where shall we begin

8/12/2019 Where Shall We Begin

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Where Shall we Begin?

In the tradition of Abudhar, who is my mentor, whose thought, whose understanding of

Islam and Shi'ism, and whose ideals, wants, and rage I emulate, I begin my talk with thename of the God of the oppressed (mustad'afan). My topi is !ery speifi.

"ften people who do not approah issues with sientifi method and language ritii#e

me for not inluding ertain issues whih they think ha!e diret bearing on the topi of

my speeh. $ut you are well aware that one a speaker or an author hooses a partiulartopi, his sole responsibility lies in his staying within the sope of his topi, and doing his

best to pro!ide an aurate analysis or substantiation of the thesis he has put forward. %or

e&ample, when the topi is Islam with speial onentration on the harges broughtagainst it by its enemies or those who are not familiar with it, a speaker or an author who

wants to respond to those harges logially and sientifially must limit himself to the

subet matter at hand, i.e., those speifi issues to whih he has raised obetions. Suh adisussion logially should not be onerned with pro!iding an introdution to Islam in

whih e!ery onei!able Islami topi omes within the sope of the disussion. "urimaginary author laims only that, in some speifi instanes, Islam has been

misunderstood, and he sets as his goal to orret those mistakes. Should he sueed in hisendea!ors, he has performed his responsibility.

ith that in mind, the subet of my talk is a !ery speifi subet and aims to answer an

e&pliit and narrow uestion, one whih is e!er present in the minds of the masses ingeneral, and the *enlightened souls* (roshan+fekran) in partiular. hat uestion is-

here Shall e $egin his is a uni!ersal, pertinent, and fundamental uestion. It is not

a uestion that I ha!e put forward based on my own understanding or as a result of my

own ontemplation/ rather it is the uestion of our time, to whih I ha!e tried to pro!ide

an answer. hen one looks at the history of soial de!elopment in the world, oneenounters ertain historial epohs during whih numerous works were published

entitled *here Shall we $egin* or *hat Is o $e 0one* At least fi!e suh worksimmediately ome to mind. Most of them ha!e been published at the times when the

soieties of their origin were in a partiular state of soial transformation. %or e&ample,

no book with similar titles appeared during the Middle Ages. Suh uestions are raisedwhen a soiety is in the proess of e!ol!ing from one state to another. he soial

onsiene warrants that ertain steps be taken to free the soiety from the domineering

effets of the e&isting soial order and the status uo on the atual, intelletual and

religious life of its members, and to replae that order with another. he uestion ofwhere to begin, than, is a matter of 'soial strategy' and not of 'ideology.' herefore, I do

not need to talk about the nature of a dotrine a religion or a partiular sientifi theory.1ather, I want to draw attention to where one should begin in terms of strategy in oursoiety in a gi!en period of time in order to ahie!e our shared obeti!es and to protet

our !alues whih are at present subet to ultural, intelletual and soial onslaughts.

he gra!est tragedy in traditional soieties in general, and in the Muslim soieties in

partiular, is that there is a lak of ommuniation and a differene of outlook betweenthe masses and the eduated lass. 0ue to the broad e&tension of the mass media, literay,


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and eduation in the industrial ountries of the est, the masses and the intelletuals

understand eah other rather well and share a relati!ely similar outlook. In 2urope, a

uni!ersity professor an easily ommuniate with the 'uneduated' masses. 3either doesthe professor see himself as of higher stature nor do the masses treat him as an

untouhable person wrapped in a piee of ellophane.

2!en in the early history of Islami soieties, the present large gap between the

intelletuals and the masses did not e&ist. he great Muslim traditional intelligentsia, the'"+lama4inluding the urist4 onsults (fuaha), the dialetial theologians

(mutakallimun), the interpreters of the 5ur'an (mufassirun), the philosophers, and the

literalists ('"+daba)4had lose bonds with the general publi through religion. 0espiteteahing and studying in their seemingly isolated seminaries (haw#ah), they suessfully

a!oided losing touh with the people. Suh rapport between the '"+lama and the people

e&ists e!en today. he maority of our uneduated masses, who ha!e ne!er e!en heard ofa night lass or an adult ourse, an sit ne&t to the '"+lama, who ha!e ahie!ed prominent

sholarly stature, and disuss their problems. hey feel omfortable enough with the

'"+lama to disuss their needs, omplaints, their personal or family problems, and tosettle religious ta&es or to ask for bibliomany or legal opinion.

6nfortunately, under the modern ulture and eduational system, our young people are

eduated and trained inside in!inible and fortified fortresses. "ne they reenter the

soiety, they are plaed in ertain oupational and soial positions ompletely isolatedfrom the masses. In effet the new intelligentsia li!es and mo!es alongside the people,

but in a losed *golden age* of e&lusi!e irles. As a result, on the one hand, the

intelligentsia pursue life in an i!ory tower without ha!ing any understanding of their own

soiety, and, on the other hand, the uneduated masses are depri!ed of the wisdom andknowledge of the !ery same intelletuals whom the masses ha!e sponsored (albeit

indiretly) and for whose flourishing they ha!e pro!ided.

he greatest responsibility of those who wish to rebuild their soiety and bring togetherthe unintegrated, and at times, antagonisti elements of the soiety into a harmonious

whole is to bridge the gap between these two poles4the pole of theory and the pole of

pratie4and to fill this great abyss of alienation between the masses and the intelletuals.

%or any responsible enlightened soul who wants to ahie!e something, regardless of hisideologial on!ition, it is a duty to build a bridge between the beautiful, !aluable, and

the mysterious (in the mind of the masses) island of the intelletuals and the land of the

masses/ a bridge aross whih both the intelletuals and the masses an interat.1egardless of any answer to the uestion *here shall we begin* and regardless of your

agreement with my answer, we annot help but aept and agree with this fundamental

priniple- the first step is to build suh a bridge.

