Revkha
08-07-2003, 02:49 PM
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pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1060230921653
Aug. 7, 2003
The Jerusalem Post
Where Islam can return to itself, By Amir Taheri
Just a few months ago Najaf, the main center of Shi'ite Islam, resembled a ghost town. Rows of houses remained empty, their former inhabitants either in exile or in Saddam Hussein's prisons.
The city's dozen or so "inns" miserable places where guests had to struggle with heat, dust and bugs to manage a couple of hours of sleep were as quiet as the nearby graveyard, arguably the largest in the world.
Now, however, Najaf is experiencing a mini-boom in religious tourism. Real estate prices are rising and empty houses are being let at unexpectedly high rentals. Thousands of pilgrims are streaming into the city from all over Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and even Central Asia. For the first time in three decades the city, where Ali Ibn Abitalib, the first imam of Shi'ism, is buried, is open to believers from all over the world.
In the past three months an estimated 1,000 Iraqi clerics and students of theology have returned to Najaf, often after years of exile in Iran and other countries from Australia to Canada.
"Najaf is a unique magnet," says Ayatollah Mahmoud Tabatabi. "It is here that major issues of Shi'ism have been decided for over 12 centuries."
It is, perhaps, for that reason that a growing number of Iranian mullahs and students of theology are also coming to Najaf, not only to escape the "suffocating atmosphere" created by the ruling mullahs in Teheran but to reopen the debate on the relationship between the mosque and the state.
"We decided to move to Najaf because there we can debate and discuss all matters in full freedom," says Ayatollah Hassan Aminian, an Iranian theologian who until recently lived and taught in Qom. "Shi'ism has always welcomed a plurality of views. Under the present Iranian regime, however, only the official view is allowed."
Several Qom clerics who have had their seminaries shut down by the Teheran authorities plan to transfer to Najaf, where no restriction on theological work is in place.
"It may sound ironic," says Ayatollah Hussein Sadr, "but the presence of American troops in Iraq could help Shi'ism regain the freedom it lost under despotic regimes in Baghdad and Teheran."
Among the mullahs who have decided to emigrate to Najaf from Qom is Hojat al-Islam Hassan Mussavi Khomeini, a grandson of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in Iran.
"My grandfather, God forgive him, was wrong," says Khomeini. "Shi'ism is not about mullahs ruling, it is about mullahs offering the largest possible number of different opinions on all issues and helping society choose the best."
Hassan Khomeini, now 45, is no stranger to Najaf. He spent 14 years in the city with his father and grandfather before returning to Iran in 1979. Hassan's father, Mostafa, died in Najaf and is buried there. Hassan has been offered many posts in the current Iranian regime, but has refused them all.
"Mixing politics with religion always leads to despotism," he says. "And in the end it is religion that will be the loser."
SO ANGRY is Hassan Khomeini with Teheran's ruling mullahs that he says he would not mind if Iran was "liberated" from their rule even with American military intervention.
"I am transferring to Najaf because I know the Americans will not interfere in my work as a theologian," Khomeini says.
Because Khomeini is not senior enough as a mullah his dramatic departure from Iran is unlikely to make many lasting ripples. But it could signal the beginning of a broader movement that could see some of the highest-ranking grand ayatollahs take the same route out of Iran.
Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the most senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, has already sent invitations to Grand Ayatollahs Hassan Qomi-Tabatabai and Hussein Ali Montazeri in Iran to visit him in Najaf. A gathering of grand ayatollahs in Najaf could become a formidable challenge to the increasingly beleaguered mullahrchy in Teheran.
What happens in Najaf in the coming months and years would not only impact developments in Iraq and Iran, where Shi'ites form a majority of the population, but could also affect the current "civil war of ideas" that is raging in the world of Islam.
When it comes to existential Islam how the faith is lived the main difference between Shi'ism and Sunnism is about the role human reason plays in shaping the ethics and politics of society.
The Shi'ites believe that human reason aql must be regarded as superior to tradition or naql. Religious texts are seen as the point of departure in any reasoning, not the sole authority. Evolving a position based on the texts but going beyond them through reasoning is known as ijtihad, which, loosely translated, means "striving to reach the truth."
