Shi'i Reformation in Iran: The Life and Theology of Shari'at Sangelaji

194 Pages·2016·0.738 MB·English

by  Ali Rahnema

Shi‘i RefoRmation in iRan
aShGate neW CRitiCaL thinKinG in ReLiGion, theoLoGY
anD BiBLiCaL StUDieS
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Shi‘i Reformation in iran
The Life and Theology of Shari‘at Sangelaji
aLi Rahnema
The American University of Paris, France
First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Ali Rahnema 2015
Ali Rahnema has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Rahnama, ‘Ali.
Shi‘i reformation in Iran : the life and theology of Shari‘at Sangelaji / By Ali Rahnema.
pages cm. -- (Ashgate new critical thinking in religion, theology and Biblical studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4724-3416-6 (hardcover)
1. Sangelaji, Shari‘at, 1891-1944. 2. Muslim scholars--Iran--Biography. 3.
Islamic renewal--Iran. 4. Shi‘ah--Iran. I. Title.
BP80.S317R34 2015
297.8’2092--dc23
[B]
2014043569
ISBN 9781472434166 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315609003 (ebk)
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Genealogy, Environment, Convictions, Friends and Foes 11
2 Sangelaji’s Interlocutors 33
3 Reforming Actually Practised Islam 57
4 The Primacy of the Qur’an 71
5 Challenging Reports 91
6 Reason and Islam 109
7 Popular Shi‘ism 123
8 Was Sangelaji a Wahhabi? 143
9 Sangelaji’s Legacy 167
Bibliography 177
Index 181
This page has been left blank intentionally
Preface and Acknowledgements
When I was researching on Ali Shari‘ati back in 1994, I came across the fact
that during his stay in Paris he had asked for the works of Shari‘at Sangelaji
from his relatives back home. Shari‘ati must have read some of Sangelaji’s works
in his father’s library back in Mashhad. He must have also heard of Sangelaji
from his father, Mohammad-Taqi Shari‘ati. Once the Shari‘ati project was over,
this seemingly innocuous information piqued my interest to learn more about
Sangelaji, the relatively unknown and enigmatic cleric. Who was he? Why was
Shari‘ati interested in him? What made Sangelaji different from other clergy
of his time? How different were his religious ideas from those of his clerical
contemporaries? Why was he considered as a deviant by some clergy?
The project on Sangelaji began in 1999. It was conducted in tandem with
two imaginary, almost virtual conversations. The first involved my conversations
with Shari‘ati over Sangelaji and the second involved Sangelaji and Shari‘ati on
the one hand and Mohammad-Baqir Majlesi on the other hand. Pursuing and
observing the latter conversation, based on tracing the residues of Sangelaji’s
works on Majlesi in Shari‘ati’s writings, deflected the original course of the
project, took a life of its own and turned into another independent work. Once
that was finished I returned to the incomplete original Sangelaji project in 2009
and found myself tracing the history of Islamic/Shi‘i thought of Iran, by moving
backwards in a time-machine. My focus shifted from the study of the tumultuous
years of 1933 to 1977 (Shari‘ati’s life-span) to a different kind of a stormy period,
that of 1891 to 1944 (Sangelaji’s life-span).
Shari‘ati was in his late teens when the Oil Nationalization Movement started,
while Sangelaji was in his early teens when the Iranian Constitutional Revolution
began to unfold. While the Oil Nationalization Movement had a deep impact on
politicizing Shari‘ati, the Iranian Constitutional Revolution seemed to have had
little direct effect on Sangelaji. Even if it did, its impact cannot be easily detected
in his works. Clearly, the two had different personalities and political proclivities,
even though their religious, social and human sensibilities were somewhat similar.
The more I read and re-read Sangelaji’s works and studied the writings of
others on him, the more I found his personality and ideas thought-provoking.
viii Shi‘i Reformation in Iran
It gradually became clear why he was considered as an annoyance. In the
tradition of all modernist religious reformists, irrespective of their particular
leanings, Sangelaji seemed interested in a community of liberated believers, free
of the non-Qur’anic traditional ideas and customs which prevented the faithful
from reflecting and exercising their faith as a rational belief-system, capable of
adaptation to the demands of modern times. Sangelaji’s reformism was targeted
at the transformation of the individual and the hope that social change would
spin off from the reformed individual Shi‘i. Contrary to Shari‘ati, Sangelaji
did not seem interested in whipping up revolutionary fervour, mobilizing
the dispossessed and the discontented and initiating a social movement with
the language and voice of Islam. Sangelaji was a moderate and mild reformer,
cautious about the consequences of abrupt political change, yet he remained
uncompromising in his assessment of the state of Shi‘ism during his time. It
would be fair to say that Sangelaji did, however, pave the way for the development
of many of Shari‘ati’s religious ideas.
For Sangelaji the way in which believers blindly imitated their faith and
mechanically carried out the details of their worship, according to a few towering
jurists – or experts in the reports (ahadith) – of the past, gradually dulled their
wits, precluded reflection on the real purpose and object of worship, prevented
critical thought and interposed a growing distance between believers and God.
Sangelaji was pre-occupied with the thought that monotheism and the Qur’an
were becoming eclipsed by popular rites and superstitions, adversely affecting
not only the faith of the believers, but the socio-economic development of
Iran. Sangelaji believed that he was defending Shi‘ism against a multitude of
questions and queries which during his time were unsatisfactorily responded to
by the traditional guardians of the faith, causing the mass departure of the youth
from the faith. Sangelaji’s reform project aimed at launching an in-house debate
on the state of Shi‘ism, as it had evolved and demonstrating the necessity of
change to save the faith and the convictions of the faithful. This book attempts
to shed some light on this important yet little-known Iranian reformist cleric,
his life, time, ideas and discourse.
When this book project came to an end in June 2013, I thought that in
view of Sangelaji’s anonymity it would prove difficult to publish this work.
My misgiving proved correct at first until I heard from David Shervington of
Ashgate, who encouraged me to submit the manuscript. I am grateful to him
for making this possible and to the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for
their precious comments, which I have tried to act on as much as possible. I
am also indebted to Abdollah Sangelaji, who met with me, responded to my
questions, informed me and provided me with documents and publications
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
which I would not have been able to obtain without his generosity. Finally, I
must thank Reverend Scott Herr, the Senior Pastor of the American Church in
Paris, who kindly agreed to read the introduction, comment on it and correct it.
Paris, autumn 2014