Mysterious Glances

Mysterious Glances
(Ayatollah al-Uzma Mohammad Reza Nekounam, May his secret be sanctified)

Bibliographic Details

Author: Nekounam, Mohammad Reza, born 1948 (1327 AH)
Title: Mysterious Glances / Mohammad Reza Nekounam
Publication: Tehran, Sobhe Farda Publications, 2023 (1402 AH)
Physical Description: 437 pages
ISBN: 978-600-397-082-3
Cataloguing Status: CIP (Cataloguing in Publication)
Subjects: Nekounam, Mohammad Reza, 1948 — Memoirs
Subjects: Jurists and scholars — Iran — Memoirs
Subjects: Philosophy — Jurisprudence — Religious Rulings — Politics
Library of Congress Classification: BP153/5/998/297 (2023)
Dewey Decimal Classification: 297
National Bibliography Number: 5277336

Mysterious Glances
By Ayatollah al-Uzma Mohammad Reza Nekounam (May his exalted presence be preserved)
Publisher: Sobhe Farda
First Edition, 2023
Print run: 3000 copies
Price: — Rial
Distribution Centre: Qom, Amin Boulevard, Alley 24, First Branch on the Left, No. 76
Telephone: +98 25 3215 9078
Website: www.nekounam.ir
Copyright reserved to the author

Preface

I have previously recorded the memoirs and events of my life in the three-volume work The Path of Love. The present book, entitled Mysterious Glances, is a continuation and complement to the perspectives I presented therein. In this volume, I explore other facets of my earthly existence through brief, yet captivating and profound glances — enigmatic glances still shrouded in mystery — from a beloved who is both captivating and fatal.

Religious Duties and Societal Maturity

I live in a society that has not yet passed through its infancy. Jurisprudence states that being morally responsible and accountable requires certain conditions, one of which is maturity (bulugh). Social responsibilities require the maturity of society itself. Just as an individual must possess intellect, awareness, power, and free will to be deemed morally accountable, so too a society must achieve these conditions before it can accept responsibility or accountability.

I do not expect a society lacking these conditions to readily embrace my religious writings. Our society has not yet attained the necessary maturity and awareness; nonetheless, religious authorities impose the heavy and bitter burdens of religious duties upon it. Society must be nurtured to reach maturity and awareness. Since society lacks these prerequisites, it is not inclined towards religion. Furthermore, what is fed to the people in the name of religion is tainted with pernicious accretions and has become bitter due to compulsion and oppression. Hence, this religion neither takes root nor does it merely fail to flourish; it uproots everything, including itself, thereby devaluing religion.

In such an atmosphere of religious suffocation and despotism, there is no expectation that anyone will embrace religious research. Religion has a fabricated, harsh, and adulterated counterfeit, which through violence has suppressed the authentic religion. The ruling apparatus, characterised by superficial religiosity divorced from sacred reason and wisdom, through lavish religious and cultural propaganda, neither cultivates religious people nor enlightens society. Instead, the informed turn into religious skeptics or opponents, and the uninformed adopt mere religious habits.

It is necessary first to identify and invest in the factors of individual and societal growth, especially the element of awareness, and to employ these effectively. In these Mysterious Glances, I discuss the principal causes of societal growth or decline, focusing particularly on contemporary Iranian society and, more broadly, on the most fundamental reasons for the stagnation of philosophy, jurisprudence, and other Islamic and human sciences, the immaturity and irresponsibility of society, and the primary causes of its rejection of religion.

Completion and the Four Inner Spiritual Journeys

Thus far, the stage of Unity and Oneness represents the degrees of perfection; however, completion transcends mere perfection and is beyond any consideration of creation.

It should be noted that the stages of perfection and completion are not transient states or conditions that temporarily befall the seeker of Truth. Moreover, the degrees of completion transcend the four spiritual journeys and are not encompassed within any journey. The four journeys consist of: the journey from creation towards God (ilā Allāh), the journey within God (fī Allāh) where the seeker ascends, the journey through God (bi-Allāh) which culminates in annihilation, and finally the journey from God towards creation (ilā al-khalq), where the agent of the Divine manifests among creation in the form of prophet, messenger, imam, or caliph. Each seeker halts at a certain stage—some remain at the first journey, others reach the journey within God but fail to transcend to the journey through God, while some traverse through God and reach annihilation, no longer perceiving creation. Those who become deputies of the Divine over creation attain the Divine Truth and remain in it by divine ordinance, becoming embodiments of Truth capable of aiding creation. All Divine Prophets have undertaken the fourth journey; however, the final and highest station, the station of Completion (lā ta‘ayyun mashūb wa ghayr mashūb), surpasses these journeys and is beyond determination.

The Station of Assistance and Commitment to the Vision of the Truth

In the station of assisting creation, it must be understood that just as the philosopher in his rational endeavour for knowledge is committed only to intellect and rational data, so too the Divine saint relies solely upon his attainment of the Truth and his vision thereof, grounded in the sacred intellect and luminous secret. Neither does the philosopher consider esoteric knowledge within his rational efforts, nor does the saint deviate from the firm truth he has attained in his vision and recognition. Both philosopher and saint discern true knowledge and vision, rejecting anything that is unfounded or inappropriate. The saint is one who has arrived at the Truth, not one awaiting or expecting it. Just as in guardianship, gnosis, and mysticism, the true exalted level is considered, so too in jurisprudence and religion. Religion possesses a specialised language and has endured distortions and innovations historically, thus not every claim based on religion is truly religious. Religious pronouncements gain their validity through a jurist who is a Divine saint endowed with sacred knowledge. The contamination of religion and jurisprudence by distortions does not imply a flaw in religion itself but rather the ignorance of its adherents and custodians. Similarly, in mysticism and other sciences, the saint is the authentic source, and those aspiring to spiritual path and endowed with Divine grace and prior favour must wholeheartedly respect the guidance of such a unique saint, recognising that spiritual progression without a unique, authoritative guide leads only to confusion and error. Where action is involved, this gnoseological jurisprudence and the knowledgeable jurist must define duty and religious ruling, and the law must be derived from the jurisprudence and sacred faculties of the jurist, who renders silent divine texts articulate and comprehensible and whose sacred intellect governs the entire silent Sharia. The Divine saint attains such elevation through the grace of Divine guardianship in jurisprudence, and a jurist can rule on mysticism only if he has attained this elevation and comprehends the subject. Jurisprudence and mysticism in this exalted domain share a rational and luminous unity, with jurisprudence, by virtue of the bestowed guardianship available to the Divine saint, finding its religious, juridical, and divine character.

It should be emphasised that there is a vast difference between Divine saints and realised mystics and novice seekers or superficial claimants to the mystical path, whose meagre, fragile knowledge and counterfeit teachings distort and degrade the true path and should not be mistaken for the authentic teachings of the realised saints.

In the matter of Sharia, deriving divine rulings is the responsibility of the sacred jurist; a mystic without jurisprudence acknowledges his obligation to Sharia but does not legislate for himself, as he is a mystic, not a jurist. The articulation of Sharia rulings must come from jurisprudence and through the sacred faculty of Divine guardianship, supported by the necessary acquired scientific methodologies within the scholarly process of ijtihad. Similarly, the jurist must comprehend philosophy and mysticism alongside other sciences to grasp the essence and ontology of the law and to pursue correct ijtihad through semantic understanding of juridical statements. Mysticism belongs to the realm of unity and guardianship, whereas religion and Sharia stem from the attributes of guardianship and occupy a lower rank. Within the system of Divine guardianship and mentorship, religion without a guardian mentor does not articulate its profound essence nor gain validity.

Glimpse of ( )

The Perfection of Perfections and the Equilibrium of Innate Love

Bearers of guardianship and intrinsic beloveds possess an “equitable temperament” (mizāj a‘dal), meaning they attain relative infallibility and truthfulness in all their actions and speech, both bodily and spiritual. This equitable temperament has both a corporeal aspect, which grants longevity to the intrinsically beloved saint—who departs this world only through “martyrdom”—and a luminous aspect, beyond the realm of temperament, in the station of Oneness and Muhammadan and Seal of Prophethood reality. The equilibrium of the intrinsically beloved saint in that realm manifests a steadfast, pure heart and effort that can embody the One and the entire Truth of the Divine, a veritable intermediary and possessing the station of luminosity. This is the “First Determination,” beyond which there is no prior manifestation. The beloved of Oneness, such as the Seal of Prophethood, resides in the station of Oneness. Prophets and saints of Divine love do not transcend the station of Unity unless they themselves become beloved beloveds. The beloved of Oneness possesses infallibility relative to that station and may or may not hold outward prophetic or imamic authority. Belovedness is a title broader than “Prophet” and “Imam.” The beloved of Oneness might lack outward prophethood or imamate. The beloved status is an ontological manifestation, a contingent ontic reality. The beloveds of Oneness possess various ranks, with the beloveds of the Pure Household—especially the Five Holy Ones—being the finest manifestations of love. It is noteworthy that one may be a beloved without being infallible, and one may be an infallible servant without being beloved. The beloveds of Oneness are strong in guardianship and capacity, even if they lack outward prophethood. They inherit this guardianship divinely and contingently. The Seal of Prophethood’s guardianship is the norm within his community, and all other perfections such as prophethood emerge from guardianship. The root of all perfections in the Five Pure Ones is guardianship. Guardianship is the origin and root of all manifestation, and the root of guardianship is love and intrinsic belovedness. One who possesses guardianship is beloved, and one who is intrinsically beloved governs all. One who is intrinsically beloved is beloved by all, both believers and disbelievers, and everyone loves him for the sake of Divine Truth. Sometimes, an entity such as a stone might possess a beloved characteristic appropriate to its rank, becoming beloved and loved by all. The defining trait of beloveds is their universal endearment and gentleness, even to their enemies, who paradoxically both love and hate them. Beloveds never enter into tender mutual affection with the entire world and all beings.

