Ali Shariati

Ali Shariati Mazinani (Template:Langx, 23Template:NbspNovember 1933Template:Snd18Template:NbspJune 1977) was an Iranian revolutionary<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and sociologist who specialised in the sociology of religion. He is regarded as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century.<ref>Gheissari, Ali (1998). Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press.</ref> He has been referred to as the "ideologue of the Islamic Revolution", although his ideas did not ultimately serve as the foundation for the Islamic Republic.<ref>Abrahamian, Ervand (1993). "Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution". In Edmund Burke and Ira Lapidus (eds.), Islam, Politics, and Social Movements. Los Angeles: University of California Press. First published in MERIP Reports (January 1982): 25–28.</ref>

Biography

Ali Shariati, also known as Ali Masharati, was born in 1933 in Mazinan, a suburb of Sabzevar in northeastern Iran.<ref name=":0">Rahnema, Ali (1998, 2000). An Islamic Utopian. A Political Biography of Ali Shari'ati. London: I.B. Tauris, p. 120.</ref> His father's family were clerics.<ref name= rakel8>Template:Cite book</ref> His father, Mohammad-Taqi, was a teacher and Islamic scholar. In 1947, he established the Centre for the Propagation of Islamic Truth in Mashhad, Khorasan Province.<ref>Rahnema (1998, 2000), p. 13.</ref> It was a social Islamic forum that became involved in the oil nationalisation movement of the 1950s.<ref>Rahnema (1998, 2000), pp. 13–18.</ref> Shariati's mother came from a small land-owning family in Sabzevar, a town near Mashhad.<ref name= rakel8/><ref name= EAbr89>Template:Cite book</ref>

During his years at the Teacher's Training College in Mashhad, Shariati encountered young individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and for the first time witnessed the poverty and hardships prevalent in Iran at that time. At the same time, he was exposed to many aspects of Western philosophical and political thought. He attempted to explain and offer solutions for the problems faced by Muslim societies through traditional Islamic principles interwoven with, and understood from, the point of view of modern sociology and philosophy. His articles from this period for the Mashhad daily newspaper, Khorasan, display his developing eclecticism and acquaintance with the ideas of modernist thinkers such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal among the Muslim community, and Sigmund Freud and Alexis Carrel.<ref>Rahnema (1998, 2000), pp. 61–68.</ref>

In 1952, he became a high school teacher and founded the Islamic Students' Association, which led to his arrest following a demonstration.Template:Citation needed In 1953, the year of Mossadeq's overthrow, he became a member of the National Front. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Mashhad in 1955. In 1957, he was arrested again by the Iranian police, along with sixteen other members of the National Resistance Movement.Template:Citation needed

Shariati then earned a scholarship to continue his graduate studies at the University of Paris under the supervision of the Iranist Gilbert Lazard. He left Paris after earning a PhD in Persian language in 1964.<ref>Rahnema (1998, 2000).</ref>Template:Page number During this period in Paris, Shariati started collaborating with the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1959. The following year, he began to read Frantz Fanon and translated an anthology of his work into Persian.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>«La jeune génération est un enjeu» Template:Webarchive, interview with Gilles Kepel in L'Express, 26 January 2006 Template:In lang</ref> Shariati introduced Fanon's thought into Iranian revolutionary émigré circles. He was arrested in Paris on 17 January 1961 during a demonstration in honour of Patrice Lumumba.<ref name=":0" />

The same year he joined Ebrahim Yazdi, Mostafa Chamran and Sadegh Qotbzadeh in founding the Freedom Movement of Iran abroad. In 1962, he continued studying sociology and the history of religions in Paris and followed the courses of Islamic scholar Louis Massignon, Jacques Berque and the sociologist Georges Gurvitch. He also came to know the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre that same year, and published Jalal Al-e Ahmad's book Gharbzadegi (or Occidentosis) in Iran.Template:Citation needed

Shariati then returned to Iran in 1964, where he was arrested and imprisoned for engaging in subversive political activities while in France. He was released after a few weeks, at which point he began teaching at the University of Mashhad.Template:Citation needed

The tomb of Shariati

The mausoleum of Shariati in 2001

Shariati went to Tehran, where he began lecturing at the Hosseiniye Ershad Institute. These lectures were hugely popular among his students and were spread by word of mouth throughout all economic sectors of society, including the middle and upper classes, where interest in his teachings began to grow.Template:Citation needed

His continued success again aroused the interest of the government. He was arrested, along with many of his students. Widespread pressure from the people and an international outcry eventually led to his release on 20 March 1975, after eighteen months in solitary confinement.