Impliit in the uestion *here shall we begin* there is an understanding on the part ofthe audiene and the person who poses suh a uestion that two prior uestions namely,

*ho should begin* and *%or what purpose* ha!e already been answered. "b!iously,

the uestion of where to begin is asked by those who ha!e a sense of responsibility withregard to their time and soiety and wish to do something about it. 6ndoubtedly, they are


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the enlightened souls, for only suh indi!iduals feel a soial responsibility and ha!e a

sense of soial mission. "ne who is not enlightened is not responsible either.

3ote that I stress enlightened souls and not those who ha!e obtained degrees. 2nlighteneddoes not mean *intelletual*. he latter, whih has inorretly been translated into

7ersian as enlightened (roshan+fekr), refers to a person who does mental (as opposed tomanual) work. Suh an indi!idual may or may not be an enlightened soul. 8on!ersely, a

person may not be an intelletual if he works in a fatory for e&ample4but he mayne!ertheless be an enlightened soul. he relation between the two is not that of two

interrelated onepts. 3ot e!ery intelletual is enlightened but some are and !ie !ersa.

9ery few are both. %or e&ample, Sattar :han was an enlightened man but was not anintelletual, while Allamah Muhammad 5a#!ini was an intelletual but not enlightened-

(Ali Akbar) 0ehkhoda was both. Many are neither and among these are the *honorable

and great politiians;*

ho is an enlightened soul In a nutshell, the enlightened soul is a person who is self4

onsious of his *human ondition* in his time and historial and soial setting, andwhose awareness ine!itably and neessarily gi!es him a sense of soial responsibility.

And if he happens to be eduated he may be more effeti!e and if not perhaps less so.$ut this is not a general rule, for sometimes an uneduated indi!idual may play a muh

more important role. A study of the soieties that ha!e leaped forward from the

oppressi!e olonial state to a !ery progressi!e, aware and dynami state demonstratesthat their leaders and those who assumed leadership in the re!olution and the sientifi

and soial mo!ements ha!e often been unintelletual. he soial mo!ements in Afria,


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the ommoners, who are usually the produts and also apti!es of anient traditions and

soial molds or strutures, nor do they belong to the ommunity of the sientists,

philosophers, artists, mystis, monks or lergymen, who are apti!es of abstrat oneptsand are o!erwhelmed with their own sientifi or inner e&plorations and diso!eries.

Similar to the prophets, the enlightened souls also neither belongs to the ommunity or

sientists nor to the amp of unaware and stagnant masses. hey are aware andresponsible indi!iduals whose most important obeti!e and responsibility is to bestow

the great God4gi!en gift of *self4 awareness* (khod4agahi) to the general publi. "nly

self4awareness transforms stati and orrupt masses into a dynami and reati!e antor,whih fosters great genius and gi!es rise to great leaps, whih in turn beome the

springboard for the emergene of i!ili#ation, ulture and great heroes.

8learly then, it is the enlightened soul who should begin. 3ow we should turn to the

uestion of *for what purpose* his uestion deser!es an independent inuiry. =ere, Iwill look only at one interpretation of it and let the audiene, whih is familiar with this

topi, ponders about it on its own. Although not a prophet, an enlightened soul should

play the role of the prophet for his soiety. =e should preah the all for awareness,freedom and sal!ation to the deaf and unhearing ears of the people, inflame the fire of a

new faith in their hearts, and show them the soial diretion in their stagnant soiety. his

is not a ob for the sientists, beause they ha!e a lear4ut responsibility- understanding

the status uo and diso!ering and employing the fores of nature and of man for thebetterment of the material life of the people. Sientists, tehniians, and artists pro!ide

sientifi assistane to their nations, or to the human rae, in order to help them to

impro!e their lot and be better at what *they are.* 2nlightened souls, on the other hand,teah their soiety how to *hange* and toward what diretion. hey foster a mission of

*beoming* and pa!e the way by pro!iding an answer to the uestion, *hat should we

beome*

A sientist ustifies, e&plains, and reates the onditions for produing as affluent,omfortable, strong, and leisurely life as possible. At most, he diso!ers the *fats,*

whereas an enlightened person identifies the *truth.* A sientist produes light, whih

may be utili#ed either for right or wrong obeti!es/ an enlightened person, analogous toa *tribal guide*, (ra'id) and as the !anguard of the ara!an of humanity, shows us the right

path, in!ites us to initiate a ourney, and leads us to our final destination. Sine siene is

power and enlightenment light, from time to time, the sientist ser!es the interests ofoppression and ignorane/ but the enlightened person, of neessity and by definition,

opposes tyranny and darkness.

he word *hekmat* (wisdom), whih is used in the 5ur'an and within the Islami ultural

milieu, on!eys the same meaning we ha!e attributed to enlightenment. 2!en when thereis disussion of knowledge (elm'), it does not refer to tehnial, sientifi or philosophial

learnings. It means neither irreligious knowledge* (those disiplines whih a religious

student studies, i.e., urisprudene, tradition, life of the 7rophet, the 5ur'ani

interpretation, ethis, theology et.) nor *temporal knowledge* (those disiplines whihare pursued by a soial or natural siene students i.e., physis, mediine, soiology,

literature, psyhology, history, et.). hese are olletions of speiali#ed information and


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ultural knowledge, whih are taught as partiular ourses in a speifi eduational

system. hile religious and seular knowledge an be helpful for enlightened awareness

