Journal of Islamic Political Studies
Volume:5 Issue: 10, Summer-Autumn 2023

The present study aims at a systematic comparison of the four schools of the Islamic political philosophy. To explain and recognize the epistemic identity of each of the philosophical schools, we first investigated its methodical and epistemic approach, then its religious nature and its link with monotheistic worldview and Islamic doctrines, which are important in understanding and recognizing the truth and identity of a school of political philosophy, were the focus of attention. The results showed that the methodological issue is the first point of distinction between those four philosophical schools. While the peripatetic school stresses on argumentative method, Suhrawardi’s school accepts argumentation along with the method of illuminative (ishrāqī) intuition. The transcendental philosophy goes further and makes the rational, mystical, illuminative and theological approaches its foundations. And the philosophy of Islamic revolution deepens all abovementioned methodic approaches to employ new concrete and innovative methods. Comparing the four abovementioned schools in their political lines showed their fundamental distinctions in three important issues, i.e. necessity of social life, necessity of politics and policy-making, and necessity of state and government, in a way that persuaded the author to accept the theory of independent political philosophy of Islamic Revolution.

The present study aims at investigating the necessity of semantic evolution in the civilizational process in Ayatollah Khamenei’s view, with an emphasis on its Quranic origin. The research method is descriptive-analytical, and it discusses two levels of concepts. The first consists of concepts in the national level, such as ‘insight’, ‘explanation jihad’, ‘insider and outsider’, ‘cultural NATO’, ‘resistance economy’, and ‘software movement’. The second consists of concepts in the transnational level, such as ‘civilization’, ‘historical turning point’, ‘resistance’, and ‘new order’. The results showed that Ayatollah Khamenei, with his insistence on resistance against the system of global dominance, created, on the one hand, new genuine concepts and, on the other hand, focused on breaking and criticizing the western secular concepts. In this way, he opened a new different way for the revolutionary individuals and Iran after the Islamic revolution. In passing through the era full of riots and turbulences after the revolution and the crisis after Imam Khomeini’s departure, the Iranian Islamic revolution, and even the whole world of resistance, owe much to intelligence, efforts and insistence of Ayatollah Khamenei in preventing the infiltration of eclectic meanings into the semantic and identity network of Islamic revolution. Now, it seems that in the continuation of this civilizational movement, and for providing the new semantic masses in the Islamic world, it is essential for the Islamic community (ummah) and the Muslim elites in the Islamic world to read the Quran repeatedly and extract new meanings from the Quran and Sunnah to be used in their civilizational process. They must also expand the operation of inquiry on the Quran and use it in interactions between civilizational needs and challenges of the Islamic world on the one hand, and religious texts and Islamic heritage on the other hand. No doubt, this is one of the basic steps in line with freedom from hegemonic meanings of capitalism and secularism of the western world.

Collective obligations have been legislated as a part of religious obligations and related to the general interests of the society, for the purpose of achieving the Legislator’s goal in the society. While the fulfillment of these obligations in simple societies or in the time of the jurist’s limited latitude is referred to the mass of the responsible persons, and the "man bihi-l kifāya"[1] of the believers should comply with the obligation and fulfill the obligation in the external environment, in complex societies and at the time of the jurist’s authority, these obligations cannot be fulfilled except in the light of the systematic, coherent, up-to-date and efficient management of the society, and leaving them to the masses of the obligated persons (mukallafs) does not provide the Legislator’s final goal. This theory believes that the order, in collective obligations, is addressed to the society (as a legal personality), and the chief manager of the society (as the agentive cause of the society) – to whom is documented the address to the society –is responsible for the citizens’ performing their duties; and he ensures the realization of the Legislator’s goals in the society by determining the "man bihi-l kifāya" from the citizens and establishing institutions appropriate for the type of legal goals.

Lebanon is a country with a variety of tribes and a multi-cultural society. Thus, the social activity therein has many sensitivities. Imam Musa Sadr as the leader of the Shiites in Lebanon sought to free the Shiite community of Lebanon from various social depravities. Therefore, social harmony and cooperation were important in that society. The question in the present article is as follows: “considering diverse and multi-cultural milieus in Lebanese society, how did Sayyid Musa Sadr delineate the path of progress in that society?” To provide answer for this question, we may say although Sadr faced a diverse society from religious, cultural and economic perspectives, he attempted, through his measure – especially the way he viewed human and religion, expectations from the government, establishing organizations and performing collective tasks – to consider a considerable role for human in moving the society towards progress. Naturally, considering the features of that society and existence of various cultural types, those differences do not hinder progress. Such a view made it possible for him to consider the common points of tribes and religions, political and cultural trends, while paying heed to their differences, and prepare the ground for progress based on human’s will to create a coherent society by highlighting common points. The present article deals with this issue by considering the internal logic of Sayyid Musa Sadr’s thought as well as the description and analysis of his opinions.

