The Concepts of Narrative and Imagination in the Political Thought; the Narrative Reading of Tanbih al-Ummah wa Tanzih al-Milla

this paper examines the narrative reading of an introduction of Tanbih al-Ummah wa Tanzih al-Milla (the admonition of people and the refinement of Sharia), the celebrated book written by Mohammad Hossein Naini (1862-1937) with using theoretical possibilities given by the concepts of the Narrative and the Imagination. The starting point of this research is the unbreakable linkage between history -as a dynamic plot of events and conceptions not as a chronological browse of historical events- and political thought. In this vein, the role of the element of imagination in the predicative assimilation/plot between events and concepts, on one hand, and between philosophical and jurisprudential concepts, on the other hand, is discussed. The main question is how the relationship between the imagination force and the logical/reasoning force in the text of the above book. Regarding this, the main assumption focuses on the priority of the imagination force over the rational force in the light of some concepts such as the productive imagination, plot, imitation, and metaphor in Paul Ricoeur's thought and the concept of social imagination in Charles Taylor's thought. This vital issue is discoverable through the dissection of concepts that Naini used in the introduction of his book.