(agahi4e4 roshanfekri), and may ser!e as !aluable tools at the disposal of the enlightenedindi!iduals, they are not *in and of themsel!es* the desired *light* or awareness. hat

kind of knowledge ('elm') whih is emphasi#ed in Islam is an awareness uniue to man, a

di!ine light and a soure of onsiousness of the soial onsiene. As the famoustradition puts it, *:nowledge is a light whih God shines in the heart of whome!er =e

desires.* It is this awakening, illuminating, guiding and responsibility4generating

knowledge whih we all the *di!ine light,* not the teahings of physis, hemistry,literature urisprudene, et. he former begets faith and responsibility of the kind the

uneduated Abudhar possessed but Ibn4Sina (A!ienna) and Molla Sadra did not. hat is

why sometimes an uneduated person emerges and energi#es life in a stati soiety and

leads it toward an obeti!e, while numerous sientists do not e!en take the first steptoward generating hanges, self4awareness and the formation of a ommon ideal, a new

faith and lo!e in the onsiene of their soiety. "n the ontrary, by utili#ing their

sientifi power, the sientists may at as fores hindering the progress of their own

national soieties as well as that of humanity. herefore, the goal of the enlightened soulsis to bestow upon their ontemporary fellow men a ommon and dynami faith and to

help auire self4awareness and formulate their ideals.

3ow, we turn to the uestion of the *how*. %irst, an important e&planation is in order.


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an enlightened indi!idual is also an eduated one, his enlightenment is not due to the

uni!ersity eduation/ rather, the indi!idual was an enlightened soul e!en before his

uni!ersity eduation.

Another misunderstanding stems from the fat that, more often than not, people think that

if a person has gone abroad and studied !arious soial, politial, ideologial andphilosophial shools of thought, and he has beome enlightened. his is not the ase.

Granted that he has studied Mar&, Sartre, 1ousseau, St. Simon, et. (i.e., the founders ofthe soial theories and the ideologies that ha!e played a onstruti!e and re!olutionary

roles in 2uropean soieties, and the soure of inspiration for 2uropean enlightened

indi!iduals of the eighteenth through the twentieth enturies), this only makes him aspeialist, analogous to his ounterparts in mediine and natural sienes. =e is a soial

sientist who an teah these shools of thought and ideologies at the uni!ersities. It does

not follow that merely beause one has studied these ideologies, he is apable of playingthe role as aepting the responsibility of being an enlightened person in his soiety. he

uni!ersity eduation of suh an indi!idual makes him a sientist and enables him to teah

where!er he goes. $ut it does not neessarily enlighten him to the point of understandingthe inner pains of his soiety or enabling him to generate self4awareness in the people or

help the masses fashion their ommon obeti!es and ideals.

In short, there is no uni!ersal prototype for being enlightened.* here are different types

of the enlightened. "ne may be an enlightened soul in $lak Afria, but the same personis not one in an Islami ommunity. "r one may be onsidered enlightened in %rane or

in post4war industrial 2urope, a genuine and honest enlightened person who has made a

differene in his own soiety, but the same person in India will not be enlightened and

may be unable to perform the role of an enlightened one there. More onretely, take>ean 7aul Sartre, whose philosophy and personality I ha!e great respet for and would

ne!er ondemn based on my ideologial on!itions. In industrial 2urope with itsad!aned apitalist system and its peuliar soial stratifiation, and where there has beenfor se!eral hundreds of years a turning away from its religious history of the Middle

Ages, Sartre an be alled an enlightened soul. ould a person who emulates Sartre's

philosophy and praties his world4!iew of e&istentialism or methods of soial andeonomi analysis4in short, who is a arbon opy of Sartre4still be onsidered enlightened

if he went to a different ountry It would depend on where suh an indi!idual went. In

%rane, Germany, 2ngland or the 6nited States he would be enlightened beause theproblems, attitudes, ideals, people, politial system, and the historial onditions are

similar. he estern soieties in general are in need of a *Sartrean* re!olution. hus,

Sartre or those who emulate his philosophy are enlightened only in the est where man

has beome the !itim of onsumerism and where all human dimensions and potentialsha!e beome restrited and limited by the prodution of goods, e&ess in onsumption

and the freedom of se&. It is thus in need of a sa!ior who will free it from this hedonisti

lust of onsumerism- Sartre is suh an enlightened sa!ior.

a!ing a Sartre4like sa!ior in Asia, Afria or


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or a follower of Sartre's philosophy would not be enlightened. In pratie, his well4

intentioned sarifie would translate into disser!ie. "nly the ontemporary post4

Medie!al industrial soieties fae a philosophial impasse/ hene they are in searh ofsome kind of e&planation of their being and in need of spirituality, or a religious

mystiism to break their onfined and restrited materialisti world !iew. A estern

enlightened person is one who, understanding the situation, feels the urgeny to pro!ideappropriate slogans, obeti!es, and diretions for his people in promoting a moralisti,

monasti, and anti4onsumeristi life4style. Suh a person should adopt Indian spirituality

and philosophy of illumination, and e!en rebel against automationism and 8artesianrationalism.