Surah Towba in the Quran seeks to recognize the social challenges and specifies nifāq (literally, ‘hypocrisy’) as one of its thematic axes. This is because as the history attests wherever Islam is on the scene, hypocrisy also exists and influences the Islamic societies. This article attempts to analyze the political denotations of the verses on ‘hypocrisy’ in Surah Towba in the Quran and investigate its themes in this regard. In analyzing the findings of this article, we have used the method of thematic analysis, dealing with the explanation of dimensions of hypocrisy in Surah Towba upon reaching the network of the themes of hypocrisy. By applying this method, we obtained 16 basic themes on hypocrisy, 5 organizing themes, and 2 overarching themes. On the whole, the political themes of Surah Towba related to hypocrisy were extracted in two aspects of ‘characteristics of hypocrites’, with three subcategories of ‘nature of hypocrisy’ (difference between one’s outer and inner sides, being multilayer); individual characteristics of hypocrites (escape from the field of truth, justifying and overhanging, lying, perpetual fear of disgrace, pretending religiosity and piety, seeking worldly desires and welfare); and the characteristics of a hypocrite in the society (propaganda and psychological warfare, betrayal, enjoining evil and forbidding good, having organization and a base, casting doubts among believers). Also, the ways of treating a hypocrite were extracted in two spheres of intellectual-doctrinal treatment (disclosure) and physical contact (depravity and social boycott, fighting and jihad).

The present study aimed at exploring the prophethood and administration in Imam Mohammad Ghazali’s political thought. The research method was descriptive-analytical and the results showed that the foundation of Ghazali’s political thought is priority of Sharia. The point worth noting is that the way Sharia is preferred in Ghazali’s thought is a posteriori. Ghazali considers politics from the perspective of the human’s material life. Finally, he turns to the reforming mission of politics and explains the correlation between politics and piety under the inner attitude and the concept of reformation in individual and social life. Ghazali discusses prophethood in various forms, but what manifests itself in his final thought is paying attention to one’s heart, inner side and insight in prophethood. Paying attention to one’s inner side is Ghazali’s solution for reconciling religion and world. He also, like other Muslim thinkers, maintains that true felicity is the felicity in hereafter. He considers the way to achieve that important goal to be not imitating and repeating a practice in its outer form; rather, he searches for it inside one’s heart, the heartfelt belief and inner purity. Ghazali must be considered as an inquirer who was seeking sincerity and divine proximity up to the end of his life. He considered this proximity in resorting to the Prophet as God’s supreme creature. He compensates the Prophet’s absence by resorting to mysticism, inner attitude and moral loyalty to the prophetic teachings. He maintains that the solution to society’s problems is in the hands of the religious scholars and rulers who have made firm decision to reform the situation.

We may consider Abu Zayd and Arkoun as the pioneers of the methodic and detailed idea of historicity of religion and theology in contemporary Islamic thought. Making use of the achievements of humanities and social sciences, especially epistemology, hermeneutics and other new methodologies are the prominent features of the works written by these two authors. However, by a more precise investigation of these two thinkers’ works, it seems that there is a kind of expediency or conservatism in the statement and pursuing the logical succession of their opinions.  In this article, we aim at dealing with and exploring this very aspect in Abu Zayd and Arkoun’s thought. Accordingly, the main question in the present inquiry is as follows: “Does such a conservative aspect exist in the works of these two thinkers?” and, in the next stage, “What are the reasons and causes for it?” The research hypothesis is as follows: “Some evidence, ambiguities and inconsistencies show the existence of such an aspect in those works and the role of mental clichés and psychological backgrounds, on the one hand, and social requisites and dilemmas, on the other hand, can be considered as the most important factors.” The research approach is text-based and our method is descriptive-analytical. Besides, we have used Leo Strauss’s theory, called ‘esotericism’, to understand those aspects based on the writers’ conservatism. Fear of ‘persecution’ and fanatic reactions, considering some expedient considerations aiming at more gradual influence on the audience, and the effects – even unconscious – of some psychological-mental clichés and images can be regarded as the most important reasons and causes for the existence of inconsistent and conservative aspects in Abu Zayd and Arkoun’s thought.