Belovedness and Guardianship

Ultimately, the foundation of perfections is guardianship, which manifests the state of belovedness. Prophethood, imamate, and infallibility of the beloved are all manifestations of guardianship. The highest title is the guardianship of the beloved of Oneness, and all phenomena of existence are manifestations of guardianship, which itself manifests belovedness. The highest beloved of Divine Truth among creation is Lady Fatimah al-Maḍriyya: “Without you, the heavens would not have been created,” and “Without Fatimah, you both would not exist.” Although Lady Fatimah is neither “Imam,” “Messenger,” nor “Prophet,” she embodies infallibility, guardianship, and belovedness, which is the foundation of perfections and holds the highest rank among the Five Pure Ones, being the esoteric guardianship. The outward guardianship belongs to the Seal of Prophethood. In other words, the mantle of imamate and prophethood falls short of her elevated station, and describing her as merely infallible and guardian understates her unparalleled position. Similarly, the luminous reality and radiance of Imam Ali are higher and superior to his imamate station; his guardianship exceeds his infallibility. The guardianship of all beloved Divine saints surpasses their infallibility because guardianship pertains to servitude and belovedness, and belovedness is the root and origin of all attributes, perfections, merits, and virtues, including infallibility. The testimony of servitude and prophethood in the Seal of Prophethood’s declaration (in the Tashahhud) demonstrates that servitude is the root and origin of prophethood, and servitude itself stems from belovedness. The supreme attribute of beloveds is that the “love of the Truth” envelops them intrinsically and they are uniquely loved by Divine Truth. A beloved may lack outward titles of imamate or prophethood yet possess guardianship with infallibility, imamate, and prophetic station in an esoteric sense. It is foretold that in the distant future, women will arise as among the highest Divine saints, endowed with guardianship and the highest and most profound manifestations of this belovedness. The Characteristics of the Divine Saints and Their Inner Realities

Those who do not believe in the saints of God and their inner realities remain submerged in concealment, embodying in the material realm the attribute: (None knows them except Him) [8]. After their estrangement, they dwell in immersion and occultation.

The Essence of the Divine Saints: Complete, Established, and Comprehensive

By virtue of humanity’s elevation and eminence among existential phenomena, humans possess perfection and comprehensiveness, serving as classifiers for recognizing various manifestations. Humans have two dimensions: the luminous and the earthly. Those who embody both are categorised into three groups: the comprehensive saints, the complete saints, and the established saints.

The comprehensive saints possess the station of essence in their knowledge and reality; the complete saints, the station of names and attributes; and the established saints, the station of action.

Establishment refers to the voluntary attribute of knowledge. The established saint wields complete, invincible, and effective will, executing acts ordained by God with unwavering, resolute, barrier-breaking, creative, and manifesting volition. According to their broad understanding and commensurate authority, they exhibit neither weakness nor inconsistency. Established saints rank below the complete saints; however, in intuitive witnessing, they maintain fellowship, practice, and experiential illumination alongside them, being their followers.

In another classification, the comprehensive are the investigators, in whom the truth is fully and genuinely ingrained, while the complete and established saints constitute the intermediate and transformative saints who possess complete faith and self-sacrifice but do not attain the vision of the Exalted Truth.

The comprehensive and essential saints perceive all truth in its reality, unity, personality, and distinctiveness. They visit the Exalted Truth as a single personage, in whom God is wholly realised. Hence, they are termed investigators. Such investigators are exceedingly rare, their manifest and explicit exemplars being the Five Pure Ones; subsequently, the Nine Secondary Ones belong to this order of creation. Given the eternality of the material creation, in other epochs the divine investigators will reappear, manifesting their truth to their contemporaries. I have visited them, and contrary to this order of creation, among them are women who bring fundamental transformation to human society’s spiritual perfection.

Another division holds that divine saints are either beloved or lovers, though combinations of both are possible, creating great diversity. A detailed explanation is provided in my commentary on Ibn Hamza al-Fanari’s Sharh Misbah al-Uns.

The Believers Imitating and the Commotion

A third group, not counted among the saints of God, comprises aspirants and believers who imitate the aforementioned groups based on prior potentialities but lack the reality of knowledge and the intrinsic trials required for actualisation or the corresponding manifestations of transformation and establishment. They become a tumultuous version of imitation, indistinguishable to the uninitiated from true investigators and transformers. At times, they unjustly claim sainthood and mislead others concerning their spiritual status. Even though they resemble saints and love them, lamentably, neither do they attain a favourable outcome themselves, nor those deceived by them. It is a grave error to mistake this tumultuous group for genuine lovers; even if they have moments of awakening, they remain static without progression or journeying, disqualifying them from being properly described as lovers.

Manifestation at the Level of Essence

The Exalted Truth manifests in all vessels and degrees, even at the level of non-determination, and there is no station where God is alone without manifestation. Manifestation is an intrinsic necessity of God’s essence, inseparable under any circumstance. Wherever God goes, manifestation accompanies Him; however, as God has no names or forms at the level of essence, His manifestation at that station lacks any name or form.

The First Manifestation

The first manifestation and unveiling of the Exalted Truth in the station of Unity of Essence is represented by the Seal of the One [9]. The subsequent manifestation pertains to the Unity and the Divine Names and Attributes, manifested in the Prophets of God. The Seal of the One is the manifestation of Unity of Essence, while the Prophets are the manifestation of Unity. Indeed, the Seal of the One manifests both Unity of Essence and Unity. Therefore, Unity manifests Essence rather than the Seal. This account diverges from common mystical systems, positing that Essence has two manifestations: one is the manifest manifestation of the Seal of the One, and the other is the manifest manifestation of Unity. The former is not the manifestation of Unity, while the latter is the manifestation of the Seal in its station (Unity).

The Noble Qur’an counts the thankful servants as few and rare: (And few of My servants are thankful) [9]. The investigators, who rank far above the thankful, experience isolation and rarity at times. Thankfulness denotes blessing and bounty, whereas being an investigator is a professional designation linked to the trials intrinsic to essence, distinct from the trials pertaining to the saints.

The Authority of Deputation of the Comprehensive Possessor of Submission

The possessors of comprehensive submission are divided into two groups: the first group possesses inherent and secret power without the ability to transgress, and they cannot appoint a deputy to manifest the effects of submission; in this capacity, they hold only the status of caliphate. The second group, in addition to the position of caliphate, also hold the rank of deputation (istikhlaaf); that is, they may appoint someone to perform certain tasks on their behalf, support them, and provide guidance so that some necessary affairs are conducted in their stead.

For example, Imam Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance) during the occultation, utilises the perfect human and comprehensive saints—who possess the capacity for inward prophecy, the power of insight into wisdom and realities, and the production of knowledge—to keep the Shariah alive and jurisprudential reasoning active and dynamic for each era. The truths conveyed by these deputies are not their own but are inspired through their guardianship or a bestowed sacred faculty (alongside their acquired jurisprudential knowledge), which permeates their inner being. The occultation period is a time when Imam Mahdi extends assistance to the select few, providing support in the capacity of divine prophetic communications and mystical knowledge.

This group of vicars operates according to divine wisdom and channels heavenly blessings to the people of the occultation era, albeit with complete secrecy and without any claims. The people of the occultation are not abandoned to ignorance and oblivion; rather, God has concealed living, present saints whom Imam Mahdi aids through special spiritual support, as well as through universal assistance granted to all beings, including disbelievers and polytheists, guiding all towards good.

During the occultation, the presence of the Imam and divine saints manifests spiritual aid and effects; otherwise, as it is said, “Were it not for the Proof (Hujjah), the earth and its inhabitants would collapse.” These beloved intrinsic saints in the era of occultation can, beyond their caliphate, also appoint deputies for delegation. The effects of this deputation are not direct or apparent in terms of submission or agency.

The occultation is the period of concealment of the divine saints; all the saints, following the example of Imam Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance), remain hidden and anonymous in their divine governance, exercising authority without claims. It should be noted that due to this characteristic of concealment (occultation), which is why the period is named as such, there are numerous false claimants and deceivers, and the default assumption regarding these claimants, heretics, or impostors is falsehood and deceit unless proven otherwise by decisive evidence.

Many false claimants, jurists, and mystics abound who assert authority either directly over Imam Mahdi—often claiming to be the Imam himself—or over his deputies, alleging apparent or esoteric guardianship or deputation, while lacking the necessary qualifications, attributes, and prerequisites. Some claim guardianship from a jurisprudential domain, others from an esoteric or Sufi perspective, and some from coercive or militaristic dominion supported by wealth, popularism, and the force of money and power.

The plight of people in the occultation era is beset by misguided replicas and counterfeit versions who claim to be Waliullah (friends of God) without possessing divine prophetic power or sacred faculties. Mere recitation of Sufi poetry, Quranic verses, or hadiths does not confer the status of deputyship, guardianship, or caliphate. A jurist’s judgment gains legitimacy only if they possess at least the degree of sacred justice; any doubt about their justice invalidates obedience. Even if someone shows no sinful conduct but lacks the requisite knowledge and expertise, their claim is enough to disqualify them.

Secular education alone without the gift of the sacred faculty is mere literacy and does not legitimize obedience. This sacred faculty is scarce; otherwise, if numerous saints and holy guardians existed, universal guidance would prevail, and the widespread misery and corruption in society would not persist. The plethora of claims reflects the abundance of desires and whims; the sacred faculty and prophetic guardianship are not easily claimed or usurped.

Claims of deputation and guardianship arise both in scholarly centres and Sufi lodges, motivated by diverse factors including self-indulgence and worldly desire, sometimes promoted by Freemasonry or similar groups, and manifested in formal religious gatherings or naive outcries with millions of followers. For the spiritually seeking, loyal, and faithful public thirsting for true knowledge and wisdom but unaware of these claimants, they become deceived by the noise-makers.

This chaotic and disorderly context characterises the era of occultation, where claimants shamelessly exploit even the blind in broad daylight. Some eulogists have created such a climate that no room remains for the genuine saints under the name of guardianship. Ironically, they lament the tragedies of Hussain yet wound the public’s consciousness with their sharp rhetoric, undermining the foundation of public awareness to dominate with their whims.

