Report by:\u00a0 Serajeddin Mirdamadi<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the initiative of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and with the cooperation of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), a three-day conference on \u201cShi\u2019ism Today\u201d opened at the CERI-Science Po centre in Paris on Monday 27 April.<\/p>\n
Dr Abdulkarim Soroush and Professor Mohammad Mojtahed-Shabestari were the two Iranian intellectuals who addressed the opening session.<\/p>\n
Speaking to them afterwards, I first asked Dr Soroush to summarize the main points of his talk, which was delivered in English.<\/p>\n
Dr Soroush replied:\u00a0 “My talk was about the challenges that Shi\u2019ism is faced with in the modern world.\u00a0 I divided these challenges into several categories:\u00a0 theological, historical, legal-jurisprudential, and political.<\/p>\n
“Regarding the legal category, I said that, although Shi\u2019i jurists do occasionally issue new fatwas now on penal matters, women\u2019s rights, etc., which seem to be progressive, since they have not been constructed on well thought-out foundations and since no new theories on law and the philosophy of law have entered our fiqh [henceforth, jurisprudence], these new fatwas will remain rootless until our jurisprudence is fundamentally reassessed and modernized.\u00a0 In other words, modern philosophical and theological tenets have to brought into our theory of jurisprudence.<\/p>\n
“Regarding politics, I said that the Islamic Revolution was, in all earnest, a revolution that lacked a theory; especially so if we compare it to the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution.\u00a0 In the Russian Revolution, the main idea was to create a classless society and, ultimately, to move towards socialism and, then, on to communism.\u00a0 And in the French Revolution, the ideas of the philosophers who had been working in the preceding centuries, were summed up in the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.\u00a0 But in Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolution, the catchphrase was simply ‘Islam’, which only had a vague meaning.\u00a0 Subsequently, we realized that this ‘Islam’ had no clearly-defined blueprint for the economy; nor had our jurisprudence developed to a point where it could tackle the problems of the modern world and govern the state and society.\u00a0 So, this, too, is a new challenge for Shi\u2019ism; especially so since, in our jurisprudence and in the jurisprudential questions that arise for us, justice, human rights and the public interest are all concepts that remain undefined.<\/p>\n
“As for the historical category, I said that Shi\u2019ism bears its own historical legacy.\u00a0 Notwithstanding the positive aspects of this legacy, one of its problematic aspects is the disproportionate emphasis that is placed on martyrdom and the events of Ashura.\u00a0 In my talk, I said that Imam Hussein was an exception in the ranks of the Shi\u2019i Imams, but he has been turned into the rule.\u00a0 One of the people who did this before the revolution was the late Dr Shariati, but it is a centuries-old practice.\u00a0 In the past, there were historical reasons for doing this.\u00a0 The Shi\u2019is were in the minority and they had to highlight the tragic aspect of their history.\u00a0 But, in the modern world, maybe there is no need for this and we should be turning to other aspects of Shi\u2019ism.<\/p>\n
“There is also the practice of ‘cursing the companions’, that is to say, speaking ill of the Prophet\u2019s companions and being disrespectful to them, which is, again, something that is practised in Shi\u2019i societies nowadays.\u00a0 Of course, it is a practice that has been prohibited by the ulema, but no one listens.\u00a0 The reason for this is that Shi\u2019is need to reassess their theory on the subject of the caliphate.”<\/p>\n
Next, I asked Professor Mohammad Mojtahed-Shabestari about his talk, which was delivered in Arabic.<\/p>\n
Mr Mojtahed-Shabestari replied:\u00a0 “What I discussed was that, so far, in the world of Shi\u2019ism – for a long time and over the course of centuries – a particular jurisprudential technique has been used for understanding the Koran and, especially, for understanding the verses of the Koran that relate to jurisprudential rulings.<\/p>\n
“I explained the mechanism of this jurisprudential technique and I also said that, when jurists realize that fundamental social changes have occurred in Muslim societies, they try to use particular methods to issue new fatwas in a way, in order to solve some of the problems that arise in modern life.\u00a0 But these new fatwas are incapable of solving many problems because they are, at any rate, trying to remain true to that same trusty jurisprudential technique that took shape among Muslims more than ten centuries ago.\u00a0 And the underlying tenet of the technique is that, for any of life\u2019s many occurrences, there is one true, divine ruling and the jurist must strive to find it. However, since experience shows that commitment to this jurisprudential method, which rests on this tenet, cannot solve modern problems, you begin to wonder:\u00a0 Can the verses of the Koran that concern transactions and politics be read in some other way?\u00a0 And I answered this question in the affirmative.\u00a0 I believe that these verses can be read in another way and I call this new reading \u201cthe moral historical reading\u201d.\u00a0 And it demands that we refer to the Koran with the aim of understanding the moral meanings and aims of these rulings, as they were formulated in the time of the Prophet in Hijaz.\u00a0 The determining factor for us today is to abide by those moral meanings and those principles, not the specific form of the rulings, because the forms are as they are in order to fulfill those moral aims in that age and in that society.<\/p>\n
“So, the main thing for us, in our age, is to abide by those moral aims, even though those aims may be achieved for us today through different laws.\u00a0 I call this reading \u201cthe moral historical reading\u201d of the Koran\u2019s verses and rulings.\u00a0 I explained what I meant by this. And, with many citations from the Koran itself, I argued that, possibly in the case of more than 90 per cent of the rulings that we find in the Koran on social matters, etc., the relevant verses contain very clear moral justifications and the rulings fall under a series of general, moral principles.\u00a0 So, if, today, Muslims or Muslim ulema judge that those moral aims can be achieved by different means, it goes without saying that there will be no need to implement those rulings in those forms.<\/p>\n
“I concluded my talk by saying there is no reason why we shouldn\u2019t read the Koran today using this moral-historical technique, and this is what I support.\u00a0 This is an important development which, if it is followed through, will open the way for Muslims to bring about correct social, political and economic changes in society.”<\/p>\n
Ayatollah Sayed Mohammad Bahr Al-Olom, one of the well-known clerics of the Najaf Seminary, was the other speaker at the conference\u2019s opening session.\u00a0 He spoke about the role and position of the Najaf school of thought.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Translated from the Persian by Nilou Mobasser<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Report by:\u00a0 Serajeddin Mirdamadi On the initiative of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and with the cooperation of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), a three-day conference on \u201cShi\u2019ism Today\u201d opened at the CERI-Science Po centre in Paris on Monday 27 April. Dr Abdulkarim Soroush and Professor Mohammad Mojtahed-Shabestari […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsoroush.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}