A Look at the Legacy of Dr. Ali Shariati

Max Weber considered modernity to be the manifestation of rationality, and indeed, modern man possesses characteristics that humanity had never achieved at any point in history. Modernity is the first destination that man reached after traversing an era of intimidation, terror, and violence, finding a moment to read, write, and think. Nevertheless, after the Great French Revolution and in the modern era, and in contention with it, theories emerged that, by magnifying its apparent side effects, turned to combat modernity. Marxism, Fascism, Nazism, Nihilism, and so forth, were all ungrateful enemies of modernity and modern reason, who, to varying degrees, deemed modernity bad and evil, and were drawn, consciously or involuntarily, into confrontation with modernity, or at least provided the grounds for the contention of their followers and the unaware masses with modernity.

In any case, Iranian intellectuals, following or imitating European designers and possessors of Cartesian reason, also engaged in promoting the concepts of modernity and building its foundations. The expansion of the concepts of modernity began in the pre-Constitutional era with secret societies and newspapers. Freedom, homeland, nationalism, rationality, and secularism were all concepts that occupied the thinking faculty of Eurocentric intellectuals—or, in Al-e Ahmad's term, Westoxified ones—such as Mirza Malkam Khan, Akhundzadeh, and Mostashar al-Dowleh, and these intellectual endeavors provided the grounds for the consolidation of the Constitutional Revolution.

Constitution-Averse Intellectuals

In the post-Constitutional era and after the formation of the modern state, however, the situation unfolded differently, and a different current took shape. This current, in contention with the thought and action of the pro-Constitution elites, has had a great impact on the reality of our country's political arena. It can be said that if the Constitutional Revolution is considered the result of modernity and the expansion of its concepts, subsequent events, however, transpired in such a way that not only did the heralds and spokespersons of this current have no affinity with Constitutional thought, but, influenced by anti-modern currents, they shook the foundations of Constitutional thought and gave a different form to the course of contemporary history. Jalal Al-e Ahmad, Ali Shariati, and several others were among this newly emerged current. Modern political thinkers state that the behaviors and actions emanating from political and ideological groups have a direct root in their perspectives, and it is impossible for ideological and political groups to lack intellectual roots and emerge from nothing. Ali Shariati is among the widely followed writers who, due to his emphasis on social action, or at least the concentration of his discourses in the realm of social action, had a great impact on contemporary history. Dr. Shariati, influenced by the post-colonial intellectual atmosphere and existentialists like Fanon, Sartre, Marx, and Islamologists such as... is a thinker who had the greatest impact on the subsequent political-ideological atmosphere, in the opposite direction of the Constitutional movement. Explaining the effective components in the formation of currents contrary to the Constitution, without examining the role and impact of the teachings of Professor Shariati, is clearly incomplete and insufficient.

Ali Shariati and Lost Secularism

A thinker once said that modernity is secular in its essence, and a secular society has religion, the church, the priest, and customs and rituals, but these do not interfere in matters of law, the rules of government, and regulations. Among the characteristics of the constitutional system was its secular nature, so much so that extensive reflections were made on its concept; nevertheless, these modern concepts were opposed by the intellectuals returning from Europe who were mesmerized by ideology. Dr. Shariati, along with fellow intellectuals like Jalal Al-e Ahmad, in the first step, clarified their position on the aforementioned concepts, which were the foundations of the constitutionalists' thought, and to eliminate secularism, which was one of the pillars of modernity, they dragged a superficial form of religion into the arena of political struggle. He articulated his purpose in employing religion as follows: "The fundamental role of Islam is the employment of religious faith in the path of revolution, and not the presentation of a political philosophy and a revolutionary culture that has emerged from the text of Islam or the Shia school... (Collected Works 27 / Rediscovering Iranian-Islamic Identity / p. 246). In this way, Iranian-Islamic civilization and our tradition of thought were set aside to summon ideology, so that there would be no obstacle in the path of ideology. In short, Ali Shariati's undeniable mastery of words and his skill in using and employing them allowed him to draw this dormant force into the struggles of the intellectuals and the very fabric of the political world in the best and most effective way.