The true divine saints of the occultation, whether jurists, mystics, or spiritual aides, reside among the people and any suspicion against them contradicts guardianship itself. However, reckless and deceitful impostors continue to emerge, and when empowered, they pressure and isolate genuine saints—who live selflessly with pure love and do not exploit spiritual power for personal gain, accepting divine will with contentment.

In their truth, these saints possess divine unity; they “build the servant of God” and “build the knowledge of God,” such that the apparent manifests according to their will and the hidden remains concealed by their discretion. Even their enemies draw life from them, and their oppressors unknowingly receive aid from them. Out of pure love, they channel good to all, even to their adversaries, though the latter may resent this assistance; for all must manifest, even the despotic and wrathful.

Saints possessing collective knowledge, true understanding, and power of communal submission hold the station of “Imamate” and are the “best masters” and the “most complete supreme Imams,” possessing ranks of caliphate and deputation, able to appoint others for divine governance. For the aware, they embody the pure lineage of divine names, invoked for blessings, while the ignorant perceive them as obstacles and neglect their very resting places.

Recognition of the divine saints in the era of occultation is extremely difficult and akin to an enigmatic event, thus ignorance of their station is a warning of the death of ignorance itself: “Whoever dies without knowing his Imam dies the death of ignorance.” This difficulty in recognizing the saints is evident even among those who witnessed Amir al-Mu’minin (‘Ali) in the tumultuous period incited by Mu’awiyah, doubting his piety and prayers. If ‘Ali, bearing the sword Dhul-Fiqar, were present to establish justice, how many would remain loyal? ‘Ali possesses no counterfeit wealth, while Mu’awiyah has abundant unjust wealth.

The Imam is in such a position that many swear by his name, yet recognition is difficult, and many do not even consider him an ordinary worshipper, let alone accept his guardianship, imamate, or caliphate. Recognition of the true saints in any era—and particularly in the occultation period, rife with false claims—is even more challenging.

The Necessity of Selflessness and Love

The role and necessity of the Divine Saints in the realm of nasūt (the material world) lie in selflessness and love. God has bestowed the manifestations of nasūt upon ordinary servants and its tribulations upon His Saints, thereby unveiling them from the raw material realm and distancing nasūt from them. Despite possessing the power to dispel the hardships and difficulties of the material world, they endure these trials because such afflictions serve to purify and enhance the love and sincerity of the Divine Saints. Love is incompatible with seeking comfort; it becomes tarnished by it. In the analysis of the Divine Saints, one must never overlook the attribute of “love.”

The Opposed and the Oppressors

In contrast, the false individuals who oppose the Saints and stand among their enemies are viewed by creation as tyrannical, oppressive, detestable, and accursed by both the people and the Divine.

The “oppression” experienced by the Divine Saints is a reality that shatters the material power of their adversaries and opponents. Yet, it is essential to stress that oppression is not synonymous with weakness. Weakness and subjugation are deplorable states. For instance, Imam Husayn (peace be upon him) was oppressed but not weak; he possessed the highest spiritual authority. They were oppressed at the zenith of their celestial power, while cruel, scheming oppressors stood before them, who were agents of falsehood.

The two prominent attributes of “purity” and “oppression” in the Divine Saints must never be neglected. The guidance of humanity is through the “oppression” of God’s Saints and the absence of superficial support from the masses of falsehood for them. They stood alone against an overwhelming, heavily armed front of falsehood, equipped with the most advanced technology and seemingly invulnerable and impenetrable. These enemies cruelly imprisoned the Saints, dismembered them, and burned them, yet the Saints would still cry out, “O swords, avenge me!” In the face of the malice and hatred of their enemies, they sought refuge in sharp swords, but the energy of their love, purity, and oppression annihilated all the manifestations of worldly tyranny and disgraced them before the world.

It must be acknowledged that the true beloved ones, through their “oppression” and their “righteous and rightful” appearance, broke the back of falsehood, to the extent that today under the heavens no one openly defends falsehood or proclaims its cause. All prominent figures of falsehood now mask their cause with the slogans of the righteous front and the Divine Saints; otherwise, they become rejected and despised by the people. Without the struggle and oppression of the Saints, the brazen faces of falsehood would have openly tyrannised, bullied, oppressed, and ruled under the banner of law, protecting the people, humanity, and human rights, even drafting laws to serve falsehood and openly equating truth with falsehood.

The oppression of the Divine Saints has made them the victorious figures in the field of love, sincerity, and genuine affection, triumphing in the battle between truth and falsehood and pushing the falsehood front away from open, unrestrained dominance. Today, wherever there is talk of goodness and perfection, the name of the “Master of the Oppressed,” Imam Ali (peace be upon him), is first invoked, his love blooms hearts and revives spirits. No one can shout “Long live falsehood” and govern by it. This oppression of the Divine Saints has exposed falsehood and sensitised society’s conscience to their blatant martyrdoms until humanity is raised to a stage where the hidden, deceitful slaughterhouses of the satanic falsehood front are also recognised, so people no longer set their own traps unwittingly.

This societal awakening and the eclipse of falsehood from overt dominion in the public arena is due to the purity, selflessness, greatness, and prominent oppression of the Divine Saints.

A Glimpse of ( )
A Superior Knowledge than the Noble Qur’an

The Noble Qur’an is the highest book of knowledge in a revealed form. It is said concerning the Qur’an: “Neither wet nor dry but [it is] in a clear Book” [Qur’an 56:29], assuming that the phrase “clear Book” refers to the Qur’an itself. We also assert that the Qur’an is profoundly deep and contains all that is dry and moist, yet a significant question arises here: Does the Qur’an encompass all knowledge of the Divine Reality to be considered the ultimate identity card of all existence and phenomena, embodying the entirety of God’s knowledge? Or does it only address the necessary requirements for the human world, specifically the ‘nasī’ human, thereby omitting certain truths that such humans do not require?

What we are committed to is that although the Qur’an is the only complete divine book among heavenly scriptures, it is not the utmost extent of God’s knowledge; it has limitations regarding existential realities. One can perceive and discover truths superior to the Qur’an that are not explicitly mentioned therein. It should be noted, however, that even the ‘nasī’ human is incapable of fully apprehending the revealed Qur’an itself. This assertion requires extensive study and contemplation. To uncover the Qur’an, in Tafsīr Huda we have described a reliable path of intimacy with the Qur’an and its nature; this approach is further elucidated in the book Nihayat, and somewhat expanded upon in Love and Unity. In Woman and Human Dignity, we have also briefly addressed sanctity and love, which are logically and epistemologically connected. Although in the book Family, where we approached these themes more closely, we considered the vicissitudes of time and the dominance of superficiality. This dispersed discourse is intended to respect the limited capacity here; it is the same method I used in my teachings at the Qom Seminary, where I was able to conduct lessons and discussions for over forty years, although even these were ultimately curtailed due to a few remarks that reached those who could not tolerate them. Qom harbours an entrenched, rigid mafia about which I have written in The Journey of Love. Those devoid of insight cannot comprehend what intimacy means! Now, whatever I wish to say about intimacy, I find myself unable to fully articulate it. I must say, Astaghfirullah (I seek forgiveness from God). How many times must I say this and write it repeatedly as children once did in their exercises—not once or twice, but several times.

Conditions for Biographical Accounts

The biographies of great figures, knowledge, and prominent individuals, and the description of their characteristics or anecdotes from their lives rest upon three essential conditions: Firstly, the biography must be direct and narrated from one’s own observations. Secondly, it must be impartial; it should not solely praise one’s friends or oneself, nor solely slander one’s enemies. Thirdly, the account must be pure, straightforward, and free from deception; in other words, it should neither exaggerate to become flattery or self-praise, nor understate to the point of animosity or bitterness, but should be measured and truthful. The recommendation is: “Mention your good people”; unilateral praise undermines the objective and disappoints others. As I have mentioned before, absolute infallibility is absent in any person.

Present and Absent Presence

The esteemed teachers whose blessed company I have experienced are mentioned without naming them in the book Present and Absent Presence. This book provides a brief account of such radiant stars in the firmament of knowledge and gnosis, the bearers of the Kingdom and the beyond, and the eloquent faces of the Divine Presence—those passionately devoted yet veiled—whom I have benefited from since childhood until the stages of spiritual attainment, according to my rank and capacity. Present and Absent Presence conveys the diversity and abundance of my teachers well. They number approximately 150 spiritual figures, both apparent and real, each of whom has inspired different influences within me. The privilege of their presence has been entirely granted by Divine Providence, and only through God’s favors and the intimations of the Beloved did I gain their companionship—whether they were men or women, ascetic seekers or jurist believers, infidels, or sinners, each was distinguished in their own right. During the period when I ought to see my teachers, I never neglected nor disregarded worthy perception, and I never sat in the company of the weak and incapable even for a day. Some were so eminent that the desire to reach them compelled my efforts. For example, in this book, I mentioned experiencing the company of an accomplished mystic and saint, for whom I find no equal in mind and whose likeness was only comparable to the perfect saints. His public presence manifested the Divine Reality, and his bodily form was an appearance of his essence. He embodied majesty and his beauty was delicate in perfection. His glorification was face-to-face vision, his standing was stature, and his posture was resurrection; his bowing was humility, and his prostration was surrender. His intellect was love, his love was madness, and his madness was mastery. Visiting him was worship, and his presence was union. His simplicity captivated hearts, and his affection purified the soul. I have not named this individual in the book because few would believe such qualities. However, he was Ayatollah Mahdi Elahi Qomshehi, the famous translator of the Qur’an, whose name I now mention to make this account more credible for readers.

The Presence of Beloved Ones

The book Presence of the Beloved provides a brief narrative of my scholarly and political life from birth until the age of fifty. During my adolescence, I joined the popular movement led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1962 and have recorded some of my observations from that critical period in this book. Although parts of this narrative appear in my three-volume work The Journey of Love, each book contains unique insights absent in the other.

