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If Santayana is correct, then in Islam, where the Greek pagan element was kept at bay (while its science and philosophy filtered through), we may expect more of a theological reformation than a humanistic renaissance to usher in modernity. Back to the parable of diamonds: Dissident political theology grinding against
established political theology. Exactly which brash new theology or which combination
of theologies will succeed to nail the proverbial "95 theses" on the door
of the mosque, only future will tell. (2) I argue, it is more likely
to be a combination of dissident political theologies that will do the job. And this
is why, even people not terribly interested in the intricacies of Islamic theology
ought to keep an eye on its growing ends.
Soroush soon came to be known, first as one of the most eloquent intellectuals
of the nascent Islamic Republic and then as one of the most learned critics of the
clerical rule in Iran. Soroush is, deservedly, the best known of the three dissident
political theologians I will discuss; but for that very reason I will devote less
space here to his thought than would otherwise be the case. While in Germany, Shabestari immersed himself in German philosophy and Catholic
as well as Protestant Theology.(8) After the revolution he was briefly
elected to the first consultative assembly (Majles) after the establishment
of the Islamic republic, but thereafter he avoided politics and returned to editing
journals, teaching, and writing. At present, he is a professor of theology in the
University of Tehran.
Shabestari even suggests that there has been a divine providence for a separation
of religious values and secular realities:(13) In his latest book,
"Naghdi Bar Ghera'at e Rasmi az Din" (A Critique of the Official
Reading of Religion, December, 2000) Shabestari pursues his critique of religious
absolutism as hermeneutically naive and realistically unworkable.
Also, he launches a major defense of modern concepts of individualism, democracy,
and human rights, although they have not been articulated as such in Islamic sources.
(14) The third generation does not disappoint. Both Mohsen and his sister Jamileh (17) are vocal critics of the official ideology of the Islamic Republic.
Compared to Soroush and Shabestari, Kadivar's views are less well known in the West
but they are by no means less significant. I will argue that there is a pronounced
convergence and complementarity between his ideas and those of Soroush and Shabestari.
What is distinct about Kadivar is his sole reliance on Islamic and Shiite sources
of scholarship. This constitutes, at once, his weakness and his strength.(18) A. Theories of State based on Immediate Divine Legitimacy B. Theories of State Based on Divine-popular Legitimacy The work unfolds in two phases: the first, lays bare the presuppositions of the concept of Velayat, which concerns the meaning of the term, its interpretation in mysticism (Irfan), philosophy (Kalam), jurisprudence (Figh'h), The Qur'an, and Tradition (Sonnat). In every instance, Kadivar discounts political implications of the term. He traces the first indication of the thesis to the writings of eighteenth and nineteenth century jurists namely, Mohaghegh e Karaki, Shahid Thani, and Ahmad Naraghi. Kadivar, thus determines the age of the concept as less than two centuries, a mere blinking of an eye compared to the history of Shiite jurisprudence (21) But he reserves his most devastating attacks for the second part of the book that is devoted to the critical analysis of the proofs and confirmations of the principle of government by divine mandate. Here Kadivar proceeds in four sections; following the sources of adjudication in Shiite theology he sets up and knocks down the arguments for the Velayat e Faghih adduced from Quran, Tradition, (Sonnat) consensus of the Ulama, (Ijma') and reason (Aghl), He thus concludes:
The third volume of Kadivar's trilogy is entitled: Government by Appointment. (Hokoumat e Entesabi.) It deals with practical consequences, disappointments, and disenchantments that the Government based on divine mandate has brought about In Kadivar's career we witness not only the voice of a gifted and brave clergyman, but a tradition of pluralism and debate in Shiite theology that allows such utterances. Once a Mojtahed, one is allowed, indeed expected, to contest the opinions of one's colleagues and the received wisdom of one's predecessors. Indeed, as radical as Kadivar's political theology is, due to his status as a Mojtahed with the right to issue verdicts and edicts, he has not been molested for these crucial writings that constitute the most specific and explicit refutation of the cornerstone of the theocratic element in Iran's constitution and form of government. Instead, he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to18 months imprisonment, because of a sermon in which he railed against the so called "serial murders" of Iranian intellectuals and an interview in which he alluded that the Islamic Republic partially replicates the absolutist authority relations of the former monarchic regime.( 23) But even against these charges Kadivar has cited his authority as a Mojtahed to adjudicate and to inform:
Since I have argued that the varieties of political theology in Iran complement each other (25), I would like to suggest the following table to compare the three I have introduced here:
Soroush and Shabestari represent the maturing of the dialogue of the Iranian-Islamic
thought with Western social and political philosophy and theology, while Kadivar
represents the coming of age of indigenous Islamic and Shiite political theology
reclaiming and reinterpreting its pluralistic and democratic elements and relying
on the contested nature of knowledge it produces. Together, they aim to criticize
the totalitarian Islam; and thus to usher in a guarded and objective secularism,
(26) while preserving Islam's spiritual precepts and cultural identity.
