyzed using the view of sociologists and social theorists and thinkers of God. However, the role of Islamic scholars is more prominent than others. They believe that the teachings of Islam, regardless of time and place, have integrating, disciplinary, and relaxing function. Finally verses of the Quran that directly or indirectly addressed the issue of social relations form the statistical population of the present research study. Among them 19 verses were selected reviewed through a detailed study using descriptive and analytical method.

Many sociologists believe that the process of modernization in developing countries leads to secularization of individuals and religion, that is, religion loses its social role in shaping and normalizing affairs of public domain and enters into the individuals’ private realm. Whether such a process has happened among the new generation of Iranian students who were born during the peak period of modernization of society and lived in the most important institutional carriers of modern culture namely, modern schools and universities or not? To answer this question, the author of the present paper defines "the role of religion in personal behavior" and "the role of religion in public behavior" and puts them into a questionnaire and distributes among 84 to 91 students of Sharif University. Finally, it seems that religion not only has a weak function in public attitudes of students but it is losing its importance in shaping the behavior of individual students. %55 of them believe in individual jurisprudential precepts and only %26 favor the non-jurisprudential dimensions of religion.

Imam Khomeini (R.A) used to pay special attention to global issues. He never limited his goals to eliminate domestic tyranny and foreign decolonization. His ultimate goal is to spread Islamic rule across the Muslim world and take the superpowers off it. Imam Khomeini’s elements of the global thought are: global arrogance, global justice, world peace, rich and poor, combating capitalism, nafye sabil, etc. To him, Islamic Republic of Iran and the Muslim world should take three stages in order to achieve the desired order. These three stages are: the current international system, the united international government, and the international system of Islamic Ummah. This paper attempts to examine Imam Khomeini’s elements of the global thought. It also tries to review and analyze characteristics of the desired global system for achievement of optimal order from his point of view.

The concept of life in the West is different from what the leader stated in his speech. We can say "lifestyle" in Western thought is a special form of lifestyle of what leader has defined. For the West's view of life relies on a series of individual concepts which are very limited. This perception of one's life does not apply to all facets of life while the leader has taken into account almost all aspects of human life in his remarks. In this paper, the author tries to articulate the principles and characteristics of Islamic lifestyle in the Holy Quran through Muslims anthropological and theological doctrines.

Objective: This paper seeks to investigate the rational and logical ways of social influence in the exegesis of the Qur'an. Methods: This is possible through qualitative content analysis of the exegeses of the Quran, obtained by coding and classification of concepts. Results: The findings show that, by referring the respondent to his intellect, we can impress him and change his attitudes and opinions over several stages. Results: the social influence is facilitated by making the respondent think through one-sided reasoning and two-sided reasoning, highlighting weak points of opinions and beliefs, raising question against weak points of opinions and beliefs and dubious questions associated with the message

Freedom based on Imam Khomeini's (RA) thought was a gift from god and blessed by God through the resistance and long struggle of Muslim nation of Iran. According to Imam Khomeini, freedom was one of the greatest ideal of Iran's revolution and Islamic movement; nobody has authority to deprive people of God- given freedom. He noted to all aspects of freedom and knew the ensuring freedom of opinion, expression, criticism, assembly, press, media and etc. as the task of the Islamic state. Imam Khomeini, in his remarks on struggle, considered freedom as a major goal and this word was expressed repeatedly in his pre-revolution speeches. He considered freedom as the basic human right which was bestowed to him/her from the beginning of the creation. It is like the right to live that he/she benefitted from before the formation of society and government. Governments are obliged to protect its privacy. Valuing freedom highly, he knew freedom as the outcome of monotheism; as belief in god leads to the freedom of human and depriving others of freedom was equivalent to atheism. This paper was to investigate the concept and types of freedom in the thought of Imam Khomeini.