Transcript Ali Syari’ati

ALI SYARI’ATI
Gonda Yumitro
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Ali Shariati was born in 1933 in Mazinan, a suburb of Mashhad, Iran.
He completed his elementary and high school in Mashhad. He later
attended Teacher Training College. He was graduated from college in
1960, and on a scholarship he pursued graduate studies in France.
Shariati received his doctorate in sociology in 1964 from Sorbonne
University.
As a Muslim sociologist, he sought to explain the problems of Muslim
societies in the light of Islamic principles-explaining them and
discussing them with his students. Very soon he gained popularity
with the students and among the religious classes in Iran. For this
reason, the regime of Shah felt obliged to discontinue his courses at
the university.
Then he was transferred to Teheran. There, Dr. Shariati continued
his very active career. His lectures at Houssein-e Ershad Religious
Institute attracted not only students who registered in his summer
classes, but also many thousands of people from different
backgrounds who were fascinated by his Islamic teachings. Faced
with the success of Dr. Shariati's courses, the Iranian police
surrounded Houssein-e Ershad Institute, arrested many of his
followers and thereby put an end to his activities.
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Popular pressure and international protests obliged
the Iranian regime to release Dr. Shariati on March
20, 1975. However, he remained under close
surveillance by the SAVAK (Iranian Security Agency
of Iran).
Since he could neither publish his thoughts nor
contact his students. Under such stifling conditions
according to his believe and the teachings of the
Quran he decided to migrate out of the country. He
went to England but was found dead three weeks
later in his apartment on June 19, 1977. It is widely
believed that he was murdered by the SAVAK
(Iranian Security Agency of Iran).
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Ali Shariati is widely recognized as the main ideologue of
the Iranian revolution.
mix of ideas: traditional Muslim-Shi`a thought, radical
Islamic fundamentalism, a mystical Sufi strand, Western
existentialism, dialectical Marxism, and anti-imperialism.
Shariati believed that Islamic societies were suffering from
internal and external oppression, that revolution was the
only alternative left for effecting change, and that ideology
was the main tool for mobilizing society.
He said, “Each ideologue, then, is responsible to change the
status quo relative to his ideals and convictions“
Shariati argues that the Iranian people must stop passively
moaning about their lot and start analyzing their condition
using ideological and scientific methodology, so as to
discover the principles that are catalysts for change.
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Shariati's political ideology is Islamic-Marxist, He
maintains that Islam is a revolutionary ideology because
from its inception it sided with the oppressed, Muhammad
having fought for social equality
In his opinion, Islam needs a reformation similar to the
christian reformation in Europe. Iran is at an historical
stage of development similar to that of Europe in the 14th
century, which after stagnating for a millennium in the
Middle Ages, experienced the Protestant Reformation that
generated its leap forward into modernity. - "What is
important to us now are Luther's and Calvin's works, since
they transformed the Catholic ethics to a moving and
creative force“.
This reformation will unleash great energies and lead to "a
great leap forward" that will skip centuries, helping Islamic
societies reach the level of Western societies.
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Islam still dominates the culture, traditions and
identity of Islamic societies, so it is useless to
emulate secular European models with their 20th
century idiom - they are simply irrelevant. A
Reformed Islam is the only hope for
emancipation.
Shariati idealizes Islam and sees it as a panacea
for all problems, encompassing a scientific and
deterministic philosophy of history, a positive
humanism and a belief in the inevitable victory of
the oppressed.
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Searching for the motor of societal change, Shariati finds that the
Quran identified al-nas (the people) as the main factor inducing social
change. The people as a whole represent God, and the Quran equates
God with the people in social matters. This fits surprisingly well with
his Marxist convictions, legitimizing his efforts to mobilize the masses
by revolutionary Islamic discourse.
In a contradictory manner, although the people are the main factor of
social change, they must be activated by a self-conscious elite. Left on
their own, the masses may stagnate in their misery for ever. The
tragedy of Iran is the wide gap between its tradition-oriented masses
and the alienated western educated elite, a gap which can only be
bridged by militant Islamic intellectuals. Recruiting such
intellectuals to become the vanguard and catalyst of change is one of
Shariati's main goals
These "enlightened thinkers" (Raushanfekran) are a key element in
Shariati's thinking as there is no hope for change without them.
Shi`i taqiyya colour Shari`ati's thought in the well known pattern of
using different levels of discourse for different audiences.
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Shariati views history as an eternal dialectical struggle
between tauhid and shirk. Tauhid is the "natural", God-given order of
things, whilst shirk is the enemy who has to be fought and
eliminated.
Tauhid means submission to God alone and a revolt against all other
powers: "In tauhid man fears only one power, is answerable to one
judge, turns only to one qibla, directs his hopes to only one source".
Traditional tauhid, the doctrine of the unity of God, is thus
transformed into the basis of revolution.
Whilst Shariati disclaims that his tauhid worldview is
mystical sufism (because he objects to sufi otherworldliness and
passivity), the similarities to Ibn al-Arabi's "unity of being" (wahdat
al-wujud) theosophy are striking. Creation as one organism, a unity
of God, man, and nature, is a Sufi notion. Tauhid was central
toSufism, which saw God and creation as two sides of the same
reality.
Afghani may be one source of his infatuation with this idea. But
Shariati had also studied Sufism on his own and been influenced by
Rumi's "Masnavi" and by Massignon.
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Shariati frequently employs the term love, so central
to sufi mysticism. The revolutionary is a devotee of
love, rotating around God: "As a butterfly who
encircles the candle until it burns; and its ashes are
gone with the wind...disappearing in love and dying
in light". This is very similar to the Suficoncept
of fana' bil-Llah, the annihilation of self in God.
