An approach to the Understanding of Islam / Dr. Ali Shariati

The First Night’s Lecture

MY LECTURE is about the various approaches one can use to come to know Islam. It is an important scientific concept to review multiple approaches to the understanding of something in order to arrive at a particular methodology, which in our case is to come to understand Islam.

Arriving at a methodology in approaching a problem is a significant aspect of the scientific method. Having a correct method in order to discover the truth of an issue is more important than having a philosophy, a science or being talented.

Ali Shariati: Red Shi’ism vs. Black Shi’ism

Islam is a religion which made its appearance in the history of mankind with the cry of “No!” from Mohammad (PBUH), the heir of Abraham, the manifestation of the religion of the Unity of God and the oneness of mankind; a “No” which begins with the cry of “Unity”, a cry which Islam reiterated when confronted with aristocracy and compromise.

Shi’ism is the Islam which differentiates itself and selects its direction in the history of Islam with the “No” of the great Ali, the heir of Mohammad and the manifestation of the Islam of Justice and Truth, a “No” which he gives to the Council for the Election of the Caliph, in answer to Abdul Rahman, who was the manifestation of Islamic aristocracy and compromise. This “No”, up until pre-Safavid times, is recognized as part of the Shi’ite movement in the history of Islam, an indication of the social and political role of a group who are the followers of Ali, known for their association with the kindness of the family of the Prophet. It is a movement based upon the Qoran and the Traditions; not the Qoran and the traditions as proclaimed by the dynasties of the Omayyids, Abbasids, Ghaznavids, Seljuks, Mongols and Timurids, but the ones proclaimed by the family of Mohammad.

Hajj by Dr. Ali Shariati

Download the whole book from here.

The book of Hajj written by Dr. Ali Shariati is translated into English by Ali Behzadnia and Najla Denny. I have put it in a pdf format for download for those of you interested in Dr. Shariati’s books. I have read several books on Hajj, but Shariati’s Hajj is very different. (The free download link is at the end of this post)

In the “Preface by the Author” He writes:

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As a person who is “knowledgeable about religion” and whose field of study is “the history of religions”, I reached the following conclusions as a result of my study and research of the historical evolution of each faith whereby I compared what the faiths were in the past and what they are now as well as a comparison in the differences between the “truth” and the “reality” of the faiths. My conclusion is not based on personal religious feelings nor prejudices:

If we study and evaluate the effectiveness of each religion in terms of the happiness and evolution of mankind, we will discover that there is no prophecy which is as advanced, powerful, and conscious as the prophecy of Mohammad (PBUH) (i.e. Islam and its role in man’s social progress, self-consciousness, movement, responsibility, human ambition and struggle for justice; Islam’s realism and naturalness, creativity, adaptability with scientific and financial progress and orientation toward civilization and the community).

Karbala, Hajj and Hussein

Today is Ashoura (the 10th day of Moharram), the day witch Imam Hussein and 72 of his followers were massacred by Yazid ibn Mavieh forces. Hussein and his people were surrounded. In the hot desert of Karbala the evil forces of Yazid cut the water on them. . . Hussein and the 72 people were killed because they didn’t bow down for injustice and corruption under the name of Islam. The following is a part of Hajj by Dr. Ali Shariati witch discusses Imam Hussein and Karbala movement.

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The fact that Imam Hussein left Mecca for Karbala where he was martyred before completing his Hajj duties taught us a more important lesson than Shahadat.

Hajj was a duty that all his ancestors struggled for. Blood was shed to vitalize this tradition. He did not finish the ceremonies and decided to leave and become a Shaheed!

He did not complete his Hajj in order to teach the Hajj makers those who pray and have faith in Ibrahim’s tradition, that if there is no Imamat and there is not true leadership, if there is no goal, if “Hussein” is not there and “Yazid” is there, making Tawaf (Circumambulating) around the house of Allah is equal to making Tawaf around the idol-house. The people who continued their Tawaf while he went to Karbala were no better than those who were circumambulating around the green palace of Muawiyah.

Wearing of the Veil

The following article is written by Mr A. Bazargan. It should be mentioned that what Mr. Bazargan says about Hijab (Veil) is his views and there are more moderate as well as conservative views on Hijab in Islam (or I should say at least in Shia). Some believe that covering the hair is not part of the Hijab meant by the God. They give sound reasoning for their claim and site many historical views in support of this viewpoint. On the other hand, some conservatives take harder views and believe that Hijab is more restricted than what some practice.

Among Shias, almost no one believes on covering the face, as it is practiced in some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia today. On the contrary, they mention that this is against what Islam meant. They highly forbidden face covering.

Except some politicians, almost everyone in Iran believe that Hijab, regardless of our viewpoints, is not mandatory. People should be free to choose it or not to choose it. Actually, this moderate view is based on Quran where God calls on the freedom of choice in believing in religion. They believe that freedom is the cornerstone of any faith. Based on this view, what the governments of some Muslim countries are doing (forcing women to wear veil), has nothing to do with the true Islam as it was addressed by the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)!