Hence my designation of "Islamic Reformation." It is a portent of the darkening horizons of peaceful political reform that Kadivar
in an interview remarked that the attempt by Khatami to rehabilitate the regime of
Velayat e Faghi'h may have reached an impasse. (27) But,
then again, Reformation in the West was not an entirely peaceful affair either. Buckle
up, bumpy road ahead, but "ahead" is the only conceivable way. Mahmoud Sadri is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas Women's University.
He has a doctorate in sociology from New York's New School for Social Research. He
is the coauthor, with Aruthur Stinchcombe, of an ariticle in "Durkheim's Divison
of Labor: 1893-1993" Presses Universitaires de France, 1993. For more information
see his page at
the Texas Women's University. 1. George Santayana, in Reason in Religion, Quoted from: Will Durant: Story of Philosophy. 1927. Washington Square Press, New York. p. 498. To top 2. The reference is to Martin Luther, a German theologian and monk, (1483-1546) who nailed 95 theses criticizing the practices of the Catholic church on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg in 1517. This event is generally acknowledged as the opening salvo of Reformation struggles in Europe. To top 3. This discussion is limited to the Iranian version of the new Islamic theology. For a survey of the other varieties of modern Islamic theology see: Charles Kurzman (ed), Liberal Islam, 1998, Oxford University Press, New York.To top 4. American Journalist Robin Wright and many after her have referred to Soroush as the Luther of Islam. A designation that indicates, above all, the level of attention Soroush's thought has deservedly found in the West. Recently, another Western critic observed that Soroush is more like the Erasmus of Islam, bravely and wittily challenging the tradition rather than battling it outright. Erasmus (1466-1536) unlike Luther did not break from the church but remained a vocal and influential critic of traditional religion.To top 5. Hobbes, Leviathan, Part one; Hamilton in: Federalist Papers. no. 10, 51.To top 6. For a more extensive discussion of Soroush's work see: Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri, (ed.) Freedom, Reason and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush. 2000, Oxford University Press, New York. To top 7. Shabestari identifies himself as a "Motekallem", a practitioner of "Kalam," a discipline, shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that seeks to determine "the relationship between the consciousness of divine revelation and the consciousness of human philosophy." Shabestari calls for a renewal of Kalam (Kalam e Jadid). Such a discipline would undertake a new assessment of the relationship between the divine and the human. Din va Azadi, p. 64.To top 8. There is ample evidence in his works that indicates that not only he has come into contact with the works of such contemporary Protestant theologians as Paul Tillich and Karl Barth and Catholic thinkers as Tyrell, but that he has engaged in comparing their contributions and opinions with such Islamic thinkers as Ibn Arabi. (Hermeneutic, Ketab, Va Sonnat, p. 132), He has published an essay entitled "Christian Theology" as well. Reprinted in Iman va Azadi, pp. 157-162.To top 9. For example, he unabashedly poses two of the most revered components of Shiite theology, that is, Ijtihad (religious adjudication) and Tafsir, (exegesis) as instances of the discipline of hermeneutics and urges the Islamic seminaries to "welcome hermeneutics with all their power and with utmost enthusiasm." True to his hermeneutic stance he argues: "It is a delusion to believe that one can empty the mind of all assumptions and suppositions and to access the Quran and tradition directly. Nobody can show an example of the success of such an endeavor ... all commentators have reached conclusions based on their necessary mental limitations. (Ibid p.8, 31, 135)To top 10.(Hermeneutic, Ketab, Va Sonnat pp. 47, 49, 56, 54, 62)To top 11. "The status of the Quran and the (prophet and Imam's) tradition is to inspire us as the eternal sources of value not to instruct us as to specific forms and manners of life" (Ibid. p.90). It is in this context that Shabestari argues that such issues as "Ghesas" (laws pertaining to revenge and restitution) were not legislated by the Quran but simply regulated, modified, and rationalized.To top 12. Ibid. p. 234. This is where he comes closest to the theology of Harvey Cox, Niebuhr, Tillich, and Barth. To top 13.Iman va Azadi, p. 67. To top 14. Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari, A Critique of the Official Reading of Religion, 2000, Tarh e No Publications, Tehran. pp. 18, 22-29, 199-312. To top 15. Unpublished interview, January 3, 2001, Tehran. To top 16. In the text of his defense in the "Special Court of the Clergy" Kadivar made a statement that symbolizes both the source of his authority and the potential danger he poses to the theocratic rule in Iran: "To attribute to the Mojtahed who rejects the veracity of the principle of the trusteeship of the jurist (Velayat E Faghih) a basic lack of jurisprudential knack is wielding a two edged sword, for the accused Mojtahed has the power to pay back in kind." (Baha ye Azadi, p. 231) To top 17. See: Jamileh Kadivar, Transformation of the Shiite Political Dialogue in Iran (Tahavvol e Gofteman e Siasi ye Shi'eh dar Iran" 2000, Tarh e No, Tehran.To top 18. Even his reliance on Farsi sources is minimal. His most pivotal book, Hokumat e Velai, has eleven pages of Arabic references and only three pages of Farsi references. Infrequent references to Western sources (for example, in his book entitled Nazarihe ha ye Hokumat dar Figh'h e Shi'eh, pp, 45, 113) are to translations. Kadivar's lack of contact with the West may explain the fact that on social issues, he is more conservative than Soroush and Shabestari, even though politically he is in complete agreement with them. To top 19.This typology does not include completely a-political views of grand Ayatollahs