Shariati was allowed to leave for England. Shortly after, on 18 June 1977, he was found dead in Southampton at the house he was renting from psychology professor Doctor Butterworth. He is believed to have been killed by the SAVAK, the Iranian security service during the time of the Shah. However, in Ali Rahnema's biography of Shariati, he is said to have died of a heart attack under mysterious circumstances, although no hospital or medical records have been found. He is buried next to Sayyidah Zaynab, the granddaughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the daughter of Ali, in Damascus. Iranian pilgrims often visit his grave.Template:Citation needed

Views and popularity

Shariati and his family one day after his release from prison

Shariati sought to revive the revolutionary currents of Shi'ism.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His interpretation of Shiism encouraged revolution in the world and promised salvation after death.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He referred to his brand of Shiism as "red Shiism" which he contrasted with non-revolutionary "black Shiism" or Safavid Shiism.<ref>Shariati, Ali. "Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism".</ref> His ideas have been compared to the Catholic Liberation Theology movement founded in South America by Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez and Brazilian Leonardo Boff.<ref>Nasr, Vali (2006). The Shia Revival, Norton, p. 129.</ref>

Shariati was a prominent philosopher of Islam, who argued that a good society would conform to Islamic values. He suggested that the role of government was to guide society in the best possible manner rather than manage it in the best possible way.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He believed that the most learned members of the Template:Lang (clergy) should play a leadership role in guiding society because they best understand how to administer an Islamic value system based on the teachings of the Prophets of God and the 12 Shia Twelver Imams.<ref name= utb>Template:Cite web</ref> He argued that the role of the clergy was to guide society under Islamic values to advance human beings towards reaching their highest potential, rather than to provide or serve the hedonistic desires of individuals as in the West.<ref name= utb/>

At the same time, Shariati was very critical of some clerics and defended the Marxists. "Our mosques, the revolutionary left and our preachers," he declared, "work for the benefit of the deprived people and against the lavish and lush [...] Our clerics who teach jurisprudence and issue fatwas are right-wingers, capitalist, and conservative; simply our fiqh is at the service of capitalism."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Shariati's works were highly influenced by Louis Massignon and the Third Worldism that he encountered as a student in Paris, including ideas that class war and revolution would bring about a just and classless society. He was also highly influenced by the epistemic decolonisation thinking of his time. He is said to have adopted the idea of Gharbzadegi from Jalal Al-e Ahmad and given it "its most vibrant and influential second life".<ref>Mottahedeh, Roy, The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, p. 330.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

He sought to translate these ideas into cultural symbols of Shiism that Iranians could relate to. Shariati believed Shia should not only await the return of the 12th Imam, but should actively work to hasten his return by fighting for social justice "even to the point of embracing martyrdom". He said that "every day is Ashoura, every place is the Karbala".<ref>Nasr, Vali (2006). The Shia Revival, Norton, pp. 128–9.</ref>

When he was writing the three letters to Fanon, unlike him, Shariati believed that it is not true that one must put away religion to fight imperialism. He felt that people could fight imperialism solely by recovering their cultural identity. In some countries, such an identity was intertwined with fundamental religious beliefs. Shariati refers to the maxim of returning to ourselves.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Social theorist Asef Bayat has recorded his observations as a witness and participant in the Iranian revolution of 1979. He asserts that Shariati emerged at the time of the revolution as "an unparalleled revolutionary intellectual" with his portraits widely present during the marches and protests. His nickname as "mo'allem-e enqilab" ("revolutionary mentor") was chanted by millions, and his literature and tapes had already been widely available before the revolution. Bayat recalls that "[his] father, barely literate, had his own copies" of Shariati's works.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On the role of women

In Expectations from the Muslim Woman, also called Our Expectations of the Muslim Woman, first given in 1975,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Shariati discusses women's rights in Islam. The point of his lecture is not to show that women's rights do not exist in Islam, but to show that what Shariati saw as anti-Islamic traditions have had tragic results for Muslim women. He uses Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammad, as an example of a woman who played a significant role in political life.