3ow, imagine a follower of Sartre in India. =is words and deeds would in!ite the

po!erty4striken people of India to stop onsumer4 ism, do away with the material things

they possess and diret their attention to their inner spiritual instints and needs. %or thepeople who are being eliminated by famine and hunger, and whose religion or

philosophial outlook alls upon them to retreat from the material world, suh propheies

are nothing but tragi omedy. "ne may also see the atual ases in our own soiety. Apreaher may be an e&ellent ommuniator in the ehran region but not so in other

regions. Sometime ago, I heard of a preaher from a small town who, emulating a

suessful preaher in ehran, deli!ered the latter's sermon word by word. =e repeated,

*


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follow $aon's footsteps and say that siene should fous solely on eonomi and

material prodution and that human potential should be used to promote onsumerism

and generate more power are not enlightened at all. Although they propagate and e&erise$aonian philosophy, they are at best sientists in the ser!ie of the status uo. he

reason is that times ha!e hanged, needs are different and ontemporary problems and

rises are suh that any sa!ior in 2urope today must begin from a different angle and takea different approah.

hird orld ountries, and partiularly Islami soieties, ha!e witnessed mistakes and

de!iations ommitted by the so4alled enlightened thinkers. An unfortunate de!elopment,

whih I all the history of *onfusing the issues* (awadi gereftanha) onstitutes the storyof the fundamental errors ommitted by the eduated Muslims as well as those of other

2astern soieties,


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where men and women would interat freely. It appeared that he was proeting his

failure in his lo!e life on the soiety as a whole.

2!en today there are thinkers and authors who try to on!ine parents and youngsters thatthe ause of the misery in Islami soieties lies in se&ual restritions. If these barriers are

remo!ed and men and women interat freely hey argue, 2astern soieties will be freefrom all miseries. 3ote how deep the tragedy is and how the attentions of the young

generation is direted to this. hile parents resist and the young generation insists on thisissue, the soiety is afflited with se&ual wars. 7arents onsider se&ual freedom the root

of all misery, while their sons and daughters see it as the ause of sal!ation, progress,

i!ili#ation, independene and freedom It is assumed that these *ahie!ements* strikeserious blows to olonial4 ism; In reality the war of se&ual freedom, whih suddenly has

assumed paramount importane in Afria, Asia, and espeially in the Islami soieties, is

a sham to pre!ent the ourrene of the war that ought to be taking plae, the anti4olonialist war. his war of se&ual freedom is waged in order to pre!ent the waging of a

struggle, whih would be dangerous to the powers that be in the world. Se&ual freedom is

used as a substitute for the other kinds of freedom by di!erting the attention of the younggeneration and disouraging them from thinking about and pursuing eonomi or

politial free4 dom.

Se&ual freedom is indeed freedom of the *bottom* in plae of the freedom of the *top*

(head). In Afrian and Asian ountries, this kind of freedom has been ahie!ed, but soialproblems remain unresol!ed. he effet is felt in the osmetis industry where, from

?@ to ?@B, osmeti onsumption inreased fi!e hundred fold. $ut why he answer

lies in the fat that after a youngster goes to shooled reads books, enhanes her

knowledge, and auires a degree of soial and human awareness and an understandingof the responsibilities of ontemporary man4and ust at the time when human ideals begin

to blossom in her mind her intelletual de!elopment is stopped find her ideals are alldireted toward the *bottom* only. =er energy is wasted in deli!ering talks on or writingartiles about se&ual freedom. A group who also has only se& to worry about then

emerges in the other side of the issue to oppose her. he result is that the soiety may

waste ten or e!en twenty years.

Another e&ample is related to the 7ersian alphabet. 0uring the peak of the Iranianpolitial struggle in Iran, ?@C?4?@D, a group of intelletuals propagated the following-

*" people of Asia, " Muslims, " Iranians, and " you who feel bakward, deadent,

miserable, hungry, and sik, beware that first you ha!e to understand the root ause ofyour misery;* $ut what did they onsider to be the root ause he answer was the

7ersian alphabet; heir main obetion was that the spelling of ertain words is onfusing

and time onsuming. Is our time so preisely alloated that spending a little time inwriting ould bring suh disastrous results I am not saying that the 7ersian alphabet is

flawless. hat I am saying is that to onsider the flaws in the alphabet as the root of our

misery and bakwardness would be like attributing the illiteray of our population to the

potholes in the streets. his does not mean that potholes should be tolerated, but it meansthat our intelletuals ha!e wasted their energies on the wrong subets and *onfused the

issues.* $esides, suppose we did hange our alphabet, then we might beome another


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urkey. Is urkey in a better ondition than we are Are we too far behind urkey And,

supposing we are; Is it beause of our alphabet In short, if the alphabets were the ause

of bakwardness, >apan and 8hina should be the most bakward ountries in the world.

Someone e!en suggested that, if it is not the root of all our problems, our alphabet is at

least the root ause of illiteray in Iran. I argue that illiteray is aused by those who ha!ea !ested interest in keeping the people illiterate. here are languages with more than a

thousand haraters but that has not been an obstale in the way of literay. ake thee&ample of Islami history during the third through the ninth enturies when Islam ruled

o!er Spain. Illiteray was uprooted altogether. hus, those who blame the omple&ity of

an alphabet for their misery are trying to di!ert the attention of the people from the realause, i.e., those who benefit from illiteray.

Another e&ample was the problem of *bookburning,* an issue whih afflited our soiety

for some time. here were intelletuals who used to argue that none of our miseries were

aused by feudalism, e&ternal onditions or internal degeneration/ rather, they were

aused by the ways in whih poets desribed their mistresses. hey reasoned that ourpoets', partiularly =afe#'s, desriptions of their feelings had led our soiety toward

nonhalane, lyris, poetry and literature. o remedy this, these people and theirfollowers ongregated one a week and burned seleted books in a eremony

aompanied with speehes, e&itement and fanfare. It is not my aim to defend Iranian

traditional poetry. My intention is to point out that this issue was brought to the fore as away of setting a false diretion so that the real auses of the problems in Iran would be

pushed into obli!ion. he best opportunities and the best talents were wasted on

defending or ondemning bookburning, while the real riminal li!ed in peae and

seurity.

