A Comparison of the Confrontation of Imam Khomeini (RA) with Traditionalist Sunni Scholars (In the Period Leading up to the Islamic Revolution)

In addition to distinguishing his own thoughts and action from modernists, Imam Khomeini (RA) also differentiates himself and some traditional trends including dogmatic groups. He was also a revivalist and had critical perspective towards some legal issues or traditional religious customs. This article looks at Imam Khomeini in the framework of "revival of tradition" and puts him against two main trends: first the modernists who have been theorizing within the framework of approaches called "return to tradition" and "rejection of tradition" and secondly, the traditional scholars. The present paper emphasizes on expressing the distinctions between Imam Khomeini's viewpoint and the approach of traditional scholars and suggests that this latter group is not homogenous and is divided into several categories: there are at least two groups believed in the "repletion of tradition" and "disappointed with tradition" here that can be separated from each other. Accordingly, there is difference between Imam's thoughts and actions manner and viewpoints of these groups. To this end, while presenting historical discussions and identifying the discourse context where Imam acted, the present paper has also benefited from document analysis and text analysis based on Imam Khomeini's writing and speech.