He begins his lecture by stating that:

Most often, we are satisfied by pointing out that Islam gives great value to science or establishes progressive rights for women. Unfortunately we never actually use or benefit from this value or these rights.<ref name= ALone>Template:Cite web</ref>

He continues by stating that:

From the 18th through to the 20th century (particularly after World War 2) any attempt to address the special problem of the social rights of women and their specific characteristics has been seen as a mere by-product of a spiritual or psychic shock or the result of a revolutionary crisis in centers of learning or as a response to political currents and international movements. Thus, traditional societies, historical societies, religious societies, either in the East or in the West (be they tribal, Bedouin, civilized Muslim or non-Muslim societies, in whatever social or cultural stage of civilization they may be) have all been directly or indirectly influenced by these thoughts, intellectual currents and even new social realities.<ref name= ALone/>

He argues that the liberation of women has begun in the West, and many fear it occurring in the Muslim world. In part because they are misinformed, and have not looked at Islam through a historical perspective, and are relying on their misinterpretation of Islam:

In such societies the newly-educated class, the pseudo-intellectuals, who are in the majority, strongly and vigorously welcome this crisis. They themselves even act as one of the forces that strengthen this corrupting and destructive transformation.<ref name= ALone/>

Shariati believed that women in Iran under the Shah were only sexually liberated and did not have any social freedom. He attributed this in part to the "rather bourgeois cognition" and in part to the Freudian ideal of sexual liberation.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> To Shariati, Freud was one of the agents of the bourgeois:

Up to the appearance of Freud (who was one of the agents of the bourgeoisie), it was through the liberal bourgeois spirit that scientific sexualism was manifested. It must be taken into consideration that the bourgeoisie is always an inferior class.<ref name= AS>Template:Cite web</ref>

He concludes that a scholar or scientist who lives, thinks, and studies during the bourgeois age, measures collective, cultural, and spiritual values based on the economy, production and consumption.<ref name= AS/>

Shariati and socialism

It seems that his eagerness to explore socialism began with the translation of the book Abu Zarr: The God-Worshipping Socialist by Egyptian Abdul Hamid Jowdat-al-Sahar. According to this book, Abu Dhar was the very first socialist.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Then, Shariati's father declared that his son believed that the principles of Abu Dhar are fundamental. Some described Shariati as the modern Abu Dhar in Iran.<ref>Abrahamian (1989), p. 106.</ref> Of all his thoughts, there is his insistence on the necessity of revolutionary action. Shariati believed that Marxism could not provide the Third World with the ideological means for its own liberation. One of his premises was that Islam by nature is a revolutionary ideology. Therefore, Islam could relate to the modern world as an ideology. According to Shariati, the historical and original origin of human problems was the emergence of private ownership. He believed that in the modern era, the appearance of the machine was the second most fundamental change in the human condition. Private ownership and the emergence of the machine, if considered one of two curves of history, belong to the second period of history. The first period is collective ownership. However, Shariati gave a critique of the historical development of religion and the modern philosophical and ideological movements and their relationship to both private ownership and the emergence of the machine.<ref name= PhD>Template:Cite thesis</ref>

Epistemology

Shariati developed the idea of the social, cultural and historical contingencies of religious knowledge in sociology.Template:Citation needed He believed in the earthly religion and the social context in which the meaning of society is construed. He also emphasised that he understood religion historically because he was a sociologist. He said he was concerned with the historical and social Tawhid, not with the truth of the Quran or of Muhammad or Ali.<ref>Template:Cite book Online publ. date: Dec 2013.</ref>

Political philosophy

See talk-page.