"ne, someone asked my opinion about Mr. :asra!i. In my answer I told him that I ha!ea thesis. I do not disuss the ontent of these people's ideas. I do not ask whether

:asra!i's ritiism of the si&th Shia Imam, >a'far Sadi, of Shi'ism, of Islam and itshistory and literature is !alid or not. I e!en assume they are !alid. he uestion is that,

gi!en the partiular historial epoh in our soiety ?@C?4?@C@, and gi!en the deep impat

of :asra!i's works on our youth, were his words warranted and were the topis he raised

of the most pressing and the most fundamental issues hy was it that during thatpartiular time, (after ?@C@), all attaks were direted against religious materials and

=afe#'s paramour, identifying them as the most tragi problems faing our soiety, but no

mention was made, for e&ample, of the Anglo4lranian "il 8ompany 0uring thisrelati!ely demorati era, what was the most pressing and fundamental issue to raise

as it identifying =afe# as the root of all Iran's misery, or was it elaborating on the

eonomi, politial and olonial onditions whih pre!ailed in the world heopportunity to analy#e politial and eonomi problems does not present itself often.

A general priniple may be dedued from the abo!e disussion. In aademi settings

debate on sientifi, philosophial, tehnial and e!en artisti issues affords the lu&ury of

logial e!aluation and re!ision. 2!eryone may e&press his partiular opinion, but the!iew, whih is substantiated by e&perimentation and stands the test of sientifi laws, will


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pre!ail and be aknowledged. %or theories on soial issues, howe!er, logial onsisteny

does not suffie. he onte&t of the argument or the thesis should be taken into aount.

A !alid and true statement e&pressed at an improper time and plae will be futile.8on!ersely, an unsubstantiated argument may be of signifiant onseuene in a

partiular atmosphere. %or e&ample, during the reent struggles in Afria, the Afrian

leaders and the enlightened persons relied on muh mass folklore in order to ahie!e theirgoals. hey apitali#ed on the popular notion that if one strikes one's enemy but only

inures him, the enemy's soul would get re!enge and kill the person who had struk him.

3aturally, to a!oid the re!enge of enemy souls, an Afrian would try his best to kill theenemy. his belief ertainly laks sientifi basis and is logially *false*/ yet, in the

Afrian struggle against olonialism, the enlightened persons utili#ed it as an effeti!e

weapon. Another e&ample is nationalism. It played a !ery positi!e role in 2uropean

ountries toward the end of the Middle Ages, but now it plays the opposite role in Afria.here, nationalism is like a dagger whih, in the fae of olonialism, hops up $lak

Afria, a ontinent whih faes a ommon destiny and thus should be united. In ontrast,

towards the end of the Middle Ages, nationalism emanipated 2uropean soiety from the

yoke of the 7opes who had used 8hristianity to dominate 2urope.

In Algeria in the ?@Es, in order to di!ide and frationali#e the people and in turn to

inflit a great disaster in 3orth Afria, the olonial powers propagated the progressi!e

!iews of thinkers suh as 1ousseau, 9oltaire, and Morris 0ubare, whih are sientifiand emphasi#e nationalism. he entral thesis of nationalism that eah nation should

ha!e its own state was used to di!ide the Arabs and $erbers, who had until then been

united by their belief in Islam4 thus they beame !itims of %renh olonialism. 3ow, inplae of fighting the ommon enemy, Arab and $erber nationalists were faing and

fighting one another. In short, when presented with a soial theory, before e!aluating its

positi!e or negati!e ontribution, one should understand the onte&t and onseuenes of

its presentation. Another e&ample in my disussion is what I all *false bonds* or *fakeommon denominators.* >ust as it is possible to reate animosity between two related

groups, it is eually possible to establish spurious or false links between two enemies.

his is a tati, whih has been used in Afria,


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uestions I am raising here are those of by whom, for what purpose, and at what time this

sared truth is being utili#ed. Are 2ast and est and the oloni#ed and the oloni#er the

members of the same amp

1eferring to a partiular nation, when used in the wrong plae, nationalism ser!es as a

amouflage, a way of establishing an artifiial blood4based unity and relationship, butonly by and for those who do not truly belie!e in this idea, in order to suk the blood of

the people under the banner of nationalism. Ironially, suh a relationship really is basedon blood beause, after all, the blood of a leeh is the same as that of its !itim.

6nder the disguise of the e&istene of ommon religious on!ition and rituals, religion

has also been used to reate a false and spurious relationship between the e&ploited andthe e&ploiter. 1eligious rituals, slogans, and false indotrination are easily misused for

the attainment of this purpose. As a result, people who in atuality should be enemies are

linked together with the false presumption of *religious brotherhood.*

=a!ing said all this, the greatest responsibility of the enlightened soul is to identify thereal auses of the bakwardness of his soiety and diso!er the real ause of the

stagnation and degeneration of the people of his en!ironment. Moreo!er, he should

eduate his slumbering and ignorant soiety as to the basi reasons for its ominous

historial and soial destiny. hen, based on the resoures, responsibilities, needs andsuffering of his soiety, he should identify the rational solutions, whih would enable his

people to emanipate themsel!es from the status uo. $ased on appropriate utili#ation of

the resoures of his soiety and an aurate diagnoses of its suffering, an enlightenedperson should try to find out the true ausal relation4 ships between misery, soial illness

and abnormalities, and the !arious internal and e&ternal fators. %inally, an enlightened

person would transfer this understanding beyond the limited group of his olleagues to

the soiety as a whole.

