In January 2020 Iran launched missile attacks on US military bases in Iraq following the assassination of IRGC General Qasem Soleimani. This represented a stark change from Iran previously abstaining ...from using its ballistic missile programme. This article argues that to understand Iran's behaviour we must recognize the role of Shi'a Islam.
Abstract
Iran's January 2020 missile attacks on US military bases in Iraq following the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qasem Soleimani correspond to a stark change of Iran's approach. Iran has namely abstained from using its ballistic missile program (BMP), which was only used twice after the 1980–88 Iran–Iraq War: in 2017 and 2018, in both instances in retaliation against ISIS attacks. The article explores the change in Iran's employment of its BMP from a strategic culture perspective while paying special attention to the principles of Shi'a Islam, which form a particular discursive habitat in which Iran's strategic actions are framed and rationalized. Iran's approach to the BMP is thus inseparable from qisas (retaliation), while obeying the overarching principle of maslahat; but also characterized by the varying importance of the the principles zarare aghall, ezterar and nafye sabil. We conclude that a perspective focusing on religious principles can contribute to our understanding of strategic cultural change, in what concerns its possible orientation, range and limits.
This article aims to explore the potential challenges that may arise when employing generative AI models in the process of Shi’i ijtihad. By drawing upon academic literature and relevant primary ...sources, the essay surveys the most critical AI-related hurdles in this field, including issues of accessibility, privacy concerns, the problem of “AI hallucination” and the generative nature of AI models, biases in AI systems, the lack of transparency and inexplicability, the intricacies of interpreting and understanding sensitive topics, accountability, authority, trust and acceptance among lay believers. Using discourse and content analysis as method, the article concludes that, given these challenges, generative AI models are not yet suitable for utilization in this process. However, the rapid progress in AI may eventually make it an effective tool for this purpose.
While inter-religious conflict is not new to Nigeria, sectarian competition and conflict between Sunnis and Shias have infiltrated the country and potentially pose a threat to the country’s ...stability. This article does not seek to provide a solution to Nigeria’s sectarian conflict between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, but rather to highlight the dangers it poses to the country through its impact and implications. Through a futurology design approach, the article provides dynamic snapshots of Sunni–Shia sectarian conflict from three dimensions: identity, alliance, and ideology. The article reveals that both Sunni and Shia Islam in Nigeria share a common ideology of establishing Nigeria as an Islamic state. However, they disagree on whose ideology it shall be founded upon owing to their sectarian affiliation with external actors, notably Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article concludes with prognostic reflections on the future political, religious, and social implications for Nigeria if this conflict remains unresolved.
This study delves into the nuanced understanding of human dignity as expressed and upheld within the framework of Shi’i Islam. Drawing on the Quran as the primary source of Shi’i interpretation of ...the law and human rights, this research investigates the portrayal of human dignity in the Shia tradition through Islamic revelation. Furthermore, this study illuminates how certain Shia scholars depict the Quran as striving for the coherence of diverse religions and cultures and how Shia Imams have contributed to the discourse surrounding human dignity through their thoughts and actions. In addition, this study scrutinizes the debates on the compatibility of Islamic human dignity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including contemporary challenges and the responses of Shi’i jurists to these challenges. However, while the Quran and Hadith resources offer sufficient references to human dignity, various approaches to human dignity remain among Shia jurists. Some Shia scholars consider human dignity to be acquired (Iktisābī) through human thoughts and deeds, while others ascribe to dignity an essential characteristic of humankind (dhātī) unconditionally bestowed by God. This research elaborates on how these interpretations, consequences, and requirements inspire Shia jurisprudence (fiqh), particularly in contemporary multicultural and pluralistic societies. Furthermore, it examines how this challenge is being debated among the proponents of each group and how it relates to human rights and current challenges. The study of contemporary developments in Shi’i fiqh regarding the role of human dignity and justice as Legal Maxims (al-qawāʿid al-fiqh) provides a necessary context for understanding and ensuring just legal rulings. Philosophically speaking, if God is the Lawgiver (Shāriʿ) and is Just and Wise, this raises the question of whether it is permissible for a jurist to enact laws that contradict human dignity and justice. This study aims to explore potential solutions to traditional challenges that do not consider human dignity and to suggest ways in which human dignity and justice can be applied as legal maxims.