Sociology

Some scholars classify him among the current religious neo-thinkers.Template:Citation needed According to this standpoint, Shariati accepted the rationality of the West. Shariati called the theoretical foundation of the West civilisation and called its appearances Tajadod (renewal). He emphasised accepting civilisation and criticised Tajadod. He also believed that civilisation has to be considered as something deep. He also highly acknowledged the importance of empirical science and knowledge. He appreciated the empirical methodology and criticised traditionalism for its disregard for scientific methodology. On another hand, he criticised the Modernists because they confuse the Western ideological theories with valid scientific epistemology. According to Shariati, the knowledge of reason is self-evident. Therefore, he suggested thinking of reason as the axiom for understanding the other sources, namely the holy book or Quran, ḥadīth (tradition), sīra (prophetic biography) and ijmāʿ (consensus). Shariati also dismissed consensus as a source for understanding religion. He insisted on the concepts of knowledge and time along with the holy book and tradition, and stressed the important role of methodology and changing of viewpoint.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Shariati, who was a fan of Georges Gurvitch in his analysis of sociology, believed that there was no special pattern for the analysis of social affairs and historical events.Template:Citation needed He thought that there was no unity of religion and society, but rather there were many religions and societies. He referred to the active role of the scholar of human science during investigation and scientific research.Template:Citation needed He believed that there was a relationship between the values of scholarship and the effects of those values on the conclusions of an investigation. He believed that it was not necessary to extend the other conclusions of other Western scholars to Iranian society. However, he criticised the Western ideological schools, including nationalism, liberalism and Marxism. He maintained that there was conformity and correspondence between Western philosophy and Iranian society. According to Shariati, democracy is inconsistent with revolutionary evolution and progress. One of his criticisms of Western ideology is its imitation of those ideologies.Template:Verify source One of his other criticisms is the denial of spirituality in Western philosophy. Those ideologies attempt to prevent humans from achieving transcendental goals and any evolutionary movements.Template:Verify source In this vein, he firmly criticised capitalism, and at the same time he admired socialism because it would lead humanity to evolution and free it from utilitarianism. However, he firmly criticised Karl Marx. According to Shariati, Marx's theory on the economy as the infrastructure and foundation of humanity and society was incorrect. Conversely, Sharia places the human, not the economy, as the foundation and origin of society.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Clarify

Modern problems

Shariati saw human history as composed of two stages: the stage of collectivity and the stage of private ownership.<ref name= PhD/> He explained that the first stage, collectivity, was concerned with social equality and spiritual oneness. The second stage, which is the current era, could be considered as the domination of the many by one. The second stage began with the emergence of private ownership. Various types of private ownership in history have included slavery, serfdom, feudalism and capitalism Template:-- among others.<ref name= PhD/> According to the concept of social ownership, all material and spiritual resources are accessible to everyone, but monopolies polarised the human community. According to Shariati, private ownership is the main cause of all modern problems. These problems change men's brotherhood and love to duplicity, deceit, hatred, exploitation, colonisation and massacre. This polarisation has manifested itself in different forms throughout history. For example, in ancient times, there were slave economies that transitioned to capitalist societies in modern times. Machinism, or the dependence on machines, can be considered the latest stage of private ownership. Machinism began in the nineteenth century, and human beings have had to confront the many anxieties and problems arising from it.<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref>

Legacy

1980 Iranian stamp honoring Shariati

There are many adherents and opponents of Shariati's views, and Shariati's personality is largely unknown.Template:Clarify Ali Khamenei knew Shariati as a pioneer of Islamic teaching according to the requirements of his generation. According to Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Shariati had both positive and negative characteristics. Khamenei believes that it is unfair to consider Shariati as someone who firmly disagreed with the Mullahs. One of the positive sides of Shariati was his ability to explain his thoughts with suitable and simple language for his generation. Shariati was somewhat supportive of Mullahs in Iran.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Clarify Some scholars like Elizabeth F. Thompson try to envisage some similarities between Shariati and his role in the Islamic revolution in Iran with Sayyed Qutb's role in Egypt. One similarity is that both paved the way for the imminent revolution in their countries. Both desired Islamic cultural dominance. Both were fans of being revolutionary about ruling values and norms. They considered Islamism a third way between those of America and the Soviet Union. At the same time, they were not wholly utopian, and they were partly Islamic.Template:Clarify Of course, there are differences between them, for example, Shariati was a leftist while Qutb was a conservative. According to Mahmoud Taleghani, Shariati was a thinker who created a school for revolution. The school guided young people to revolutionary action. Beheshti believes that Shariati's work was fundamental to the Islamic revolution.<ref name= EAbr89/>

According to Hamid Enayat, Shariati was not only a theorist but also an adherent of Islamic radicalism. Enayat believes that Shariati can be considered the founder of Islamic socialism. Enayat considers him one of the most beloved and popular individuals in Islamic radicalism and socialism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Clarify

According to Hamid Algar, Shariati was the number one ideologue of the Islamic revolution.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Publications