In this book, I note that with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, my primary aim was to engineer religious jurisprudence and knowledge and to systematise it methodically. Hence, I focused continuously on teaching at the Qom Seminary. The result was the authorship of many books that, with a novel perspective, revisit traditional religious foundations and critique the views of predecessors whose ideas are outdated for our time. I will elaborate more on this at the conclusion of this writing.

Family

• I was born in 1948 (1327 SH) in the city of Golpayegan.
• While still an infant, my parents relocated to Shahr-e Rey (near the shrine of Abdul Azim al-Hasani).
• My parents were deeply pious, lovers of religious scholars, and dedicated to aiding the needy. I witnessed firsthand my father’s respect during our home mourning gatherings for Imam Husayn’s elegy, insisting on personally welcoming the reciter and religious scholar. Likewise, I observed how my grandfather always set aside some money which he never touched, ensuring that any poor person who came to the door would not leave empty-handed. This scholarly devotion and particular concern for the weak, along with other lessons such as manliness and detachment from worldly love, instilled by my prudent father, have been deeply imprinted on my mind and soul.
• At the age of eleven, I lost my father, a man of great virtues, and, like many great religious figures, I grew up an orphan.
• My mother was a woman of perfection, devoted to worship, a trait she maintained until her passing at the age of 91 in 2013 (1392 SH) at dawn, fully aware of her departure. She left all who knew her virtues in mourning. I have referred to her as an “unsung star” and named my poetry collection Hurāy-e Unsiyyeh in honour of her spiritual presence. Throughout my life, I never encountered a purer, more sincere lover than my mother.