Ali Shariati and the Mission of Religions

Generally speaking, intellectuals in underdeveloped countries utilize their history, glories, and traditional resources, spending heavily from the purse of tradition to achieve their ideological goals and rigidifying their traditional resources. Dr. Shariati is no exception to this perception. As a result of his efforts, religion takes on an ideological substance and finds an ideological form, becoming prepared for political struggles. Naturally, Shariati was indifferent to all the pluralistic aspects of religion, and in order to make religion strategic, he tried to eliminate some aspects of religion that served as a factor for soothing and consoling the people. Nevertheless, one of Shariati's followers, in the Mardomsalari newspaper {Shariati, 4 Decades After His Hegira}, says he has discovered that what Shariati meant by return was not the return existing under the thoughts of Sayyid Qutb and other Takfiri Salafis, but rather a return to the "existential self" and self-knowledge, not external and combative, but internal and mystical! Unaware that Dr. Shariati had previously clarified his position on the people of mysticism, finding them an obstacle in the path of ideologizing religion. Elsewhere, he speaks in criticism of self-cultivation, mystical asceticism, and exploring the inner world, reading this as a characteristic of the Indians, and referring to the relationship of Rumi and Shams, Hafez and the Magian Elder, and in general, religions that invite to the "self," he calls them "deviant and extremist." Collected Works/Volume 1/With Familiar Audiences, p. 89. Shariati himself, in one place, has explained his purpose in employing religion {the mission of religions} and has openly and clearly introduced his project, which is the product of the book "Alavid Shi'ism and Safavid Shi'ism," as an imitation of Marxism. He himself says: "The greatest and most urgent task, in my opinion, in the field of belief and thought, is the formulation of a complete picture of Islamic ideology so that, just as now for a Marxist... at any level, whether a factory worker or a university professor, the overall picture of the ideology and the face of his belief is clear, his duty is known, his responsibility is specified, and his class position is determined, for the young generation that is attached to Islamic belief and religion, the overall picture of his ideology is also clear, so that he knows where he is, what his direction and responsibility are, what his relationships are with the phenomena and realities of his own time, and in any case, which is his front of friends, his enemies, his opposing direction, what is in front and behind him, to his right and left." (Tawhidi Worldview, pp. 3-4) Here, following the Marxists, he sees the solution to the problem in self-consciousness and revolution, which is identical to praxis, and of course, he considers his task to be the preparation of an ideology as a view that clarifies an individual's position with his friends and enemies. In better terms, Shariati turns religion into a kind of lens through which, when an individual uses it, his connection and confrontation with various individuals and currents are definitively and certainly determined, and this matter had many consequences in our society.

Dr. Shariati and the Marxist

Dear readers are aware that Marx, in his work Capital, was the originator of the "materialist determination of history." He considered the conflict between the forces of production and the proletariat-bourgeoisie as the driver of history and thereby sought to predict world history. Such a scheme is called historical materialism.

Since Dr. Shariati had studied in the West and was familiar with the dominant intellectual climate of Western universities at the time, he presented his own theory using the package and framework of Marx's interpretation of history. He offered an interpretation of Islam and history in which war and jihad constituted its essential element and central signifier. In his interpretation of history and Islam, Ali Shariati claimed the existence of a war between two forces; he spoke of the war between the Abelians and the Cainites, the Nimrodians and the Abrahamics, the Pharaohites and the Mosaists, and so on, and in this way, by presenting an imaginative-literary and religious history, he attempted to theorize jihad.

As a result of this intellectual effort, the "concept of jihad" was transformed from a heavenly framework, which was between truth and falsehood, into a material and worldly form, taking on an antagonistic character that, in its external dimension, included the conflicts between the colonized and the colonizer, economically included the exploiter and the oppressed, and in its internal dimension included the struggle of the mujahideen against the tyrant (Taghut).