8ontemporary *intelletuals* generally belie!e that dialetial ontraditions at work in

any soiety, of neessity mo!e the soiety forward toward freedom and re!olution, and

gi!e birth to a new state of being. Aording to this logi, mere *po!erty* or *lassdifferenes,* whih symboli#e the e&istene of soial onflits, ine!itably lead to a

dialetial ontradition. hih in turn reates motion in the soiety. In reality, howe!er,

this is not more than a big illusion. 3o soiety will be mobili#ed and obtain its freedommerely beause of the e&istene of lass differene or tragi disparity between rih and

poor. 7o!erty and lass onflit may e&ist in a soiety for thousands of years without

ausing any strutural transformation. 0ialeti has no intrinsi motion.

8onsidering that motion in any gi!en soiety is the produt of transformation of thesoial onflit from within the soiety into the onsiene of its members, the

responsibility of the enlightened person is ob!ious. $riefly, it is ''to transfer the

shortomings and abnormalities of his soiety into the mind and onsiene of themembers of that soiety.* hen, the soiety will take it from there. Another definition of

the enlightened person is that he is one who is aware of the e&isting soial onflits and

their real auses, who knows the needs of his age and his generation, who aepts


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responsibility for pro!iding solutions as to how his soiety an be emanipated, who

helps his soiety to shape and define its olleti!e goals and obeti!es and, finally, who

takes part in mobili#ing and eduating his stati ignorant soiety. In a word, aontemporary enlightened person should ontinue in the path of the prophets. =is mission

is to *guide* and work for ustie, his language is ompatible with his time, and his

proposed solutions onform to ultural !alues of his Speify.

herefore, *here shall we begin* is an irrele!ant uestion. "ne should ask, *hereshall we begin in our soiety* "ur greatest and most pressing responsibility is to see,

historially speaking, where the Muslim soiety is. 0o Muslims li!e under the same

onditions as those of twentieth entury 2urope, and is it thus possible for 2uropeansolutions, ideologies and writers to be useful 0o Muslims li!e in an industrial age, and

so e&periene the same problems as those of industrial soieties =a!e Muslim soieties

reahed the modern bourgeois era =a!e they passed the era of the rule of religion Arethey e&periening some kind of religious reform; Are Muslims li!ing under the same

onditions as were the 2uropeans during the 1enaissane or during the %renh

1e!olution =ow does one harateri#e Muslim ulture "ne the historial onditionand the ulture of the soiety are understood, both the enlightened and the general publi

will know what their responsibilities and duties are.

=istorially speaking, the present ondition of Muslims, as om4 pared to that of the

est, is where the latter was at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the1enaissane. Similar to that time, Muslims are in a period of soial and intelletual

transformation. 2onomially, the dominant system in the Islami soieties is an

*agriultural market* or the intermediate bourgeoisie. In other words, the largest and the

basi foundation of the eonomy is agriultural prodution and not urban4marketeonomy and bourgeois apitalism, as ommonly understood. he reason is that

2uropean bourgeoisie, whih ontributed greatly to the %renh 1e!olution, wasompletely different from that of the present Iranian or other Islami soieties. hebourgeoisie in the Islami Soieties inludes the ba#aar merhants and not the modern

industrial and banking apitalists. o be more e&at, the ba#aar merhants lak the !igor

and dynamism of the modern bourgeoisie. hey only at as a mediator between theagriultural setor and the onsumer. here is, no doubt, a newly e!ol!ing bourgeoisie

resembling that of eighteenth entury 2urope, but it has not had the same influene that

the latter had. he new bourgeoisie in Iran has replaed the old shops with modern ones,only to beome a middleman in spreading estern ulture in these traditional soieties.

6nlike its ounterpart in eighteenth entury 2urope, whih prompted urban prodution at

the e&pense of rural prodution, the Iranian bourgeoisie has only enhaned urban

onsumption without ontributing to urban prodution. "f ourse, there are indi!idualswho ha!e begun urban prodution, but they are simply sattered enterprises, whih

annot be alled a national modern bourgeoisie.

e also need to know our *ultural ta&onomy.* %or e&ample Greee has a philosophial

ulture, 1ome a militaristi and artisti one, India a spiritualisti one/ and our soietiesha!e a religious and Islami ulture by *ultural ta&onomy*. I mean the pre!alent spirit

that go!erns the body of knowledge, harateristis, feelings, traditions, outlooks and


14/19

ideals of the people of any gi!en soiety. he ommon spirit, whih onnets the said

harateristis of the soiety and gi!es meaning to them is ulture by whih people

breathe, get nourishment and grow. As suh, to know the ulture of a soiety is to knowits inner truth, its inner sensiti!ities and its inner feelings. %or instane, it is hardly

possible to laim that one knows the Greek ulture without ha!ing a philosophial

understanding and knowledge. Similarly, one annot laim to be an e&pert in Indiansoiology without knowing $uddhism and 9edanta. It is also unaeptable for one to

laim to be an enlightened person without ha!ing a profound knowledge of and a

presene in the onsiene of the masses of his soiety. %or instane, if one is anenlightened Indian, he must ha!e omplete knowledge of 9edanta and $uddhism. Indian

ulture being 9edi, a modern estern eduated soiologist has !ery little rele!ane in

India. A Gandhi, beause he knew his soiety and the mind of his fellow Indians, ould

mo!e the soiety far greater than others ould. he same is true of an enlightenedMuslim. =e must know that the Islami spirit dominates his ulture and that the historial

proesses of his soiety, as well as its moral odes, ha!e all been shaped by Islam. o fail

to understand this, as the maority of our *intelletuals* ha!e, limits and restrits a person

to his own irrele!ant atmosphere. Also, sine generally suh an indi!idual has noreligious belief and beha!es within the bounds of his 2uropean eduational bakground

and e&periene, he fails to establish any relationship with his own people. 8on!ersely, heis ne!er aepted in the ommunity.