Childhood and Early Years

• From early childhood, I exhibited keen intellect, strong memory, and spiritual inclinations and insights, accompanied by special divine favours, as though a guiding hand was constantly with me, powerfully and necessarily leading me towards the Beloved.
• At the age of three, I was introduced to the local Quran teacher, Golin Khanum, my second spiritual mother. She was a dignified, mature, and virtuous lady who significantly influenced my spiritual upbringing, embedding a very positive image of the women of my country in my mind.
• Not far from our home was a large cemetery which, by the grace of God, became my university and place of spiritual education during my childhood. This cemetery, adjacent to the shrine of the Three Daughters of Shahr-e Rey (now converted to a park), became the centre for the divine blessings and virtues bestowed upon me. At night, when my parents slept, I would go to the cemetery. There lived a couple who appeared to be mere caretakers and washers of the graves but possessed extraordinary supernatural authority, rare among people. They were the sovereigns of the spiritual worlds and had dominion over the jinn, especially those present in that cemetery, though they bore no apparent outward form. For example, ‘Ali Agha, the corpse-eater, had a black face, was tall, and had larger feet than normal people; anyone who saw him was frightened, and children ran away. Yet, I visited them nightly and learned extraordinary lessons from the graves and the dead awaiting washing, shrouding, and burial, as well as from the supernatural and metaphysical beings residing there. This spiritual couple accepted me as their disciple; the woman, who was superior in the unseen to her husband, is my third spiritual mother. The divine causes, blessings, and spiritual gifts I received from that cemetery spared me decades of arduous asceticism and seclusion elsewhere.
• Erfan Mahbubi
• Two key terms fundamental to my spiritual framework are “Mahbubi” (the Beloved) and “Mubbān” (the Lovers). A Mahbubi is one who, from the outset of their existence in the material world, manifests the divine grace and favour within themselves, without having undergone ascetic practices or the arduous spiritual journey typical of mysticism. Such an individual occupies elevated stations of bestowed knowledge and gifted proximity to God, with their life shaped by divine necessities rather than worldly demands. However, the Mahbubi invariably endures considerable tribulation in this world, suffering for love and devotion; their blood is often shed in the path of the Beloved, and if intrinsically a Mahbubi, they depart this life as martyrs rather than through ordinary death. The highest rank of the Mahbubiyyah is held by the Ahl al-Bayt (the People of the House) of infallibility and purity. Besides the infallible figures, other saints may also attain the status of intrinsic Mahbubi, some of whom serve as guides and custodians of the community during the occultation period.
• In contrast, the Mubbān must exert effort and perseverance to attain any spiritual rank. They must endure hardship and toil, as indicated by the noble verse: “And fear Allah; and Allah teaches you” (Qur’an 2:282), which, despite its grandeur, addresses the lovers and seekers.
• Pure and unadulterated mysticism is the preserve of the Mahbubi saints and those graced with divine favour, with the infallible saints serving as their mentors. For centuries, the genuine scholars of Shi’a mysticism remained obscure, while an alternative form, primarily propagated by Sunni teachers, gained prominence. Although this Sunni mysticism possesses many virtues, it is often accompanied by numerous accretions and distortions, which have relegated it from the realms of scientific inquiry and social influence, rendering it marginalised. I have thoroughly taught, corrected, and critically reviewed major mystical texts such as Tamheed al-Qawa’id, Sharh Fusūs al-Hikam, Sharh Misbah al-Uns, and Sharh Manazil al-Sairin, identifying their extraneous elements and reinterpreting them within the spiritual culture of the Ahl al-Bayt.
• Many of my works introduce the concept of Mahbubi mysticism, which is both pristine and socially effective, embodying the method of the infallible saints. For instance, my commentary on Manazil al-Sairin, titled Seyr-e Sorkh (“The Crimson Journey”), and my commentary on Tamheed al-Qawa’id, titled Aqlvarzi-e Erfan-e Shi’a (“Rationality in Shi’a Mysticism”), have been published with these aims.
• Diseases of Semantic Factors
• Previously, I have categorised human ailments into three broad therapeutic domains: firstly, conventional medicine, which addresses the human body; secondly, psychology and psychiatry, which deal with mental health and the influences of social and environmental factors; and thirdly, a domain concerning psychological afflictions originating from semantic phenomena and metaphysical realms, involving encounters with otherworldly forces. Presently, no formal medical discipline specialises in this third category. While the treatment of bodily and psychological illnesses has well-established scientific branches and specialisations, semantic or spiritual afflictions lack academic frameworks and effective methods. Attempts by uninformed or fraudulent individuals often exacerbate the sufferer’s condition. Religious sources, however, provide comprehensive remedies for these issues, yet unfortunately, scholarly institutions responsible for extracting these treatments from sacred texts largely neglect this field. Examples are listed thematically in the third volume of Danesh-e Zekr (“The Science of Remembrance”), highlighting the diversity of prescriptions and approaches to patient care in this regard.
• The Islamic Revolution
• The popular revolution of 1979 was not merely a political regime change but a manifestation of faith and creed, establishing Shi’ism’s presence on the world stage. It ended the marginalisation and concealment of Shi’a identity. Regrettably, the revolution has since been hijacked by profiteers and opportunists, veering it off course. If the fundamental distortions within the governmental structure are not identified and eradicated, irreparable damage will ensue to Islam and Shi’ism.
• I was actively involved in the revolution’s realisation and its significant struggles, having been arrested twenty-nine times by SAVAK. I collaborated extensively with the late Mr Rabani Shirazi, including arms procurement for combatants. I managed revolutionary affairs at the highest administrative level in Iran, working closely with Mr Pasandideh and Mr Hindi (two brothers related to Ayatollah Khomeini), and maintained comprehensive oversight of key figures. Following the revolution’s success, I served as Ayatollah Khomeini’s representative in Kish Island, overseeing its assets. However, my primary duty was the engineering of religion—purging it of extraneous elements and training specialised personnel—because I perceived the revolution’s content was afflicted with numerous faults and deviations. Though Ayatollah Khomeini, with the enthusiastic support of the unified populace, toppled the despotic regime, he was unable to establish a robust and lofty edifice based on unadulterated Islam. His tenure suffered especially due to the inexperience of young associates lacking religious jurisprudence, who introduced multiple accretions, compounded by political manoeuvres often justified by the ‘ends justify the means’ rationale. This was particularly detrimental as infiltrators gained influence, and many political actions were far from religious, instead representing factional subterfuge aimed at preserving their own power.
• Purging Extraneous Elements and Safeguarding Religious Culture
• Throughout my works, I pursue the grand objective of purging religion of accretions. Over nearly a millennium, fabricated, superstitious, and Isra’iliyat elements have permeated Islam, causing widespread alienation from religion, particularly among youth. Until these extraneous layers are removed, society will not experience the sweetness of true faith but will instead suffer the afflictions they bring. I have presented this message in hopes that seekers of truth will engage with my writings and discover therein a healthy religion and a scientific, practical programme for worldly life. I urge that politicised distortions and some clergy’s injustices should not deprive people of genuine religion and knowledge—knowledge that forms true humanity and for which mankind was created.
• Furthermore, the national and religious culture of this land faces external assaults aimed at its destruction. Preserving our cultural heritage is as vital as defending our soil and sovereignty. Just as people sacrifice their lives to protect the homeland, intellectuals must be equally devoted to safeguarding cultural integrity. While the enemy failed to seize a single inch during the eight-year imposed war, it now aims to annihilate cultural identity with the missiles of humanism and secular rationalism, detaching society from its ancient roots. Its vanguard consists of those who propagate imported and alien concepts laden with human-centred philosophy, designed to sever people from their authentic heritage, replacing it with superficial and accretive culture that undermines religion and tradition. Ultimately, this leads the populace towards a spirituality divorced from guardianship and jurisprudence—effectively a Christianised Islam.
• A Glance of ( )
  Devotion of Daneshneshan
• I am very close and sincere with my students. One day, one of them presented me with a fairly long Masnavi, full of modesty and heartfelt yearning. They said, “I want you to include it in one of your writings so that it may endure for me. I know your books will become universal a hundred years from now. I want my devotion to be conveyed through this poem to those people you speak of, who live a wholesome and happy life.” Now, the opportunity has arisen to fulfil their request:
• The Most Mystical Saints
• O beloved, kind and faithful,
  O presence of the most mystical saints,
• Your gaze is like the smile of the suns,
  Your voice, melodious and heartening.
• From your look, hundreds of thousands of flowers bloom,
  Your face itself is a captivating garden.
• O eternal purity of my heart,
  You are the sovereign of the land of love.
• That clear mountain spring,
  May it bear witness to the purity of your soul.
• The pure scent of the mountain pastures emanates from you,
  In your gaze, gardens blossom.
• O my fortunate falcon of fortune,
  With wings spread upon the shoulders of devotees.
• The cup of hope is in your hands,
  From your purity, every bud opens.
• If the spark of your sigh touches someone,
  They become one of the legion of lovers.
• I sacrifice myself for that heart free of hypocrisy,
  Come closer and embrace me first.
• The leaves of your branch of wisdom
  Cast a shadow over our souls.
• The light of your knowledge dispels the darkness of doubt,
  Your heart is itself a fountain of revelation and guidance.
• You are the farmer of the green garden of love,
  Training is rightly in your hands.
• Before the dawn of your tender gaze,
  The air is filled with light every moment.
• Your spirit is purer than the clearest springs,
  The atmosphere scented with the flowers of your countenance.
• The oppressed grief of your heart broke mine,
  I have complaints about that deceitful people.
• O eternal spring of divine love,
  Praise be to the purity of your heart.
• The sweetness of your charming gaze melts
  The hearts of the longing and all the prophets.
• You are the gardener of my fields of desire,
  Come, my gardener, tend to my garden.
• O bright dawn of hopeful morning,
  Without you, my heart becomes turbulent.
• The village headman knew you, but
  Out of envy, he tore your cloak away.
• You became the gem before God,
  So abandon the village headman to his grazing.
• Since the Imam of truth has recognised you,
  Who else among the familiar could fail to recognise you?
• You have been afflicted with hardship since childhood,
  Affliction is noble for the beloved.
• O beloved, remain solitary,
  So that we may see your noble character.
• How could you be alone, O soul of souls?
  For you are in constant communion with God.
• Every night and day, alongside the “Names,”
  The pure ones congratulate you.
• These words are your own sweet utterance,
  This exile of mine is a sweet nectar.
• Since “Tooba is for my stranger nation,”
  Your reward is sweeter than honey.
• Give a copy to your companions,
  So they may be free from worldly fame.
• I have learned these words with my soul,
  I am indebted to you, O realm of wisdom.
• He whose essence is the abode of the Truth,
  As if all creatures were separate from Him.
• The creatures must, before His presence,
  Kneel in reverence and learn His lesson.
• The seeker must practice patience,
  So that sometimes he may hear His voice.
• (So blessed are your words,
  Blessed be the years of patience for the creatures.)
• The hand of God has generously bestowed,
  Upon the assembly, the beloved presence.
• But where is the appreciation among humans?
  Where is the courtesy and modesty?
• You are the saint, the loyal one, the pure one,
  Both martyr and witness on Judgment Day.
• Both beautiful, majestic, and a guide,
  Both purified, illuminated, and gracious.
• O Merciful, O Generous, O Wise,
  O Compassionate, O Kind companion of saints.
• O Praiseworthy, O Glorious, O Munificent,
  The dust of your feet is my eye’s kohl.
• O Transformer, keep our souls guarded,
  Touch our hearts and turn them to gold.
• O Noble, O King of loves,
  Open your knowledge again from generosity.
• Knowledge is lovelier with the beloved,
  It makes the seeker’s path easy and permissible.
• Though the journey of lovers is renowned,
  Yet no one truly recognises the beloved.
• Kinds attract their own kind,
  As the beggar finds joy among beggars.
• “I want to see a vision that is kingly,”
  So he may recognise the kings among beggars.
• Eyes must come from God,
  To see the unblemished saints.
• The light of Truth shines forth from you,
  You are the essence and melody of Ja’fari jurisprudence.
• Whoever tries to blow out the light of Truth,
  Burns himself; the light of Truth endures.
• Blind and ignorant is he who, from you,
  Has not seen the manifestation of Truth and that radiance.
• He who is deprived of your company,
  Walks a path full of error and mistakes.
• And he who has seen your light and turned away,
  His every effort becomes utterly wasted.
• I pray to God that you remain so long,
  That your aims be realised one by one.
• No wish shall remain in your heart,
  Under the protection of the Lord of the Banner.
• Remove every adornment from religion,
  So that religion may become owner of grace and power.
• Your foundation is the basis of the new jurisprudence,
  You remove adornments from the sacred precincts of religion.
• May the prayers of the righteous accompany your path,
  May Ali al-Murtadha be your supporter.
• May the Lion of Truth protect you wherever you go,
  Your friend and companion, the Seal of the Prophets.
• The leader of your sect, the truthful one,
  May he be by your side constantly, wherever you are.
• The Qa’im of the family of Muhammad is your helper,
  Mustafa himself prays for you.
• I am not worthy to describe your rank,
  For God praises the virtuous.
• Though my soul may not be worthy,
  O beloved presence, my soul is sacrificed for you.
• O God, the right of Ali al-Murtadha,
  The honour of the king of Nineveh.
• Spend our lives for his goals,
  Do not separate us from your beloved.
• Since his stirrup is the stirrup of the Qa’im,
  Make our soul sacrificed for his path.
• Tie our tresses to his tresses,
  So we may be near him in both worlds.
• His nearness itself is the fulfilment of a hundred prayers,
  So that we may be among the People of the Cloak.
• Wise of Secrets
• Greetings, O pure celestial spirit!
  You, the Simurgh of hidden secrets!
• May your splendour and glory be everlasting,
  May I always see you in joy.
• God of love and knower of secrets,
  Generous and as vast as the sea.
• Greatness, loftiness, and grandeur,
  Pride, generosity, eternal.
• You are the bright lamp of my heart,
  Flowing like a mountain spring.
• In this age of deceit and cunning,
  Chivalry and noble heroism are needed.
• Come, O champion of the realm of love,
  You who guard the pure religion.
• Among the caravan of seekers of the Beloved,
  You are the hoopoe, the leader of the caravan.
• To rise to the heavens,
  You are the strong rope and bond.
• You are the sovereign of knowledge in this world,
  You are mercy and kindness in this time.
• Turn the pages of our cold and dark chapter,
  For you are the illumination of the skies.
• Like Siyavash, you passed through fire,
  You are purity and kindness, like a garden.
• The manifestation of the Merciful’s Name,
  You host God within yourself.
• You are the Bismillah, the Merciful and Compassionate,
  The ladder to the heavens’ roof.
• The bright light of this land,
  Though it is a city imprisoned by unrest.
• Come, O sun of the ages,
  Suddenly cover the world in gold.
• Come, O beloved presence, O soul,
  Who in exile has made a bow your step.
• Take flight, O wise Simurgh,
  Cast a shade over our heads.
• A paradise in the heart of this cold age,
  A hidden spring in the festival of Mehr.
• Here are many robbers,
  Who for years have cut breaths.
• O champions, great ones, show your faces,
  You are the joy and glory of this world.
• Wisdom-teacher of existence and heart-stirrer,
  Speak well for knowledge and insight.
• The arrogance of fools will not last,
  For this hardness is itself futile.
• You, O harvester of love and wisdom,
  Come and open your lips, spread radiance.
• To the wound of my heart, you are a pleasant balm,
  Bring the story of divine revelation.
• You are the sun of eastern lights,
  Wise, brave, and skilled.
• You are freedom, dear one, a hero,
  You are the light of Mount Sinai and Mount Tur.
• For every restless troublemaker,
  You are like Rostam, a lion of life.
• Pure and clear like the water of existence,
  You are a good ideal for us.
• Your beloved is even Gabriel,
  Your pride is this shared language.
• You are light, moonlight, and sunlight,
  I have told you little for you are a hundred galaxies.
• You are like a mighty and lofty mountain,
  Gentle, a green garden, an orchard.
• A calm breeze, a smiling wave,
  How beautiful, youthful, and kind you are.
• Greetings, O beautiful spirit of spring,
  Your pleasant breeze upon every garden.
• Come, so I may embrace you,
  Recite the beautiful call to prayer in my ear.
• My heart is weary of the cawing of these crows,
  Come and sing a melody.
• I suffer from the deceit of these hypocrites,
  They are tricksters, intoxicated and mad.
• You, O most beautiful beloved of my heart,
  No safety exists for your soul.
• What a calamity has befallen your soul,
  You have become all names and signs.
• The language of kindness is joyful and beautiful,
  Others are after a morsel of bread.
• My heart is tired of the darkness of hypocrisy,
  The deceiver acts openly.
• Come and tear apart the disguises,
  Such organised hypocrisy.
• Night and dark clouds intertwined,
  The fate of people has become weakness.
• The garden of homeland now beats in blood,
  It is cold and fallen into autumn.
• The poppies and lovers have withered,
  No signs remain of the nightingales.
• The dark-faced crows of the age,
  Have broken the wings of the Huma bird so severely.
• The demon of hypocrisy and deceit,
  Has inflicted great harm on our souls.
• The ruin of the whole world starts here,
  Because the beloved ones have been neglected.
• I wonder why this world’s day is dark,
  While you yourself are in the midst.
• Why do these scholars and pious ones,
  Who know you are the best of your time,
• Who know your knowledge and wisdom,
  Suddenly withdraw from you?
• It seems the place of religion is their own thoughts,
  Preoccupied with themselves like children.
• But what is the duty of religion in this matter?
  When it is deprived of innovators?
• The beloved must remain alone,
  To guard the path of religion’s valley.
• Not only will there be no companion,
  But on every side there will be tricksters.
• I have heard that when the Qa’im 7 arrives,
  He will bring new religion with a new cry.
• So that people wander bewildered,
  Saying, “What is this religion and explanation?”
• Now this school “Adornment Forbidden,”
  Which you well brought forth,
• Has taken such a state in this time,
  Causing the ascetics to lament.
• Such adornment has settled on souls,
  That they flee from the Truth.
• Indeed, this is the secret of the estrangement of truth,
  Like the estrangement of every hero.
• This field will require courage like Haydar 7,
  Though he has a bone in his throat.
• Who will sit like a mountain in the storm,
  Unafraid of the clamor of wild beasts.
• Who will untie the knot of religion with his fingertips,
  Free from doubt and suspicion.
• One capable who draws from the Truth,
  Will be a good interpreter of revelation.
• After they test him well,
  They will see him above all experts.
• All scholars will gather around him,
  And support him as one.
• When a beloved comes into the midst,
  Moths must circle him.
• All lovers will sit before him,
  Building a nest of love.
• In this dark and gloomy world,
  Each one of them holds a candle.
• The Hand of God is with the community, O soul,
  Not the work of isolation and singularity.
• Wise Simurgh
• Greetings, O mystic presence, my heart aches from distance,
  Generous, kind man, light a feast in my heart.
• Light a lamp of the divine word this Yalda night,
  Give a command and instruction to the strayed men.
• Light a lamp so I can see ahead,
  For without your company I remain alone and night-wandering.
• Pour down mercy on the dark soil of this garden,
  Stir up passion in the lotus flowers and cypresses.
• Great ones! Wise ones! Generous ones! The world thirsts for your knowledge,
  You are wise and powerful, yet sit in solitude and abandonment.
• May you never be silent, for you are the cry of every heart,
  Enrich the time, O heart, even though you suffer deeply.
• Great ones! Eternal men! You are the sun and the unique,
  Able and knowledgeable, awake in your mission.
• Teacher of wisdom and kindness, judge of speech and nurture of words,
  You are the joyous melody for sorrowful souls.
• You are the bright light of morning and the colour of truth on your face,
  Yet you are hidden and veiled from the eyes of the unworthy.
• Your pure morning clarity is the radiant light of day,
  A stranger to this earthly world, yet renowned above.
• I call you, O prophet of freedom, arise!
  For the hearts of brave men and noble ones look to you.
• Come and play a melody in another veil now,
  Raise the tune of Bu’ata from the heart with lute and drum.
• A pure song of rain, the scent of tulip gardens,
  The purity of mountain pastures, what prosperity and flourishing!
• You are the morning of my spring, you are that naked Truth,
  You are the shining moon, you are the joyous sorrow.
• The splendour of the mountains, the purity of the springs,
  The cure for human suffering and the desire of the houris.
• The freshness of new springs, the scent of wandering winds,
  The soft sound of rain, you are the vineyard’s grapes.
• You are the path and the guide, you are the owner of the pen,
  And if I withdraw my hand, you are right and forgiven.
• Oath to Your Loyalty and the Kindness of Your Gaze
  By the oath of your loyalty, by the grace of your gaze,
  You are forgiven before the Truth, you are thanked and not reproached.
• In this biting cold, in this dreadful Yalda night,
  You are the warmth of my heart, the bright morning, the light.
• You are the majestic mountain; to my soul, you are the spirit.
  In the compendium of virtues, you are inscribed on every page.
• You are the seeker of love and the wise bearer of honour.
  Although condemned to painful silence, you are compelled and tasked.
• You raise your voice in the defence of truth, loud and clear.
  To the eyes of the fiend, you are a thorn; to his soul, a grievous wound.
• O revered beloved and most passionate lover,
  You are the legend of wisdom and the sovereign of authority.
• The world thirsts for the sound of your goodness; speak,
  For the tone of your words conveys the feeling of chivalry.
• In this famine of generosity, manliness and nobility,
  You are renowned for your courage, remembered for your wisdom.
• How merciless is this era, how unnatural this order;
  The space for the wise is like a prison, not a garden but a grave.
• The fate of the wise has always been sorrow;
  From prison to prison, or alone and confined.
• Where every scholar has chosen the silence of death,
  You speak for the warrior spirit, in every form and manner.
• All sit silently in corners, afraid of the monster’s uproar,
  Drowned in knowledge but broken, yet still fractured.
• If your lips are sealed, now the pen is in your hand.
  Break the reign of tyranny, for you are the wise of the public.
• You are water in the desert of our era’s knowledge,
  Yet caught in the hands of deprivation, imprisoned and constrained.
• You gain no pleasure from the betrayals of this age,
  Though they set every trap and snare along your path.
• Though the city is imprisoned by deceitful people, you are freer,
  For in the hands of the unworthy, your pride and dignity stand tall.
• See the sharp blade of ignorance striking souls and tents,
  See the enlightened people blind themselves to what is true.
• For the beloved of God is caught in cruelty and silence,
  Retreating to the corner of safety, sitting like an ant.
• O deceitful seducer, trouble him no more,
  For on the Day of Reckoning, before the Truth, you shall be vanquished.
• You commit crimes against the pure and noble-hearted,
  In the land of purity, you are many times naked and shameless.
• O most tyrannical ascetic, how much hypocrisy you bear,
  Full of deceit and magic, full of pretense and show.
• You silence the voice of truth to appear righteous,
  Quelling justice, with the trumpet in your hand.
• O wise Simurgh, may you never suffer from the vultures,
  The arrogance of fools is brief and their strength but a pretense.
• Again, with tearful eyes and a sorrowful heart, I say:
  Greetings, O venerable mystic, my heart longs for this distance.
• Glance of ( )
• Books Without Ornament
• O God, I have always seen You, found You, and held You.
  I have followed my childhood with You. I have always breathed with and upon You.
  Only You have been in every inhale and exhale of mine.
  You Yourself have been the will and desire of my steadfast steps,
  And all my steps have been realized with Your accompaniment.
  Until today, I have never found a moment or a step of mine lost.
  Since childhood, I have worshipped You clearly (إِيَّاکَ),
  And have never been deprived of the blessing of Your presence.
  In facing the wrath of the enraged and oppressors,
  You have always kept me firm on the straight path,
  A path whose blessing is Your own noble self.
  Never have I had any gaze or sigh except toward You,
  And no path but Yours has ever lit my way.
  Though since childhood, with Your companionship,
  I have studied all religions and sects as a faithful and striving seeker,
  And have been honoured by Islam and the light of Wilayah.
  I have spent every moment of my life with love for You
  And love for the Seal of the Prophets 9 and Fatimah Zahra 3,
  Fatim of the Fire and the full Wilayah,
  Imam Ali 7 and his rightful children :,
  Traversing sects and paths and denominations according to their spiritual methods,
  And with all their calls and requests for my companionship,
  Offering them stars and suns,
  I have never abandoned the companionship of my Imam,
  The seal of Haidari affection, the Master of the Time,
  And without any delusion, You have helped me pass beyond them.
  The youthful season of my life has been nourished
  With learning sciences and arts from over one hundred luminaries and greats,
  Each one a shining star and a precious gem for Islam and humanity—
  Great figures who never had a place in Qom’s seminary during their lives,
  Yet this house was founded by their blessing,
  And they are the scientific and epistemic backbone of religion,
  Whose reputation for enlightenment has spread far and wide.
• Books Without Ornament (continued)
• These masters were never overshadowed by the formal seminary institutions;
  Their knowledge was a pure light that illuminated the path beyond tradition.
  I have studied from them the branches of wisdom and the roots of insight,
  Drawing deeply from their wellsprings of philosophy, jurisprudence, and spirituality.
• Yet, despite the vastness of these sciences,
  My heart has remained steadfast upon the path of divine love and loyalty.
  Every study, every lesson, has been a step closer to You,
  The eternal reality behind the veils of appearances.
• I have sought not the ornament of worldly fame or fleeting applause,
  But the subtle beauty of truth unveiled in silent devotion.
  In the silence of contemplation and the solitude of nights,
  Your presence has been my companion and my light.
• In these pages without ornament, I inscribe my humble reflections,
  Not to dazzle with eloquence or rhetorical flourish,
  But to offer a sincere testament to the path that has sustained me.
  For truth requires no decoration, only honesty and courage.

