Divine Sovereignty and Clerical Authority in Early Shi‘i Islamism: Bāqir al-Ṣadr (1935–80) and Taqī al-Mudarrisī (b. 1945) on the Islamic State

Divine sovereignty (ḥākimiyya)—as conceived by Abū al-A‘lā Mawdūdī (1903–79) and popularised by Sayyid Quṭb (1906–66) - has been a central component of Islamist thought. This article investigates the reception of the concept within Shi‘i Islam. As case studies, the article choses two prominent actors in the formative period of Shi‘i Islamism in Iraq: Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr (1935–80) and Muḥammad Taqī al-Mudarrisī (b. 1945). By discussing their reflections on the nature of an Islamic state, the article pursues three objectives: first, it overcomes a trend in academic scholarship that disregards Sunni influences on the development of Shi‘i Islamism. Second, the article highlights the role that the Iraqi Shi‘i intellectual milieu played in incorporating key Islamist concepts into Shi‘i political thought. Finally, the article demonstrates the different receptions of ḥākimiyya. Bāqir al-Ṣadr uses the ideological repertoire of Islamism to explore in pragmatic terms the parameters that define the state as Islamically legitimate. In contrast, Taqī al-Mudarrisī uses ḥākimiyya to redefine the sovereignty of the state in Islamic terms. He operationalises the concept in a Shi‘i context by arguing that the state must be led by a just jurisconsult (al-faqīh al-‘ādil) who becomes the sole agent of divine sovereignty in the state.

Իսլամական արմատականությունը Վրաստանում. նոր միտումներ և մարտահրավերներ

The purpose of the paper is to study the main features and tendencies of Salafi Islam and Islamic radicalism in Georgia, to identify the threats and challenges facing Georgia as well as the region. The objectives of the article are to discuss the internal and external motives and impulses, preconditions and consequences of the spread of Sunni radical Islam in the Muslim communities of Georgia, the issues of their integration into the Georgian society, the causes and consequences of the propaganda of Salafism and Sunni Islamic radicalismamong the ethnic Shi’i Azerbaijanis of Georgia. The paper was written on the basis of monitoring of the international press and materials on this topic, an extensive study of professional literature on various sides of Radical Islam in Georgia. In the course of the study, the authors concluded that the spreed of Salafism and radical Islam in Georgia poses a serious threat not only to Georgia, but also to the security environment of the region. The Georgian authorities are losing real control over Adjara, gradually "handing it over" to Turkey. Therefore, a "platform of radicalism" can be formed here with the possibility of direct penetration into the surrounding areas. Adjara, which is actively used by various Turkish Islamic organizations, may also become a "hotbed of terrorism" against Armenia in the event of certain developments. The spread of radical Sunni Islamic ideology in the Azerbaijani-populated regions of Georgia is leading to the retreat of traditional Shi’i Islam. This phenomenon, of course, affects not only the religious map of the region, but also changes the existing geopolitical balance of power. Turkey, using its Islamic tools, is consistently pushing Iran out of Georgia's ethnic Azerbaijani-populated regions, squeezing the circle of Islamic radicalism around Armenia.

Introduction

What is the situation of religious freedom in contemporary Islam? What are the positions of conservative and reformist Muslims on blasphemy, apostasy and heresy? Are there any substantive differences between Sunnis and Shi‘is on the main points of this subject? What is this book’s original contribution to scholarship? Although the focus of this book is the critical analysis of religious freedom and the penalty sanctioned for the commission of blasphemy and apostasy from a Shi‘i perspective, this inquiry would be incomplete without a review of the general outline of Sunni Muslim positions on the same subjects. Thus, Section one of this Introduction explores the literature review on religious freedom, blasphemy and apostasy in contemporary Sunni Islam. Section two, which is more detailed, engages in a similar literature review, but from the perspective of contemporary Shi‘i Islam. These two sections allow a comparative study of Islam’s two major denominations, their exchanges, influences and effects. Section three describes the story of how this book unfolded, analyses the genealogy of the author’s ideas in detail, introduces novel ideas applied by other Sunni and Shi‘i thinkers, and highlights the original contribution made by this book.

Shiʻa mystical theology: Notes on Sayyid Ḥaydar ĀmulĪ's 'Jāmiʻ al-Asrār wa Manbaʻ al-Anwār'

There is a certain tendency among the scholars of Shī'ī Islam to synthesize Shī'īsm and Sufism within the Islamic context. Chief among these scholars is Bahā' al-Dīn Ḥaydar b. 'Alī b. Ḥaydar al-'Ubaydī Āmulī (1319 or 1320 - after 1385) known as Ḥaydar-i Āmulī whose Jāmi' al-Asrār wa Manba' al-Anwār is one of his essential works in which the interrelation between Shī'īsm and Sufism developed. This paper tries to look closely at the Jāmi' al-Asrār to depict the ways and approach in which Āmulī necessitates the identicality of the Shī'ī-Sufi approach. In the same framework, his relation to Ibn Arabi is examined. Āmulī's approach is called a marginalized one by some in the Shī'ī seminary. This paper, on the other hand, indicates that Āmulī's approach is more a continues and existing movement rather than a marginalized historical approach.