%ran# %anon, whom I knew personally and whose books I translated into 7ersian, was

pessimisti about the positi!e ontribution of religion to soial mo!ement. =e had, in fat

an anti4religious attitude until I on!ined him that in some soieties where religion playsan important role in the ulture, religion an, through its resoures and psyhologial

effets, help the enlightened person to lead his soiety toward the same destination

toward whih %anon was taking his own through non4religious means. I added further

that %anon's anti4 religious feeling stemmed from the uniue religious e&periene of2urope in the Middle Ages and the ensuing freedom of 2uropean soiety in the fifteenth

and si&teenth enturies. "ne annot e&tend this e&periene to the Islami world, beause

the ulture of an Islami soiety and the tradition whih has shaped that soiety is utterlydifferent from the spirit whih under the name of religion ruled 2urope in the Middle

Ages.


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alamities. =e may then in!ite his soiety to aept an ideology ompatible with

nineteenth entury German industrial soiety, thereby playing a de!iant role in his

soiety. Suh an *intelletual* will frighten the masses by alienating them from theeduated lass, whih in turn will fore them to take refuge with the reationary, de!iant

and olonial lement in order to esape the anti4religious eduated group. his may, in

fat, be the entral ause of the estrangement of the intelletuals from the masses inIslami soieties. A stritly formal and proper intelletual has no plae among the masses

and annot ommuniate with them. It is as though they share no ommon language or

ulture.

An enlightened person should be aware that the de!iant and reationary elements whihha!e always been against the masses and ha!e always played with their destiny and

e&ploited them4 misuse religion as an effeti!e weapon to di!ert the feelings and the

attention of the masses from their present affairs and make them think about pastproblems only. hey di!ert people's attention from the present as well as the atual and

material problems while, in the name of religion keeping the people preoupied with the

afterlife as well as abstrat and subeti!e issues, so that Muslims are pre!ented fromstri!ing for a omfortable, affluent, and free life, 2!en their ideals and thinking regarding

these matters are foused on the hereafter. As a result religion, whih had been the

greatest soure of energy and aspiration and the guide to a meaningful life on earth,

beomes distorted to suh an e&tent that the eyes, ears and hearts of its followers arefoused on the hereafter. 7aying attention to life on this earth is onsidered a soure of

orruption while mystiism and eshatology are greatly enouraged.

Most ontemporary enlightened indi!iduals are aware and feel these issues, but their

appreiation is not deep enough to draw the right onlusion. hey think that religionFi.e., Islam plays a negati!e role in the soiety by ausing the masses to neglet their

atual and material li!es. Sereti!e and reationary elements along with in!isible foreignhands take ad!antage of this erroneous onlusion and use this ruial fore against boththe masses and the enlightened alike. An enlightened Muslim should a!oid imitation and

superfiial understanding of soial problems, and appreiate the fat that the orrupt role

whih, at present religion plays among the masses has no relationship to the true Islamiulture and religion whih onstitute the philosophial foundation of his soiety. More4

o!er, the anti4religious e&periene of 8hristianity in the Middle Ages annot be e&tended

to the Islami world, whether its past or its present. An enlightened person in an Islamisoiety, regardless of his own ideologial on!itions, must, of neessity, be an

Islamologist. =a!ing understood Islam, he will in astonishment reali#e the gra!e and

disastrous waste of the intellets and the efforts of the people due to *wrong start,*

misunderstanding, irrele!ant appreiation and irrational onnetions.

he tragedy Fin Iran is that, on the one hand, those who ha!e ontrolled our religion o!er

the past two enturies ha!e transformed it into its present stati form and, on the other

hand, our enlightened people who understand the present age and the needs of our

generation and time, do not understand religion. As a result, our Islami soiety, despiteIslam with its rih ulture and history whih would ha!e otherwise enabled it to

emanipate itself, ould not auire the religious awareness neessary for its sal!ation.


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he intelletuals erroneously fought Islam and the reationaries used it to naroti#e the

masses and to ma&imi#e their own gains. Meanwhile, true Islam remains unknown and

inarerated in the depths of history. he masses buried in their own stati and restritedtraditions. and the intelletuals isolated from the masses and disliked by them.

estern and 2astern *intelletuals* know that, in priniple 8atholiism, $uddhism,9edaism and aoism are indi!idualisti shools of thought, whih di!ert people's

feelings from this life. ith its atual and obeti!e issues, to the hereafter and otherabstrat and subeti!e onerns. %urthermore they reali#e that their task is to bestow

upon their soieties power, responsibility and obeti!ity. hat they do not reogni#e,

howe!er is that our religious ulture4 partiularly Shi'ism, whih is a uniueinterpretation of Islam4is ompletely the antithesis of those shools of thought and

religions. he enlightened person who sees that the present ondition of Muslims

resembles that of 8hristians in the Middle Ages ommits the error of fighting Islam, ustas the nineteenth entury intelletuals fought 8hristianity. he reationaries referred to

earlier ha!e aused this onfusion.

hat was an enlightened 8hristian, a 7rotestant, doing during the si&teenth through the

eighteenth enturies =e was pointing out that by ignoring and negleting the progressi!eelements of 8hristianity, the established hurh and priesthood had aused malie and

misery. Moreo!er, they had enouraged monastiism, intro!ersion, indi!idualism and

metaphysial beliefs and prayers. hus, the enlightened knew that, in order to implementreligious reform and 8hristian 7rotestantism, he should re!itali#e and re!i!e the

awakening and moti!ating elements of his religion. In Islam, howe!er, suh is not the

ase. Islam has ne!er ignored the progressi!e, awakening and moti!ating elements. In a