In this way, by framing history, Shariati assigned a historical function to social groups. He implicitly addressed the opponents of Pharaoh and Taghut, and of course, he also saw critics within "Stultification {idiocy}" and referred to aware jurists as "religious aristocracy and leeches of religion," and he also referred to modern intellectuals as "Westoxified," who were afflicted with self-alienation. In this manner, he gave Islam a Marxist form.

Ali Shariati in Conflict with the Constitutionalists

One of Dr. Shariati's characteristics was his anti-Westernism. His supporters and opponents testify that Shariati was incompatible with the aspects of Western civilization, and he extended this opposition from the political dimension, which was directed against British policies in the East, to Western thought and philosophy as well. This ultimately led to a theoretical war and conflict with the intellectuals of the Constitutional era, who held a favorable view of the foundations of Western civilization. Dr. Shariati, with fiery rhetoric, vented his rancor against the enlightened thinkers of the Constitutional era, summoning them to the court he had set up at Hosseiniyeh Ershad, and before the eyes of the common people who were intoxicated and mesmerized by ideology, he assailed them with the worst epithets.

Regarding Seyyed Hassan Taqizadeh, the wise enlightened thinker and Constitutionalist intellectual, he says: "... In all this land, I know no one at a rank lower than Taqizadeh who is worthy of insult, and this is a method we must learn from the Quran, for, among all those enemies and enmities, it mentions only one by name, that is Abu Lahab, who was an insider and committed treason, a kinsman who showed estrangement and enmity..." Collected Works 1 / With Familiar Audiences / p. 158. Although these words were directed at a great figure like Taqizadeh, Dr. Shariati is, in fact, settling scores here by uttering these words against the thought and ideas of the Constitutionalist enlightened thinker. The fault of the Constitutionalist enlightened thinkers was that, unlike Shariati, they were not ideologues, and their greater sin was the effort of this group in institution-building and advancing their political-cultural programs through give-and-take with the ruling power, their ability to understand the exigencies of society, and their positive view of the West. The enlightened thinkers of the Constitutional era, unlike the later leftist intellectuals, were not willing to tie their survival to the destruction of the government and resort to armed struggle.

The Contemporary Ideologue in Confrontation with Western Philosophy and Wisdom

Professor Shariati's anti-Westernism even extended to Western science and philosophy and to Aristotle, about whom he said: "The Church borrowed Aristotelian logic for its religious thought and became afflicted with intellectual stagnation; Aristotelian logic came from Greece to the Islamic world and also made Islam ossified." Islamology, p. 316. Here he identifies Greek philosophy as the cause of the Muslims' decline and, consequently, dismisses the intellectual efforts of al-Farabi and Avicenna as insignificant. Elsewhere, he contrasts the "Islam of Abu Dharr" with the "Islam of Abu Ali Sina" (Avicenna), presenting the latter as full of inertia and feebleness and the former as pure, explicit, and decisive Islam. In another place, he speaks of "ta'assub" (prejudice/fanaticism), calling it the most oppressed word of his time and naming the human being a "fanatical animal," rejecting Aristotle's philosophical definition of the human as a "rational animal." He continues: "The West concentrates its power to break down this strong barrier and impregnable fortress {meaning prejudice} around the East and to smash it with the base of pseudo-modernism and pseudo-intellectualism and free-thinking and humanism and internationalism and scientific logic and rational insight and cosmopolitan broad-mindedness and modern Sufism or the Masonic spirit and tolerance-mongering and libertinism and..." (With Familiar Audiences, p. 62)

It is evident that such deadly assaults on the intellectual pillars of modernity, the values of the Enlightenment, and the achievements of human civilization, supported by religious reveries and metaphors, naturally found staunch followers not only among Marxist militants who turned to these tapes and speeches for practical inspiration but also among academics, and played a huge part in distancing the youth from Western philosophy and wisdom.