Shi’i clerical networks and the transnational contest over sacred authority: dynamics in London’s Shi’i Triangle

This article explores the transnational contest over sacred authority in contemporary Shi’i Islam as it plays out between contemporary maraji’ (sources of emulation) and the Iranian Supreme Leader, and in practice between their respective networks. It engages with existing assessments of the marja’iyya as an institution in crisis and argues instead that the marja’iyya has structural capacities that help maintain its potential in the face of the power exerted by the Supreme Leader. This in turns shapes the nature and outcome of the contest, including the need for the latter to accommodate with competing religious authorities. In the first part, the article offers a conceptualisation of the marja’iyya’s potential on the basis of three of its intrinsic features: its polycephalic nature and the broad temporal and geographical scope of a marja’’s authority. The second part offers a case study of the transnational contest over sacred authority in a specific locale. It maps the various (institutionalised) networks associated with Middle Eastern authorities, the Supreme Leader included, in London. Networks are however not hard-bound entities, as illustrated by the cross-networks navigation of their members. Furthermore, networks operate not only in competition but also in collaboration with each other. The contemporary contest over Shi’i authority is thus not a zero-sum game.

Faith and Resistance

Faith and Resistance: The Politics of Love and War in Lebanon by Sarah Marusek is a brave, timely, and innovative investigation that not only introduces readers to the historical development of Lebanon and Shi‘i Islam in the modern era but also challenges scholars to question how they study religious activism. The volume is based on over two years of intermittent fieldwork in Lebanon and Iran spread out from 2009 and 2017. The gist of Marusek’s argument is that the religious activism of Lebanon’s Hizbollah, and the wider Islamic resistance movement, can be examined through the lens of liberation theology. This analytical move is grounded in her desire to push the boundaries on how Shi‘i activism is conceptualized and studied by Western scholars—to show us that there are multiple ways of making sense from fieldwork experience and archival research. This openness to experiment with new theoretical frameworks, research methods, and, perhaps most importantly, to engage in comparative studies of the Middle East makes the volume a significant contribution to different fields of study. To download full review, click on PDF.

Faith and Resistance: The Politics of Love and War in Lebanon

Faith and Resistance: The Politics of Love and War in Lebanon by Sarah Marusek is a brave, timely, and innovative investigation that not only introduces readers to the historical development of Lebanon and Shi‘i Islam in the modern era but also challenges scholars to question how they study religious activism. The volume is based on over two years of intermittent fieldwork in Lebanon and Iran spread out from 2009 and 2017. The gist of Marusek’s argument is that the religious activism of Lebanon’s Hizbollah, and the wider Islamic resistance movement, can be examined through the lens of liberation theology. This analytical move is grounded in her desire to push the boundaries on how Shi‘i activism is conceptualized and studied by Western scholars—to show us that there are multiple ways of making sense from fieldwork experience and archival research. This openness to experiment with new theoretical frameworks, research methods, and, perhaps most importantly, to engage in comparative studies of the Middle East makes the volume a significant contribution to different fields of study. To download full review, click on PDF.

The Outside (Kharij) of Tradition in the Aftermath of the Revolution

After Iran's 1979 revolution, the energies that had animated the struggle for a modern Islamic government were partially redirected to the task of the renewal of the Islamic tradition. Paradigmatic of this effort is “the Cultural Revolution” that has sought to combat what Islamic activists perceive as the destructive effects of Western culture and to align the production of knowledge with the teachings of Shi'i Islam. The effort to produce modern Islamic knowledge, however, has paradoxically intensified the translation of European thought and invested it with the ethos of seminary education. Drawing on a long-term engagement with postrevolutionary Iranian intellectuals, including fieldwork in Tehran and Qom, this article offers a historical and anthropological exploration of the interrelated questions of tradition, transmission, and translation. It is ethnographically centered in a seminar in which seminarian-academics translate Carl Schmitt, among others, to make sense of, and intervene in, Islamic politics. It highlights how European concepts and forms of thought come to mediate the relation between seminarian-academics and the Islamic tradition, its forms of knowledge, and its modern politics and argues that the elision of the historical incommensurability of European discourses renders the enacted tradition foreign to itself.

Longing for the State

This chapter studies the changing discourses of sectarianism since the 1970s. During this decade, anti-Shi‘i rhetoric was the prerogative of Ahl-i Hadis scholars with close ties to Saudi Arabia. The polemics of the famous agitator Ihsan Ilahi Zahir (d. 1987) were centered on doctrinal points. The chapter contends, however, that for the ‘ulama of Pakistan’s most virulent anti-Shi‘i group, the Sipah-i Sahabah-i Pakistan (Army of the Companions of the Prophet; SSP), the Iranian Revolution constituted a threatening attempt at world domination and subversion of the fundamentals of Islamic politics. Even though these Deobandi scholars—in the vein of Zahir—still highlighted doctrinal incompatibilities between “real” and Shi‘i Islam, the Shi‘is were now primarily framed as a political problem: they blocked Pakistan from being molded into its true form: namely, that of a Sunni state with aspirations to global leadership. In formulating their answer to Khomeini, these sectarian Sunni ‘ulama attempted to reclaim the caliphate as a divinely sanctioned office that strikingly resembled and transcended Iran’s model of government.