!ery lear manner, the two slogans of *blood and sword* and *leadership and ustie,*whih embody all the rele!ant dimensions of the proess of generating mo!ement and

awareness, ha!e been adopted as the symboli essene of Shi'ism. hese slogans ha!eendured in Islami history. Indeed, of all aspets of Islami ideology and ulture, peoplepreser!e must dearly the uprising of =ussein. It is his martyrdom that they mourn and

ommemorate yearly. "n the other hand, the 7rophet of Islam and other religious leaders

ha!e always in!ited people to wage struggle (ihad). Het, in atuality, one sees littleeffet. hy he reason is that although slogans are authenti and genuine, their

interpretation has been negati!e. he form has been kept intat but the ontent has been

distorted. It is as though a benumbing mehanism is at work to transform the rage of=ussein's blood to mourning tears. o be sure :arbala is not forgotten, but the sword of

Islam is. he sword is now used only for beating oneself on the days of mourning.

An enlightened Muslim, thus, should not be easily deei!ed. =e should be fully aware of

the fat that he has a uniue ulture whih is neither totally spiritual, as is the Indianulture nor totally mystial, as is the 8hinese, nor ompletely philosophial, as is the

Greek, and nor entirely materialisti and tehnologial, as is the estern ulture =is is a

mi&ture of faith, idealism and spirituality and yet full of life and energy with a dominant

spirit of euality and ustie, the ideology that Islami soieties and other traditionalsoieties of the 2ast are in desperate need of. herefore, instead of being a translator of

the works of foreign authors4whih are useless to the masses anyway4 a Muslim


17/19

enlightened person should engage himself in diso!ering, e&trating, and refining the life

gi!ing and powerful spirit of his soiety. =e e&ists in the onte&t of a dynami ulture

and soiety as well as in the onsiene of his people.

"ne harateristi of this spirit is that, unlike other religions, whih ustify po!erty, Islam

ondemns it. A great student of Islam, Abudhar, says, *hen po!erty enters a home,religion e&its from the window.* he prophet of Islam and the founder of that religion

delared- *hoe!er is not able to pro!ide for himself will not ha!e a good life in thehereafter.* hese are ontrary to the ontemporary understanding of Islam whih laims

that *one who is aught in po!erty and misery has a leaner and humbler heart and is,

thus, more amenable to reei!e unseen inspirations.* An empty stomah laks e!erything.A soiety, whih has eonomi problems also, laks spiritual wealth. hate!er is alled

ethis in a poor ountry is nothing but de!iant ustoms and habits, not spirituality.

"ne way that the dynami aspets of Islami ulture an be understood is through

omparing Imam Ali's way of life with that of the 7ope. hen Ali assumed power he

ordered all e&isting pay sales to be aneled, and began paying eual salaries toe!eryone whether the highest ranking military offier, who was at the same time an

important soial and politial figure in the soiety, or the sla!e of the same offier. Isthere any go!ernment in the ontemporary world whih is ommitted to the priniple of

euality as muh Is there any ontemporary soialist system, whih would be ready to

implement suh a measure e ought to state and e&press the outlook, the obeti!es andthe inlinations that make up Islam and tell the enlightened persons that, in the onte&t of

their soiety and ulture, in order to be able to obtain mutual understanding with the

masses and in order not to be separated from the masses not only must they rely on

religion (i.e., Islam) but also honestly belie!e that the elements of this religion do notin!ite people to think of the past instead of the present. hese elements are based on

onstant stri!ing (ihad) and ustie ('A+dalat). Islam pays attention to bread, itseshatology is based on ati!e life in the world, its God respets human dignity and itsmessenger is armed.

A+dalat is not simply a religious priniple but the spirit that go!erns all aspets of Islam,

and is onsidered the !ery obeti!e for whih all the prophets were sent. "ne day Imam

Ali noted that Maytham, one of his ompanions, had di!ided the dates that he was sellinginto two different 8ategories and was selling them at two different pries. =e angrily

reminded Maytham that he was not allowed to ategori#e God's people into different

lasses by di!iding the fruits into !arious types. hen, he mi&ed the dates with his ownhands and ordered Maytham to sell them for one prie to e!eryone. "r, note the praties

of Abudhar as ompared with those of St. 7aul. If one passes idential udgments about

the two. It is not enlightenment but in fat the e&erise of absolute ignorane and inustieAbudhar, who de!oted all his life to the struggle against e&ploitation and e!entually died

in the proess annot be ompared with St. 7aul, who laimed that *the temples of God

are built upon hunger,* and that *hunger is aompanied by inspiration.*

A philosopher or a historian an study religion any way he wishes. An enlightenedperson, howe!er, is not allowed to onsider religion, either sientifially or subeti!ely,


18/19

as an absolute phenomenon. 2!ery enlightened person must find out for himself what the

soial role of his religion is. his is e&tremely important beause the mistake of an

enlightened person is not similar to that of an ordinary writer it is the mistake of a soialleader, of a soial sa!ior, of an heir to the prophet of Islam as well as other prophets in

the history of mankind.

ustie and


19/19

4ransform the e&isting soial and lass onflits into onsious awareness of soial

responsibility, by using artisti, literary and speaking abilities and power as well as other

possibilities at hand.

D4$ridge the e!er4widening gap between the *island of the enlightened person* and the

*shore of the masses* by establishing kinship links and understanding between them, thusputting the religion, whih ame about to re!i!e and generate mo!ement, at the ser!ie of

the people.

C4Make the weapon of religion inaessible to those who ha!e undeser!edly armed

themsel!es with it and whose purpose is to use religion for personal reasons, thereby

auiring the neessary energy to moti!ate people.

4

where shall we begin

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