Love is "an almighty force in the very depth of my
being ...", a force enabling man to sacrifice himself for
others: "It is a love which beyond rationality and logic
invites us to negate and rebel against ourselves in
order to work ...for the sake of others". Love is the
total reliance on God (tawakkul) that moved Hagar to
submit herself to God's will and take Isma`il to a far,
dry valley.
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Shariati has a very Hegelian and Marxist view of dialectics lying at the centre
of man, society, history and religion. Thesis encounters antithesis, and out of
the inevitable struggle and movement the new synthesis arises. This process is
continuously renewed and accounts for all change in the world.
Man is a dialectic reality created of clay and spirit, a contradiction causing
inward struggles and constant movement. In the creation myth of Islam clay
symbolizes stagnation whilst spirit symbolizes movement toward perfection.
Man's natural condition (fitra) lies between two opposite poles, a combination
that creates an evolutionary movement of man toward perfection. The real
battle of Satan against God is not waged in nature but within man's heart as
his clay nature strives to overcome his spirit.
Adam symbolizes the human species created as God's viceregent (khalifa) and
superior to the angels. Man is the bearer of God's trust - free will - a trust that
no other part of creation was willing to accept. God gave man the knowledge of
names, signifying scientific truths that even angels do not know, and a mission
to perform God's will and create a paradise in this place of exile. Man is not
merely God's trustee on earth, he is also God's relative, partner and friend
(another Sufi concept differing from traditional Ulama thought): "In Islam man
is not subjugated by God, since he is the Lord's associate, friend, trustee and
kinsman on earth".
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Free will makes man superior to other creatures as he can rebel and
chose between good or evil. God's spirit within draws him up to
perfection whilst the opposing clay principle drags him down to
stagnation. In this process of overcoming his lower nature man
evolves and draws nearer to God.
Man, composed of two contrasting elements, is bidimensional,
needing a religion that transcends exclusive orientation to either the
material or the spiritual. Of all religions, only Islam caters for man's
dual nature as it is a two-dimensional ideology, enabling man to
attain to a state of equilibrium between the two.
Shariati dreams of the evolution of the "ideal man" in whom spirit
has overcome clay, freeing him from doubt and contradiction and
enabling him to enjoy both nature and spirit. He is wise and artistic,
not molded by the environment, but forming it, creating a paradise on
earth. Shariati's ideal man is both philosopher and politician, soldier
and Sufi:
"He holds the sword of Caesar in his hand and he has the heart of
Jesus in his breast. He thinks with the brain of Socrates and loves
God with the heart of Hallaj".
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Whilst Shariati makes much of man's intrinsic
dignity, some statements imply that he is not
thinking of individual man, but of the totality of
humanity in which the individual is absorbed, and
without which he has no meaning: "He has dissolved
his identity in the eternal identity of the human
race".... "A person will live eternally if he dies as a
'man' because one is perishable but 'man' is eternal! A
drop of water which is not part of a river...lasts
overnight only, and will disappear with the early
smile of sunshine".
Dialectics also lie at the heart of society which is
based on conflict and warfare. There are two hostile
classes, the exploiters - the Kings, the landowning
aristocracy, and the false religious establishment and on the other hand God, the exploited majority
and true Islam.
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According to Shariati the Quran teaches that all political, economic
and religious power belongs to the people (Marxist dogma again). In
the Quran Allah and al-nasare often synonymous and society is God's
representative on earth. The dictum that "Rule belongs to God"
means that political power belongs to the people, "Property belongs to
God" means all capital belongs to the people, and "Religion belongs to
God" means that it belongs to the people - it is not a monopoly of the
clergy! This is in direct contradiction to Khomeini's "vilayat-i-faqih".
Dialectics also lie at the heart of Islam. There is a reactionary Islam
protecting the status-quo, and a true Islam that has always fought it:
"The war of religion against religion is a constant of history, a war of
shirk against tauhid, of justice against discrimination".
In contrast to conservative Shi`is who respect the clergy, Shariati
attacks the Ulama claiming they have no monopoly of religion. Right
after the death of Muhammad deviations, small at first but everwidening, appeared in the Muslim community. The Umayyads
usurped the Caliphate and tried to eliminate the faithful followers of
Muhammad and Ali??
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All roads lead to the inevitable climax when equality
and unity are realized worldwide - this will be utopia,
the end of history, the return of the Mahdi, the
culmination of the dialectical struggle.
Intizar is the Shi`a belief in the return of the Imam,
an active waiting for, and accelerating of, his coming a progressive movement toward the goal of
revolution.
"Belief in Intizar is belief in God's promise to the
Muslims, in the final realization of the wretched
masses' ideal and hope; in the final triumphant
emergence of the classless society, a society freed
from tyranny, injustice and deceit...". Shariati sees
man, after having spent millennia on his difficult
path of evolution, finally arriving at the end of
history, to the formation of a new world and a new
man.
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Shariati lays great stress on martyrdom as a revolutionary
weapon. Its utility lies in its being an integral part of
Shi`ite ideology motivating men to become martyrs who are
the heartbeat of history. Hussein's martyrdom, a protest
against tyranny and a witness to the true values of Islam,
guaranteed that faith would survive.
Martyrdom is accepted as a deliberate choice to strengthen
future generations whilst shaming the evil powers of the
enemy. It is a true jihad that guarantees honour, faith, and
the future of the powerless. It transforms Shi`ites from
passive "guardians of the cemetries" to active followers of
Ali and Hussein fighting for truth on every front: "in the
permanent battle of history - everywhere and everyplace,
all fields are Karbala, all months are Moharram, all days
are Ashura....” - "It is an invitation to all ages and
generations that if you cannot kill, die".