Ali Shariati, Martyr Motahhari, and Militant Groups

Recently, a note by Ali Motahhari, representative of the tenth parliament, has been circulating in cyberspace, clearly analyzing the practical effects of Ali Shariati's writings. He believes that the Forqan group was indebted to Ali Shariati's thesis of "Islam minus the clergy." Motahhari recounts that the Forqan group, out of extreme fanaticism for Dr. Shariati's works, detonated a sound bomb in front of Mehdi Bazargan's house, precisely because Bazargan and Motahhari had criticized Ali Shariati's writings and books and, by issuing a statement, had pointed out some of his mistakes.

In the contemporary era, intellectual currents have had a great impact on the reality of our country's political arena. The author of the book Revolutionary Self-Construction was among those writers who, using imaginative historiography and employing religious metaphors, was able to greatly influence the youth. Despite the existence of scientific and religious institutions, he managed to popularize his jihadist interpretation of Islam as a true, Abu Dharr-like understanding, thereby dragging religion into political struggles. By rejecting mystical and rational interpretations of Islam and emphasizing the role of religion as a guide and perhaps a tool of struggle, Shariati likely had a great influence on Marxist groups turning to religion and the creation of pseudo-religious armed groups. In other words, by pushing aside the historicity of the religious matter and summoning the religion of the ancestors to meet the needs of struggle, Shariati achieved the construction of a pseudo-religious ideology that, according to many thinkers, directly served as a guide for the actions of armed groups.

The connection of Dr. Ali Shariati with armed parties such as the Mojahedin-e Khalq and Forqan requires a deep historical investigation, but there is no doubt that he, not explicitly but metaphorically, supported and praised the Mojahedin-e Khalq and considered them the model of committed, responsible, and Muslim intellectuals. Explaining the components effective in the formation of the culture of resistance among armed groups such as the Mojahedin-e Khalq and Forqan is clearly incomplete and insufficient without examining the role and impact of Ali Shariati's teachings.

Morteza Kazemian, in his book The Crisis of the Monarchical System, Hegemony and Authority, writes: "Shariati, who was a master at stirring the emotions of the young generation, was now (at the beginning of the 1350s) himself exhilarated by the actions of the militant guerrillas. He offered implicit and metaphorical support to both revolutionary forces (the People's Mojahedin and the Marxist Fada'iyan)" (Morteza Kazemian, 1384, p. 162). Professor Shariati once said that the main war is not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between Muslims and the oppressors. Shariati also specified that those who kill the fighters on the path of equity and justice {meaning the Marxists} are atheists, infidels, and mohareb (wagers of war against God). Shi'a (Collected Works 7), Ali, Tehran, Sahab Ketab, 1358.

In short, it must be said that Professor Shariati presented a reading of Islam that became a guide for the political action of armed groups. He transformed principles such as jihad and martyrdom, justice and Imamate with an ideological interpretation, and it can be said that he constructed a religion which, under the title of Red Shi'ism, stood in opposition to Safavid Shi'ism and the traditional clergy whom he called "the leeches of religion." The ideological scheme that Shariati presented of religion was made available to the militants in the form of small books and audio tapes, making them needless of any tedious discussion and inquiry by the traditional clergy and practically placing them in opposition to the traditional religious system and the mujtahids. Hence, Shariati's ideology practically became the chosen religion of the armed groups, and SAVAK stated in its report: "In investigations conducted on subversive individuals affiliated with the so-called People's Mojahedin group, they unanimously confessed that the written works and speeches of Dr. Shariati had a significant effect on their intellectual deviation." Shariati According to Documents, Vol. 3, Islamic Revolution Documents Center, 1378, p. 448.

Now, with four decades having passed since the intellectual life of Ali Shariati, one can judge this prolific and influential writer of contemporary history.

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An Outline of an Intellectual's Legacy

A Look at the Legacy of Dr. Ali Shariati

Author: Sadegh Gheisari, Researcher in Political Thought

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