– The Clarity of Worldliness and Worldly Life
– Shia Leaders during the Era of Occultation
– Body Language 1
– Body Language 2
– The Purity of Mysticism
– Foundations of Leadership
– Woman: The Beautiful Paradise of Upbringing and Nurture
– Life, Love or Law
– Woman: The Ever-Oppressed throughout History (4 volumes)
– Woman and Religious Freedom
– Woman and Freedom
– Woman and Life
– Woman and Human Firmness
– The Construction of Poetry
– Mirage of Mysticism or Prose Fragrance
– Hymn of the Devotees
– The Chain of Equality and the Link of Oppression
– Male or Female Dominance
– The Path of Mourning
– Thoughtful Wanderers
– The Red Path (3 volumes)
– The Path of Love / Memoirs (3 volumes)
– The Image of the Seeker
– Night, Solitude, and the Thunderbolt of Silence
– Blossoms of Hadiths
– Wonders of Physical Well-being
– The Candle of Life
– The Thorn of Rebellion
– City of Political Rituals
– Methodology for Implementing Legal Punishments
– The Booklet of Love
– The Pure Writings of Seminaries
– The Necessity of Knowledge of the Station of Luminosity
– Seeking and Work Commitment
– The Mystic and Perfection
– Passionate Love
– Religious Scholars and Simple Living
– The Mysticism of Mahbubi and the Path of the Lover
– Mysticism and Spiritual Stations
– Love and Unity
– Infallibility: A Divine Gift
– The Rationality of Shia Mysticism (Commentary and Reconsideration of Tamhid al-Qawa’id)
– Principles of Jurisprudence and Its Five Scholars
– True Scholars: Followers of the Prophets
– Sciences and Key Perspectives (3 volumes)
– The Worlds of Mina
– Female Singing
– Mysterious Glances
– The Unseen, Night, and Awakening
– Culture of Sharia and the Nature of Earthly Existence
– The Culture of Mysticism
– The Literary Culture and the Science of Derivation
– Jurisprudence of Singing and Music (7 volumes)
– Modern Philosophy
– The List of God’s Beauty and Majesty
– The List of Prevailing Jurisprudential Rules
– The List of Masculine and Feminine Cases in the Holy Quran
– The Rule of Hardship and Difficulty and Pressure Management
– The Law of Guardianship
– The Holy Quran and Economic Foundations
– Judiciary and Punishment
– The Seven Rules of Divine Conduct
– Healthy Economic Laws and Poverty Alleviation
– New Exploration in Miracles and Divine Blessings
– The Book of God
– The Book of Friendship
– Kawthar: The Honour of the Divine Truth
– Kawthar: The Point of Existence
– Alleyways and Corners
– Passages and Escapes of Society
– Propositions of Anthropology
– Selected Explanation of Religious Issues
– Social Dialogues
– Intimate Dialogues
– Discourse on Quranic Studies
– The Essence of Servitude and the Core of Ownership
– The Beloved and the Devotees
– The Beloved of Love
– Macro-Management
– Utopian City or Modern Jungle
– The Levels of Guardianship
– Death and Life in Eternity
– Bodily Resurrection: A Religious and Philosophical Reality (Paltoyi edition)
– Bodily Resurrection (Vaziri edition)
– The Knowledge of Mahbubi and the Path of the Lover
– Stations of the Mystics
– Speaking Unspeakables
– Abundant Resources, Sick Economy
– The Rituals of Hajj
– The Logic of Music
– The Mysticism Edition
– The System of Domination
– The Regulations of the Shia Clergy
– Political Perspectives
– Mystical Melodies
– The Call of Love
– The Aspect of Prophethood
– Alcoholic Beverages
– The Extremes
– The Difficult Guardianship of Imam Ali (7 volumes)
– Religious Guidance
– Efficient Wives and Managers
– Clerical Memorial
– Monotheism
– …