Marja’ al-taqlid are Shia religious scholars of the highest level, something which takes decades to achieve. At present, most Shia scholars agree that women cannot be Marja’, i.e., create religious ...rulings for other people. But there is a space for discourse, and there are even a few scholars who disagree with the mainstream narrative. In this paper, I argue that, with time, the number of these scholars will increase, since Shia Islamic thought is ‘live’ and flexible, and adapts to the changing social conditions. The main obstacles that prevented women from reaching this level were the conservative views of some scholars and the lack of access to education. As the number of women with religious education constantly increases, the appearance of a female Marja’ will be a matter of time, but will still cause some resistance from some patriarchal members of society.
The pre-Fāṭimid or early period in Ismāʿīlī history is one of the most obscure major phases in the entire history of Ismāʿīlism. This is mainly because we do not have any reliable sources written by ...the Ismāʿīlīs of that period, and our knowledge of that phase is primarily based on non- Ismāʿīlī sources. As a result, many aspects of early Ismāʿīlism have continue to be shrouded in mystery, causing differences of opinion among the scholars in the field. Using a wide range of sources, including new ones, Samuel Stern was perhaps the earliest modern scholar who correctly identified the nature of early Ismāʿīlism and its evolution from the middle of the second/eight century to the foundation of the Fāṭimid caliphate in North Africa in 297/909. This article focuses on Stern's original views on the opening phase of Ismāʿīlism as well as the circumstances leading to the division of the early Ismāʿīlis into the loyal Ismāʿīlīs and the dissident Qarmaṭīs. Stern also shed light on the cosmological doctrine propounded by the early Ismāʿīlīs.
Shahrastānī and the Ismailis Walker, Paul E.
Journal of the American Oriental Society,
04/2023, Volume:
143, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The exact sectarian affiliation of Shahrastānī has long been a matter of serious debate. Was he possibly an adherent of the Ismaili cause? Considerable recent scholarship purports to establish a ...connection. The evidence consists of some off-handed remarks by his own contemporaries; what he himself has to say about the Ismailis in his Kitāb al-Milal wa-l-niḥal; and finally, a set of doctrines or analytical categories he uses in his later writings that were later adopted by Nizari Ismailis. However, an impartial look at the evidence does not support the claim that Shahrastānī was himself in any significant way an Ismaili.
The turn to ‘everyday religion’ has disrupted the so-called ‘Muslim problem’, suggesting modes of multiculturalism located not in abstract principles of citizenship but grounded in the concrete ...practices of local communities. In this article, however, I offer two critiques of the literature on everyday religion in Australia. First, the literature has limited itself to discursive methodologies, largely ignoring material aspects of the everyday. Second, I show how studies of everyday religion assume multiculturalism’s location in a given public space. Drawing on ethnography from the Shia Muslim community of Sydney, I show how Shia practices of visual pilgrimage leverage an understanding of complex space that transforms everyday experience. I argue that allowing for diversity requires not merely an attentiveness to different discourses in the public sphere; it requires an allowance for difference at a deeper level, where everyday religion can generate complex alternative experiences of space itself.
This article demonstrates how some contemporary scholars, operating from within the traditional Shiʿi establishment, have paved the way for new interpretations of Islam in general and Shiʿism in ...particular. To do so, the article focuses on three specific themes: the notion of the (im)purity of non‐Muslims, rulings on apostasy and precepts related to women's rights. Following a brief explanation of the history of Shiʿism, the article addresses each of three aforementioned themes in turn. In each section, the article explains how the relevant theme was approached by earlier religious scholars, and how it has been treated differently by some contemporary reformist Shiʿi clerics. While not claiming the trends of thought instigated by some contemporary ʿulamāʾ are entirely homogeneous with liberal ideas about human rights, this article provides examples of Shiʿi legal standpoints being reformed to meet the challenges of the contemporary world.