In practice, ijtihad allows for a supermarket of ideas to flourish. No cleric could overrule others. And ideas propagated by dead men die with them unless given new life by living theologians.
Sunni Muslims accept the principle of ijtihad but claim that all "striving to reach the truth" ended sometime in the 12th century, by which time all questions had already been asked and answered.
That view reduces theology to a mere interpretation of existing texts. The result is a theological straitjacket that leaves little room for debate, let alone dissent.
The late Ruhollah Khomeini's doctrine of veleyat-e-faqih the custodianship of the cleric now the cornerstone of the Islamic Republic in Teheran, was a deviation from mainstream Shi'ism and rejected by virtually all senior ayatollahs of the time. Under that doctrine, ijtihad becomes the monopoly of a single mullah, given the title of Supreme Guide, who is supposed to be infallible.
For the past quarter of a century that strange doctrine has benefited from two factors. The first is the control of the Iranian state's immense resources by the Khomeinist mullahs.
They have spent billions of dollars promoting the Khomeinist deviation not only in Iran but also in other countries, notably Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen, which have large Shi'ites communities. The second factor has been the virtual destruction of Najaf as a center of Shi'ism by Saddam Hussein.
The reemergence of Najaf as a dynamic theological center will provide a platform for those who wish to see Shi'ism return to its spirit of openness, pluralism and "unity without uniformity."
Such a development would speed up the now inevitable demise of the Khomeinist regime in Teheran. It could also persuade the Sunnis, who account for some 85 per cent of all Muslims, to cast a fresh glance at the whole issue of reason and tradition to see whether or not the proverbial "gates of ijtihad" cannot be reopened after almost 800 years.
Najaf could also help Hassan Khomeini be the kind of Muslim Shi'ite he wishes to be, something that is impossible in the republic set up by his grandfather in Teheran.
The writer, an Iranian author and journalist, is editor of the Paris-based Politique Internationale.
pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1060230921653
Aug. 7, 2003
The Jerusalem Post
Where Islam can return to itself, By Amir Taheri
Just a few months ago Najaf, the main center of Shi'ite Islam, resembled a ghost town. Rows of houses remained empty, their former inhabitants either in exile or in Saddam Hussein's prisons.
The city's dozen or so "inns" miserable places where guests had to struggle with heat, dust and bugs to manage a couple of hours of sleep were as quiet as the nearby graveyard, arguably the largest in the world.
Now, however, Najaf is experiencing a mini-boom in religious tourism. Real estate prices are rising and empty houses are being let at unexpectedly high rentals. Thousands of pilgrims are streaming into the city from all over Iraq, Lebanon, Iran and even Central Asia. For the first time in three decades the city, where Ali Ibn Abitalib, the first imam of Shi'ism, is buried, is open to believers from all over the world.
In the past three months an estimated 1,000 Iraqi clerics and students of theology have returned to Najaf, often after years of exile in Iran and other countries from Australia to Canada.
"Najaf is a unique magnet," says Ayatollah Mahmoud Tabatabi. "It is here that major issues of Shi'ism have been decided for over 12 centuries."
It is, perhaps, for that reason that a growing number of Iranian mullahs and students of theology are also coming to Najaf, not only to escape the "suffocating atmosphere" created by the ruling mullahs in Teheran but to reopen the debate on the relationship between the mosque and the state.
"We decided to move to Najaf because there we can debate and discuss all matters in full freedom," says Ayatollah Hassan Aminian, an Iranian theologian who until recently lived and taught in Qom. "Shi'ism has always welcomed a plurality of views. Under the present Iranian regime, however, only the official view is allowed."
Several Qom clerics who have had their seminaries shut down by the Teheran authorities plan to transfer to Najaf, where no restriction on theological work is in place.
"It may sound ironic," says Ayatollah Hussein Sadr, "but the presence of American troops in Iraq could help Shi'ism regain the freedom it lost under despotic regimes in Baghdad and Teheran."
