Two Hundred Sayings Are Not Worth Half a Deed

Some time ago, a critique was leveled at Hujjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Abdolhossein Khosropanah, the head of the Iranian Institute for Research in Philosophy and Wisdom, and he responded to it in an unscholarly manner on his channel in a “Q&A” format. There, instead of witnessing a critique of the critique, we witnessed a disparagement of the critic, and indeed a disparagement of many, including the faculty members of the Institute for Research in Philosophy and Wisdom; and he is well aware that “disparagement” is the method of Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, not the method of Shi‘i scholars such as Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. There, he ends his piece with the sentence, “These childish games do not disrupt (his) legal and religious duties.” If only he had not invoked religion, and had responded to the critique in a manner befitting someone who has studied philosophy and heads an institute for research in philosophy and wisdom, or at least remained silent.

“Religion” (shar‘) is a “path” (shāri‘), that is, a way that guides to the truth. The mission of the Holy Prophet of Islam was also to perfect and complete “noble traits of character,” and consequently, the very function of religion is to guide toward ethics and mysticism. Is it fair that, instead of answering the critiques, he simplistically lumps the faculty members together—who, according to Khosropanah’s own statement, are of such quality that they currently include three full professors and six associate professors—and says that they are comfort-seeking utilitarians and self-interested, and that the root of recent matters goes back to this?

In the aforementioned piece, he has highlighted his own law-abidingness and considered the law-evasion of those he simplistically calls the “opposition” to be the cause of the problems and difficulties; and of course, he is well aware of the semantic range of the word “opposition,” but has used it deliberately. From someone who holds the title “head of the Iranian Institute for Research in Philosophy and Wisdom,” something different is expected than what is expected from journalists; philosophical scrutiny elevates the precision and subtlety of one’s expression and makes one sensitive to the meaning and usage of words. But he surely remembers the following story, which is one example among many.

A faculty member, after pursuing all civil avenues—such as corresponding with him personally and meeting in person—to secure his rights and reaching no result, in the next civil action, raised his requests in a joint meeting with him as head and the faculty members. And of course, Khosropanah adopted the very same approach he has adopted today, and precisely for this reason, recalling that story seems necessary: threatening, intimidation, and swearing a solemn oath in front of the entire gathering that he would settle accounts with him; and it was here that the meeting’s attendees were startled and understood what function God has for him. He engaged in scapegoating, blamed him and others, and pressured him to apologize in front of the gathering for a fault he did not commit—though thank God that sometimes a person does not get what he wants; perhaps this may be a wake-up call for him. At that time, an incident occurred that not only all the institute’s people know about, but even the crows and beautiful pigeons of the institute remember it. He trampled law, religion, ethics, and mysticism all at once, and ordered that the Ramadan food package of that faculty member—the food package that was given to all the institute’s people, from staff to...—be cut off...

In that piece, he has made it seem as though he himself is a proponent of the law and the faculty members are opponents of the law; perhaps in this way he wants to insinuate that whoever opposes me, Khosropanah, will end up in court so that justice may be exacted from them on his behalf. But, by God, does Khosropanah believe in the law? He has certainly seen that I am disabled, but at least he remembers that I, citing the law of the Ministry of Science and attaching an image of my disability card, requested from him to benefit from its legal advantages. But his response was nothing but an insult to me and all the faculty members: “We have assumed all faculty members to be disabled,” and alas, I was deprived of enjoying even the smallest of my legal rights.

اما جهت اطلاع استاد خسروپناه عرض شود که در فرانسه، در این سرزمین سکولارها که ایشان با جدیت تمام به "نقد" سکولاریسم مشغول هستند، اگرچه هنوز کارت معلولیت اینجا را ندارم اما همین که میبینند که معلولم، مرا از بسیاری از حقوق فردی و اجتماعی معلولین، قریب نود و پنج درصد، برخوردار کرده‌اند. براستی چه چیزی به ایشان اجازه میدهد که به این راحتی، به آفریده‌های خدا توهین کند. اگرچه مرا ارادتی به "محمد" غزالی نیست، و بیشتر برادرش "احمد" را دوست دارم، اما هرگز نمیتوانم منکر عظمت روحی "محمد" شوم که آنگاه که به این نتیجه رسید که به جای کار برای دیگران، بر "خویشتن" کار کند، "نظامیه" را رها کرد و "فرار از مدرسه" پیشه کرد.

شارع شرع مبین اسلام مقدماتی لازم دارد، از جمله تعدیل مزاج، چنانکه عالمان بزرگوار اسلام و تشیع، نظیر حسن زاهد غریب کرمانی و نیز ابن ابی‌جمهور احسایی بر آن تأکید فراوان دارند. باشد که این بنده، خود، عامل به گفتار خود باشم و خداوند به من نویسنده توفیق عامل بودن بدان را عطا کند.

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دو صد گفته چون نیم کردار نیست

نویسنده: رضا کوهکن (عضو هیأت علمی مؤسسه پژوهشی حکمت و فلسفه ایران)

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