Despite Shariati's early death, he authored some 200 publications including articles, seminar papers and lecture series<ref>Lafraie, Najibullah (2009). Revolutionary Ideology and Islamic Militancy: The Iranian Revolution and Interpretations of the Quran, I.B.Tauris, p. 127.</ref> in addition to more than a hundred books.<ref> Heikal, Mohamed Hassanein (1982). Iran, the untold story: an insider's account of America's Iranian adventure and its consequences for the future. Pantheon Books, p. 129.</ref><ref>Scott, Charles W. (1984). Pieces of the Game: The Human Drama of Americans Held Hostage in Iran, Peachtree Publ., p. 118.</ref>

Major works

• Hajj (The Pilgrimage)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Hubut in Kavir
• Guftuguhaye Tanha’i
• Marxism and Other Western Fallacies: An Islamic Critique
• Where Shall We Begin?<ref name= SHcom>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Mission of a Free Thinker<ref name= SHcom/>
• The Free Man and Freedom of the Man
• Extraction and Refinement of Cultural Resources
• Martyrdom (book)
• Ali
• An approach to Understanding Islam
• A Visage of Prophet Muhammad<ref name= SHcom/>
• A Glance of Tomorrow's History<ref name= SHcom/>
• Reflections of Humanity
• A Manifestation of Self-Reconstruction and Reformation
• Selection and/or Election
• Norouz, Declaration of Iranian's Livelihood, Eternity
• Expectations from the Muslim Woman
• Horr (Battle of Karbala)
• Kavir (Desert)
• Abu-Dahr
• Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism
• Jihad and Shahadat
• Reflections of a Concerned Muslim on the Plight of Oppressed People
• A Message to the Enlightened Thinkers
• Art Awaiting the Saviour
• Fatemeh is Fatemeh
• The Philosophy of Supplication
• Religion versus Religion<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Man and Islam – see chapter "Modern Man and His Prisons"
• Arise and Bear Witness<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Lessons on Islamology
• Ali is Alone
• Community and Leadership
• Religion against Religion
• We and Iqbal
• Historical Determinism
• What is to be Done?
• "The Intelligentsia's Task for Reconstruction of Society"<ref>Abrahamian (1989), p. 109.</ref>
• Ba Mukhatabhaye Ashna

Other works

• Hegel und Ali Shariati: Geschichtsphilosophische Betrachtungen im Geiste der islamischen Revolution im Iran Template:Doi
• Paradox as Decolonization: Ali Shariati's Islamic Lawgiver Template:Doi

Translation

Shariati translated many books into Persian. Besides the work of Abu Zarr mentioned above, he translated Jean-Paul Sartre's What Is Literature? and Che Guevara's Guerilla Warfare. He also began to work on the translation of Franz Fanon's A Dying Colonialism. He admired Amar Ouzegane as a major Marxist Muslim and began to translate his book Le meilleur combat (The Best Struggle).<ref>Abrahamian (1989), p. 107.</ref>

See also

• Intellectual Movements in Iran
• Islamic Marxism
• Islamic revival
• List of Islamic scholars
• Philosophy in Iran
• Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism
• Religious Intellectualism in Iran
• Jalal Al-e-Ahmad
• Hamid Algar
• Geydar Dzhemal, a modern philosopher of political Islam, revolutionist and social activist
• Abdulaziz Sachedina, a student of Shariati
• Alevi, also called Red Head Alevi Shiites.

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite encyclopedia
• Latifiyan, Ali. 1995. "Reviewing the Performance of Intellectuals from 1941 to 1979", Tehran: Imam Sadiq University
• Gheissari, Ali. 1998. Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press.

External links

• The Official WebSite of Dr Ali Shariati
• Biography and publications
• 'Ali Shari'ati: Between Marx and the Infinite' A review essay of Ali Rahnema's biography of Shari'ati with an extensive discussion on the philosopher's political significance by Nathan Coombs
• Humanity and the People Power: A Tribute to Dr. Ali Shariati by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
• 'Ali Shari'ati: Islamic Fundamentalist, Marxist Ideologist and Sufi Mystic by David Zeidan
• Critical Religious Reason: Ali Shari'ati on Religion, Philosophy and Emancipation by Abbas Manoochehri
• The forgotten revolutionary: Ali Shariati by Lawrence Reza Ershaghi
• Our Expectations of the Muslim Woman, lecture by Dr. Ali Shariati, translated into English by Laleh Bakhtiar