Selected Best Poems
I have compiled the best selections of my poems, which embody Mahbubi’s mysticism and its complexities in very simple and clear language, into one volume entitled Complete Collection of the Dīvān-e Neku. Other poets typically do not preserve their weaker works, but I have retained all my poems. To date, all these poems and several selected thematic collections have amounted to thirty volumes, the titles of which are:

• The Best Gazelle
• Pure Dance
• Generous Wealth
• Heavenly Maid
• Bride of the Heart
• The Dīvān of Love and Knowledge Vol. 1
• The Dīvān of Love and Knowledge Vol. 2
• The Dīvān of Love and Knowledge Vol. 3
• The Dīvān of Love and Knowledge Vol. 4
• Pure Criticism Vol. 1
• Pure Criticism Vol. 2
• Pure Criticism Vol. 3
• Pure Criticism Vol. 4
• The Iranian Evening Vol. 1
• The Iranian Evening Vol. 2
• The Iranian Evening Vol. 3
• Burning and Weaving
• Secret and Coquetry
• Proximity to the Beloved
• The Most Passionate
• Heart’s Blood
• Gentle Grace
• Graceful Coquetry
• The Land of the Beloved
• Calamity and Guardianship Vol. 1
• Calamity and Guardianship Vol. 2
• The Radiance of Mahbubi
• Woman: The Goddess of Love
• The Light of Passion
• Complete Collection of the Dīvān-e Neku

Wink ( )
Twenty Cohesive Books

These writings (i.e., the twenty volumes I shall mention) are souvenirs of a forced journey starting on the 1st of Dhu al-Hijjah 1409 AH, equivalent to Wednesday, 14th July 1988 AD, a time when, a month earlier, power in Iran had changed hands and all opponents had to be utterly crushed.

Few are those who truly have something to say about themselves and who do not impose the dry and stale ideas of others on themselves and others with endless verbosity and chatter, a condition which, indeed, has arisen following the transfer of power in recent times.

Even those who have something of their own remain unclear as to the origins and sources of their core beliefs.

Though such knowledge is also very limited and it is unclear whether it is abundant in all respects. Even if some have knowledge in some aspects, they may lack it in many others.

Moreover, those who have something to say for themselves, whether in all respects or in some aspects, it is not certain that everything they have is correct, valid, or sound.

Few are those whose thoughts or actions are free from error and flaw. Certainly, the holy and infallible saints and divine emissaries are an exception, for only they pursue the path of thought and action without any fault or rebellion and seek to liberate others from all whirlpools of ignorance and rebellion; these are timeless individuals.

A Muslim, although required to align his beliefs with divine emissaries and submit absolutely to truth and reality, and never exercise independent or tyrannical thinking and behaviour against them, this does not imply that a Muslim cannot possess self-confidence and hold independent thoughts.

Intellectual Independence and Faith

A person’s belief in religion and submission to the Almighty is not to disregard their own findings and remain blindly imitative and dependent. A believer in truth and devotion to divine religion must develop insight and faith in the Almighty and the existential effects of creation and knowledge, and avoid any correct belief; at the same time, they must free themselves from all dry, dead, and transient creatures and sever mental and practical dependence, individually and collectively.

A free person must examine, search, and study themselves to understand what they possess and what aspirations have been nurtured within.

If a belief is true and corresponds with reality, it cannot be inconsistent with the principles of religion, for religious principles are merely expressions of realities.

Being Muslim does not mean lacking thought and reflection under the pretext of obedience or intellectual dependence or weak thinking. Just as distance from religion and irreligion or intellectual and cultural separation from religion do not mean independence or freedom of thought or having content or character, nor can any disconnected or restless tendencies be considered as content of culture and freedom of thought.

It is important for an individual to have something of their own, to speak, and to follow a belief that corresponds with reality, free from passivity, lethargy, naivety, arrogance, rigidity, recklessness, and tyranny, without falling into extremes or negligence on these grounds.

I mean to say that having one’s own voice and being a thinker is not opposed to religion, just as lack of thought and simplicity does not mean piety and religious devotion. Intellectual independence and having meaningful thought depend solely on inner insight, genuine freedom, and intellectual liberty, whereby the eye and heart are opened and truths are rediscovered in a pure fountain of reality.

Having something to say is not an accumulation of knowledge, nor is lacking knowledge synonymous with absence of formal or superficial sciences.

It is possible to collect all types of waters in a region, but all of them may be artificial and not become an ocean; likewise, it is possible for a clear spring to exist in a desert corner and beside a rock without the dryness around affecting its status—in fact, that spring influences its surroundings.

It is possible for someone to gather all the available knowledge of their time in a specialised field and imprison it within themselves without producing anything new; likewise, someone else might avoid all existing words and terms, but with an open heart and creative identity, find a fountain of truth within.

Just as a literary scholar may possess all poetic rules and sciences but fail to compose poetry or be a poet, so an untrained layperson may be a poet whose heart spontaneously produces poems and ghazals—indeed, this person is a poet, not a scholar, and vice versa.

Breaking Free from Superficialities

Breaking free from ethnic, traditional, religious, and sectarian superficialities is a privilege and among the highest intellectual and cultural merits. Although such liberation is not easy and not suitable for everyone, including intellectuals and scholars, it nonetheless represents true dynamism and complete freedom from the ‘other.’

Freedom from superficialities is a very high perfection seldom attained. It is possible for someone with great knowledge and learning to be trapped in a world of superficialities; similarly, one may have many ideas yet lack originality, with a spirit of passivity and submission imprisoning the individual.

Superficiality, superstition, passivity, and ignorance have caused havoc in human life and have entrenched themselves in human minds, making their destruction difficult and requiring thoughtful and practical efforts.

Yet, rashness, recklessness, arrogance, and haste may also cause a person to arrogantly dismiss the truths labelled as superficialities, depriving themselves of many just and rightful things. Such arrogance and rigidity are even more damaging than passivity and lethargy.

This makes the matter very difficult, placing the individual in a great and dangerous precipice from which escape is not easy.

A Clear Reality

The clear truth I have found within myself since childhood is that my heart’s vessel and my existence have not been overwhelmed by desires of this or that, nor have I been tainted by everyone.

Since I found myself, before being distracted by others’ disputes and quarrels, I have always sought truth and pursued realities and truths free of individual and superficial colours and masks.

Just as a child grows to maturity and clearly finds signs of his personality, thoughts, ideas, inclinations, and aspirations, I have grown and found myself a thinker, seeking, and knowing.

I have found in myself this aspiration that is very close to all divine and human affairs.

I am not one who simply follows others, nor am I one who imitates blindly or lacks intellectual independence.

I am one who desires clarity and strives to understand and comprehend, who seeks to break free from all shackles and chains and traverse the path of knowledge and insight, continually renewing and improving oneself.

If all the outwardly learned and skilled professionals criticize me or attack me without my resorting to any disproportionate defense, I shall remain steadfast and proclaim loudly: Long live myself — which is none other than the scientific life and the life of thought.

If all individuals, both renowned and common, laugh at me and take a stance against me, I alone shall laugh at them all and shall not furrow my brow; I will declare openly before all: Lakum deenukum wa liya deen [19] — “To you your religion, and to me mine.”

I shall never be concerned with the chatter or praise of others; nor shall I be troubled by complaints, curses, backbiting, slander, or harm inflicted by anyone, nor shall I curse or harm anyone. Rather, I shall hold a heart full of love and kindness for all.

Guiding Principles

In all my writings, I never pursue personal matters, nor those of others; friendship, enmity, or personal partiality shall not interfere, and only love and aversion will pertain to truths and meanings as opposed to evils, corruptions, and embellishments. The topics and beliefs I engage with are those which have become the very essence of my being. In these writings, I rely solely on inner discoveries, divine truths, and realities.

Furthermore, in these texts, I neither seek to present statistics, citations, witnesses, validations, nor to defame anyone, but solely to express truth.

Although here I do not wish to elaborate extensively, and will offer my discourse and beliefs with a concise analysis and critique, avoiding any argument or contention, and will not entertain opponents or defenders, I also steer clear of vagueness and ambiguity, pursuing my convictions openly and freely, without fear or hesitation. I shall consume this melon whole, without concern for its quiver.

In these writings, I shall not refer to any book or writing of myself or others; I write freely and without any constraints, though this style may entail some difficulties which I do not intend to resolve here.

I compose these texts during this journey, at various brief intervals of my life, regarding them as a forced but inevitable travelogue, complete with its bitterness and sweetness.

I shall present matters that require no great effort or calculation to articulate, whose content shall be as straightforward as “two plus two equals four.”

