Scientific and Ethical Principles of Razavi Debates | ||
Scientific and Ethical Principles of Razavi Debates Fariba Rezazadeh and Alireza Farsinejad
As a tradition with a special position in Islamic culture, debate need certain principles and basics which learning them guarantees success of those who intend to debate. In a glance, such principles are divided into two classes: scientific and ethical. Scientific principles refer skills and sciences with which any debater must be equipped before starting the debate arena. However, only being equipped with the sciences and meeting technical points of discussions is not enough, but following ethical principles is necessary to influence the opponent and presumably the other audiences. In this regard and with the aim of offering an applied model, three scientific principles, namely the best struggle, using intellectual reasoning and avoiding sophistication, and also three ethical principles, namely to be polite, avoiding criticizing people's character and avoiding dogmatism are introduced as the most important principles to which Imam Ridha (AS) was committed. Debate and sharing ideas and opinions in religious beliefs are treated as an efficient tool in promoting and defending the religion. As the Almighty God asked the prophet for it: Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way. Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who go aright. (An-Nahl- 125) It must be considered that this tool is two-sided, it means that its deep influence is realized when the essential principles are followed, while underestimating such principles will be followed by some reverse consequences. Thus, the necessary prerequisite to be successful in debates is following its principles. To find the best and most effective principles, we need to refer to debates in which the Infallible Imams (AS) had been participated and principles had been resorted by them. Imam Ridha (AS) has left many debates with scholars of other religions which are considered as a very valuable resource. 1. Using argument The debater needs to be aware of the logic argumentation (Khazaeli, 2003, 76) and should to take advantage of normal logical techniques:
Proposing reasons and argumentation is one of the most important factors which guarantee success in a debate. It is not acceptable for a debater to use weak and nonsense reasons. Therefore, proposing two strong reasons is better than proposing several reasons which can be rejected. Imam Ridha (AS) used to base his argumentation on the same principles, because he never supposed that the Islam beliefs are undisputable for the opposite side, he never pursued dominance in his debates and always used arguments to demonstrate Islamic beliefs, because it is not possible to resolve conflict and contradiction among various religions.
2. Using the best struggle There are several verses in the holy Quran which invite use to follow the best struggle manner in our debates; five main features which make a struggle a best one are as follows:
3. Avoiding false reasoning Fair analysis of Imam Ridha (AS) debates with various scholars makes us convinced to conclude that he never used false reasoning in his debates, however, his opponents used this trick several times.
Ethical Principles of Imam Ridha's Debates 1. Being polite Being polite in a discussion means that to stick to the subject of debate. Debaters need to be involved with something profitable and useful and they should insult each other because of any sort of mistake they may make. 2. Avoiding criticizing people's character Avoiding criticizing the opposite side's character is among the principles of a normal and useful debate, because if the parties are looking for finding the truth, they just criticize the remarks and sayings of each other and they respect the dignity and position of the speaker.
3. Avoiding dogmatism The debater's final goal must be reaching the truth and he/she must use any way to reach this goal. It will be achieved when the debate is conducted without any dogmatic positions and prejudice. Because being biased before starting the debate will result in a condition in which the debater will never be convinced.
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