Among the mullahs who have decided to emigrate to Najaf from Qom is Hojat al-Islam Hassan Mussavi Khomeini, a grandson of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in Iran.
"My grandfather, God forgive him, was wrong," says Khomeini. "Shi'ism is not about mullahs ruling, it is about mullahs offering the largest possible number of different opinions on all issues and helping society choose the best."
Hassan Khomeini, now 45, is no stranger to Najaf. He spent 14 years in the city with his father and grandfather before returning to Iran in 1979. Hassan's father, Mostafa, died in Najaf and is buried there. Hassan has been offered many posts in the current Iranian regime, but has refused them all.
"Mixing politics with religion always leads to despotism," he says. "And in the end it is religion that will be the loser."
SO ANGRY is Hassan Khomeini with Teheran's ruling mullahs that he says he would not mind if Iran was "liberated" from their rule even with American military intervention.
"I am transferring to Najaf because I know the Americans will not interfere in my work as a theologian," Khomeini says.
Because Khomeini is not senior enough as a mullah his dramatic departure from Iran is unlikely to make many lasting ripples. But it could signal the beginning of a broader movement that could see some of the highest-ranking grand ayatollahs take the same route out of Iran.
Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the most senior Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, has already sent invitations to Grand Ayatollahs Hassan Qomi-Tabatabai and Hussein Ali Montazeri in Iran to visit him in Najaf. A gathering of grand ayatollahs in Najaf could become a formidable challenge to the increasingly beleaguered mullahrchy in Teheran.
What happens in Najaf in the coming months and years would not only impact developments in Iraq and Iran, where Shi'ites form a majority of the population, but could also affect the current "civil war of ideas" that is raging in the world of Islam.
When it comes to existential Islam how the faith is lived the main difference between Shi'ism and Sunnism is about the role human reason plays in shaping the ethics and politics of society.
The Shi'ites believe that human reason aql must be regarded as superior to tradition or naql. Religious texts are seen as the point of departure in any reasoning, not the sole authority. Evolving a position based on the texts but going beyond them through reasoning is known as ijtihad, which, loosely translated, means "striving to reach the truth."
In practice, ijtihad allows for a supermarket of ideas to flourish. No cleric could overrule others. And ideas propagated by dead men die with them unless given new life by living theologians.
Sunni Muslims accept the principle of ijtihad but claim that all "striving to reach the truth" ended sometime in the 12th century, by which time all questions had already been asked and answered.
That view reduces theology to a mere interpretation of existing texts. The result is a theological straitjacket that leaves little room for debate, let alone dissent.
The late Ruhollah Khomeini's doctrine of veleyat-e-faqih the custodianship of the cleric now the cornerstone of the Islamic Republic in Teheran, was a deviation from mainstream Shi'ism and rejected by virtually all senior ayatollahs of the time. Under that doctrine, ijtihad becomes the monopoly of a single mullah, given the title of Supreme Guide, who is supposed to be infallible.
For the past quarter of a century that strange doctrine has benefited from two factors. The first is the control of the Iranian state's immense resources by the Khomeinist mullahs.
They have spent billions of dollars promoting the Khomeinist deviation not only in Iran but also in other countries, notably Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen, which have large Shi'ites communities. The second factor has been the virtual destruction of Najaf as a center of Shi'ism by Saddam Hussein.
The reemergence of Najaf as a dynamic theological center will provide a platform for those who wish to see Shi'ism return to its spirit of openness, pluralism and "unity without uniformity."
Such a development would speed up the now inevitable demise of the Khomeinist regime in Teheran. It could also persuade the Sunnis, who account for some 85 per cent of all Muslims, to cast a fresh glance at the whole issue of reason and tradition to see whether or not the proverbial "gates of ijtihad" cannot be reopened after almost 800 years.
Najaf could also help Hassan Khomeini be the kind of Muslim Shi'ite he wishes to be, something that is impossible in the republic set up by his grandfather in Teheran.
The writer, an Iranian author and journalist, is editor of the Paris-based Politique Internationale.