such as Sheikh Morteza Ansari, Sayed Ja'far Kashef ol Gheta', and Abolghasem Khou'i
who opposed any legitimate or clerically legitimized form of government in the absence
of the infallible Imams or on the basis of clerical mandate over mature and sane
individuals. The latter, through their negative political theology lend support to
the purely democratic and objectively secular form of government (the last form enumerated
in the above typology) proposed by Ayatollah Mehdi Yazdi. (Kadivar elaborates on
this view in the second book in his trilogy, under the rubric of "the principle
of no-mandate" Asl e Adam e Velayat) Hokumat e Vela'i, ch. 7,
8.To top 21. It is noteworthy that Kadivar discerns four periods in the history of Shiite
Political Theory: 1) The era of development of the private and individual aspects
of Figh'h from 11th to 17th centuries, 2) the era of coexistence of clerics
and kings, from 17th to 19th centuries. 3) the era of constitutional government along
with clerical oversight in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. 4) the era
of the Islamic republic of Iran, from 1965 to the present.To
top 23. The sermon, entitled: "The religious prohibition of terrorism" was delivered in the Hossein Abad Mosque of Isfahan, in December of 1998 and the Interview was granted to "Khordad" a reformist newspaper, in January of 1999. The charges against Kadivar, as specified in the court verdict against him were: "1) propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and 2) spreading falsehoods and disturbing the public opinion" Baha ye Azadi, p. 121.To top 24. Ibid. p. 119.To top 25. Dissident Political theology in Iran is not limited to the above three examples. Indeed, there are other varieties including those of Abdollah Nouri and Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari (both high ranking clergymen languishing in jail) and Said Hajjarian (recovering from a terrorist assassination attempt) who endorse the letter of the principle of Velayat e Motlagheh ye Faghih but who argue that "logically" it can not be an autocratic but a democratic institution. They suggest the principle can be upheld in literal terms but given a thoroughly democratic interpretation.To top 26. I use the term "objective secularism" to denote institutional and functional separation of religion from politics. As such, it is distinct from "subjective secularism" which entails eradication of religion from culture and mind of the people. There is no evidence the two are linked either analytically or historically. Indeed, the experience of the West has demonstrated that subjective secularism did not result from the radical objective secularization of the society. Political Theology of Soroush, Shabestari, and Kadivar advocate only the former variety of secularism. To top 27. Interview with Christiane Hoffman, for Frankfurter Algemeine, August
2, 2000. To top
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Attack from within
Abdolkarim Soroush, born in Tehran, in 1945, into a traditionally learned
merchant family and educated at Alavi high school, (that proved, in hindsight, to
have been the intellectual incubator of most of the Islamic revolution's lay elites)
and the school of pharmacology of the University of Tehran, emerged at the dawn of
the Islamic Revolution from his post graduate studies in England, where he had integrated
theories of Quine, Duem, Popper, and others within the framework of his vast Islamic
learning.
Born in Tabriz, in 1936, into a clerical family, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari
was educated as a seminarian in Qum. He stayed in the seminary for seventeen years,
achieving both degrees of Ijtihad (religious adjudication) and Doctor of Philosophy.
He was invited by Mohammad Beheshti (who was to become one of the main architects
of the Islamic revolution of Iran) to take his place as the director of the Islamic
center at Hamburg. Shabestari remained in that position from 1970 to 1979.
Mohsen Kadivar, born in Fasa in central Iran in 1959, left the university
of Shiraz after a brief stint as a student of electrical engineering, and moved to
the holy city of Qum to pursue classical clerical learning. He graduated at the top
of his cohort and entered the post graduate (dars e kharej) studies from which
he emerged with a "permission" of Ijtihad, the highest level of Shiite
learning. He comes from a politically active family. His grandfather was a dissident
under Reza Shah and his father under Mohammad Reza Shah.|
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