About Institute

Research deputy of the Khorasan branch affiliated to Islamic Propagation Office of the Qom Seminary started its activities in 1989, forming various scientific groups by using the potentials of the Shia Seminary and the universities of Khorasan. After succeeding in tens of research projects, it continued its activities under the name of Center for Islamic Sciences and Humanities. In 2016, its name changed to “research center for Civilizational Islam” by the decision of the Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy. The research center has four departments and fifteen faculty members. Each department on average benefits from eight members as the scientific committee. More than 200 researchers are collaborating with the research center.

Mission
Providing the scientific support for a new Islamic-Iranian civilization regarding Islam as a civilizing religion capable of making a superior society.
Five-year long-term goals
Research in the following areas
•    Background of the Islamic-Iranian civilization in science, organization, and art
•    Theoretical foundations of the Islamic-Iranian civilization
•    The Quranic teachings for making a superior society
•    Answers of the Shia Islamic Jurisprudence to the civilizational needs of the modern world
Two-year action plans toward the long-term goals
Research in the following areas
•    Foundations of the Islamic civilization with regard to the Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress
•    Rebuilding the logic and methodology of religious intellectualism in the new Islamic civilization
•    Social interpretation of the Quran with regards to the needs of the new Islamic civilization
•    Structures of Fiqh(Islamic Jurisprudence), urbanization Islamic Jurisprudence, Islamic Jurisprudence of the Islamic sects, criticism of Salafism.

Research Department for Quran and Social Studies 
Department of the Exegesis and the Quranic Sciences started its activities in 1989 just after the formation of the Khorasan branch of the Islamic Propagation Office of the Qom Seminary. The department has made scientific collaboration with many researchers, which resulted in many Quranic works.
Department of the Social Studies of Religion was established in 1991 by the formation of a group of researchers in the field of social studies.
In 2016, by the decision of the research center for  Civilizational Islam, the departments mentioned above merged and the Quran and Social Studies Department was founded.

Mission
Providing the scientific foundations of the new Islamic-Iranian civilization, by conducting Quranic researches concerning social issues.
Short-term Goals
Study in the following areas:
•    Social lifestyle in the Quran
•    Sociology of religion in the Quran
•    Social interpretation of the Quran
•    Social damages and its cures in the Quran

Long-term Goals
Study in the following areas:
•    Bases and methods of the social interpretation of the Quran
•    Paradigm of the social justice in the Quran
•    Solutions of hypocrisy in the Quran
•    Bases of the social justice in the Quran

Department for Islamic Art and Civilization 
The Islamic East Studies Department was formed in 1994 with focus on cultural and civilizational studies of the Islamic east (i.e., Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India).
The religious literature and art department was formed in 2005 with focus on taking a wise attitude and right methods of thinking based on religious texts concerning the literature and art studies.
Following the new approach, in 2016 the two above mentioned departments merged and the Islamic Art and Civilization Department was formed. Today, the department, using the two decades of research experience, aiming at the identification of the new Islamic civilization, continues its activities.

Mission
Studying the bases of the Islamic art and new Islamic civilization is one of the most important fields in the Islamic art and civilization studies which incorporates the relation of Islam and science, Islam and politics, Islam and art, Islam and society, Islam and philosophy, Islam and mythology.

Short-term Goals
•    Interdisciplinary issues regarding the foundations of Islamic-Iranian art and civilization
•    Exploring the potential of the Islamic sources regarding the Islamic art and civilization
Long-term Goals
•    Critical study of the theories of the bases of Islamic art and civilization
•    Philosophy of the Islamic civilization, its bases, and identity
•    Role of Shia architecture in the Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress

Department for Philosophy and New Theology 
In 1995, the Khorasan branch of the Propagation Office of the Qom Seminary established a department named Islamic Philosophy and Theology. The department, now named as Philosophy and New Theology, with more than two decades history and cooperation of fifty researchers, has completed multiple projects and presented them in the form of books, articles, memoirs, and scientific sessions.
Mission
Provision of the scientific foundations of the modern Islamic-Iranian civilization through theoretical and foundational research

Short-term Goals
Research in the following areas:
•    Logic and methodology of the religious science with regards to the new Islamic civilization
•    Epistemological foundations of the religious science in the new Islamic civilization
•    Paradigms of the religious intellectualism with regards to the needs of the modern human
Long-term Goals
Research in the following areas:
•    Reconstruction of the logic of the Islamic thought
•    Appropriate paradigms of logic and methodology concerning the progress of the contemporary world
•    Reconstruction of the paradigms of the religious intellectualism in the Islamic world
•    Theoretical foundations of the epistemology of the new Islamic civilization

Department for Applied Islamic Jurisprudence 
Islamic Jurisprudence studies in the Khorasan branch of the Islamic Propagation Office of the Qom Seminary started in 1994 and from 1998 developed its activities as a department. The Department of the Applied Fiqh has concentrated its efforts to develop the quality and quantity of the process of the deduction of the shari’a from its sources and applications of Fiqh. The department has published valuable works in Fiqh and usul, especially regarding the new Fiqh issues, philosophy of Fiqh, and philosophy of Usul.

Mission
Providing the scientific foundations of the new Islamic-Iranian civilization through conducting researches in Islamic Jurisprudence considering social needs.

Short-term Goals
Research in the following areas:
•    Islamic Jurisprudence rulings regarding city and urbanization
•    Philosophy of Islamic Jurisprudence and Usul with regards to the Islamic civilization
•    Islamic Jurisprudence schools in the Islamic civilization

Long-term Goals
Research in the following areas:
•    Descriptive identification of Islamic Jurisprudence sources with a focus on city and urbanization
•    The conceptual structure of the Islamic Jurisprudence rulings regarding city and urbanization
•    Criticism of the bases and opinions of Salafi Islamic Jurisprudence
•    Historical evolution of comparative Islamic Jurisprudence and its foundations