I avoid writing about problematic, bewildering, speculative, or overly cautious topics; I discuss only those matters that I have personally reached and that are intimately familiar to my soul. There shall be no set limits, order, or arrangement in the exposition, ranging from religious and divine subjects to political, social, or particular and general ideas and beliefs, resting entirely on the firm foundations of convictions and truths.

Although a coherent, logical sequence would be desirable, it might not always be practicable, as I am engaged in this journey under various influences and pressures from others, and maintaining strict order would entail extra effort which I am unwilling to expend. Nevertheless, at the time of preparing these texts for publication, they acquire a relative and appropriate order.

Initial Thought

That we exist, and that the material world exists, is an undeniable fact; any sceptical discussions on these points are superfluous or pertain only to their attributes. However, that which transcends this meaning, and whose facilitation is not easily attained, is the existence of God. Does the cosmos operate as an autonomous, self-energising system, or is there truly a God behind creation? Is it God who created and governs this system, or does it arise, move, and revolve according to specific material laws?

Among beliefs, this is the heaviest and most profound debate, and none is weightier. This fundamental question can be formulated thus: Is God a reality or a mere belief? Is God a human conception or an external truth? It is indisputable that this notion, or at least the idea, has preoccupied humanity, but is it accurate and does it have an external reality, or is it only human subjectivity?

The Outcome of the Journey

During this journey, I have provided answers to this and hundreds of similar questions in interconnected writings. The product of this compulsory journey has become the following books, all published. This collection forms stars and satellites of an intellectual system, all written in alignment and orbit:

• God Whom I Worship
• The Pulse of Faith and Disbelief
• Freedom in Bondage
• The Islamic Revolution and the Muslim Republic
• The Chain of Equality and the Link of Tyranny
• Passages and Escapes of Society
• The Sufi Writings of the Seminary
• Principles and Rules of Religious Propagation
• The Science of Seeking Knowledge
• The Enlightenment of Worldliness and World-Centeredness
• Anthropological Propositions
• The Essence of Servitude and the Substance of Possession
• Behavioral Admonitions
• The Shock of Rebellion
• The World of Jinn and the Deceit of Humans
• Wonders of Physical Health
• The Wisdom of Philosophy
• The Tale of Love
• Woman: The Beautiful Paradise and Nurturer
• The Dominance of Men or Women
• The Politics of Criticism and Fragmentation
• The imposition of the “bomb of fragmentation” upon the essence of sacred philosophy, jurisprudence, and mysticism — through the fabrication of pseudo-philosophers, fictitious mystics, and superficial jurists devoid of true jurisprudence — originates not from philosophy, jurisprudence, or methodical mysticism themselves, but from the acquisitive and colonialist politicians. These disciplines are systematic, grounded in the logic of understanding and language, and uphold discourse, debate, criticism, and evaluation. Western political strategy has been highly successful in presenting fragmented and disconnected philosophies to undermine philosophy in favour of science. This policy continues the campaign against spirituality by defiling the sacred face of philosophy and mysticism. The West has desecrated philosophy’s sanctity by injecting fragmentation, just as it once divided it to combat Christianity, turning the term “philosophy” into a psychological diversion toward corruption and dispersion — akin to the concept of “Hu,” the divine greatest name. They have both sullied the reputation of independent sacred and scientific figures and attached the bomb of fragmentation to philosophy itself, stripping it of sanctity so that no one would imagine philosophy and religion could have a sacred or authoritative approach. By defiling philosophy and religion and desecrating their sanctity, the West has paved the way for the promotion of violence, licentiousness, and sexual libertinism. The prevalent violence and sexual permissiveness in the West have their roots in this policy of creating fragmentation in Western philosophy and religion. Originally, philosophy emerged as a movement against Church superstitions and as part of the Renaissance, awakening, and devotion to science and discovery of reality. However, the unified tradition that characterised ancient philosophers was dissolved; each philosopher was assigned a distinct school and position. Meanwhile, the world of science was deliberately and systematically elevated as the singular tool for discovery and measurement, creating a scientific front firmly opposed to a cohesive and impregnable philosophy and metaphysical world, positioning the work of contemporary scientists as a continuation of earlier scholars. The West replaced the robust philosophy of limited scope and diminished meaning with a bloated and commissioned science. Over the years, every philosopher who appeared carried a burden of criticism against predecessors but failed to clarify spirituality, purity, knowledge, or truth, which are unifying. These divisive and fragmenting critiques — serving the very same policy — were so widely propagated that this era is known as the Age of Criticism.
• Nonetheless, amid the clamor of scattered human philosophies aligned with the strategies of acquisitive and colonial powers who ridicule inner philosophy, religious governance, and sacred knowledge, one may still seek the sacred philosophy and the wisdom-oriented religious philosophy. A philosophy whose philosopher appears powerful, dissolves fragmentation, and creates unity; a jurist and philosopher who recognises and employs the language of science and religion, understands the logic of philosophy and religion, speaks through research, and generates knowledge, spirituality, purity, love, and closeness. A jurist and philosopher of meaning and enlightenment, adept at critiquing Eastern and Western thoughts without radicalism, vehement against intellectual corruption; a jurist and philosopher who engineers spiritual thought and champions the path of health and felicity; one who discerns the sacrifices demanded by the owners of power, wealth, deception, and supplication, without falling prey; a jurist and philosopher who sanctifies jurisprudence and philosophy, rather than violating their sanctity through misguided judgments, wrongful concessions, self-serving exploitation of titles, fearful or materialistic choices, or through the bidding of acquisitive powers. Such a jurist and philosopher can restore knowledge and meanings to society’s pulse, replacing the violence and sexual depravity stemming from philosophical fragmentation and its delusions and decline. One who carries the fragrance of Platonic and Farabian enlightenment and spreads the scent of Shi‘ite guardianship; one who eradicates hypocrisy and pretense, crushes sycophancy, and destroys the narrow cage of the turmoil of deceit. Only those who face God with sincerity and truthfulness, treat God’s creation with fairness and kindness, and embody gentle ethics while shunning violence and harshness can truly reach the truth without deceit. Conversely, the colonial world promotes violence and moral corruption and fosters wine-drinking while sowing hypocrisy through modern despotism; that is, the colonial world has embedded all elements necessary for desecrating rationality and spirituality within its political, cultural, social, and scientific engineering.
• The Tradition of Wilayat-Oriented Knowledge
• Opposing this policy is the tradition of philosophy and knowledge rooted in Wilayat (Divine Guardianship) and sacred jurisprudence, which connects human reason to God through the sacred faculty and the bestowed Wilayat of the divine saints. This is the fundamental difference between religious philosophy and reason and human philosophy and reason (ranging from Greek and Western to Sadra’i and Neo-Sadra’i), highlighting the role of devotion to the possessor of Wilayat in religious philosophy.
• The Wilayat-Opposing Politics of Abbasid Philosophy
• The tragic narrative fashioned by the unjust caliphs for Islamic philosophy is as follows: Philosophy in Islam, rooted in Greek thought, was backed by the anti-Wilayat policies of the oppressive caliphs. The Greek nature of philosophy, once subjected to the anti-Wilayat politics of tyrannical rulers, imparted upon God an image of an autocratic monarch who assigned divine rights to himself and his human vicegerent — rights which, as in ancient Greece, were considered part of natural laws. Islamic philosophers and intellectuals, under the sponsorship of oppressive caliphs, plagiarised and translated Greek philosophical ideas to intensify the conflict between reason and Shi‘ite Wilayat, introducing minor rhetorical modifications to harmonize these ideas with the Sunni caliphs’ doctrines and thus theorize a sectarian ideology within the Muslim community. They vested religious authority first in God and then in the caliph as His successor — a caliph lacking true inner Wilayat, whose authority was enforced by military might, the swords of mercenary commanders, and lucrative decrees of worldly jurists and deceitful advisers. This caliph claimed the divine will as his own, and opposition to him was deemed rebellion against God and apostasy. Philosophy gradually became a rationalist school with diverse sectarian influences, serving the caliph’s intellectual agenda and legitimizing their political claims. The Abbasid caliphs fully supported all rationalist scholars and jurists aligned with their cause to combat the Shi‘ite Wilayat movement. It is important to note that the philosophy endorsed by the caliphs encompassed most sciences and knowledge of the time, thereby bringing all sciences under their political control. Between the two schools of Platonic illumination and Aristotelian Peripatetics, they popularized Aristotle’s philosophy, which distanced itself from the illumination compatible with Wilayat and relied solely on pure human reason. The comprehensive support of Jews and Christians in promoting Greek philosophy among Muslims to open a new intellectual front against Shi‘ite Wilayat and dilute the authority of Ahl al-Bayt in doctrinal and intellectual matters must not be overlooked. They presented philosophy with an Islamic veneer to prevent negative and retaliatory reactions among Muslims. The oppressive caliphs, empty-handed against the Ahl al-Bayt school, openly supported Jewish and Christian rationalist philosophers and their own jurists materially, politically, and propagandistically, exemplified during the reign of Ma’mun when official government-sponsored debates became common. Philosophy, as the “mother of sciences,” especially in its encompassing sense, was commissioned and localized by the Abbasids and served their interests among Muslims, often authored by Jewish or Christian philosophers. These philosophers received significant financial guarantees for theorizing the rulers’ demands, and the government rewarded their efforts, providing modern schools to rationalist schools that claimed supremacy over Shi‘ite intellectual culture and the living divine saints. Despite adopting the name “Islamic government,” these regimes opposed the Ahl al-Bayt, sometimes pretending that their political uprisings and ideology originated from revelation and sharing the same source, yet in reality, those in power clandestinely pursued the denial and elimination of the authentic Shi‘ite school and the Wilayat of the living divine guardian. To safeguard their rule, they committed every crime and attached every corruption to religion, confusing the office of Imamate and the ordinary life of the jurist with the ruler’s personal status, granting titles of Imamate or jurisprudence to powerless rulers servile to wealth and force, while threatening and silencing scholars to maintain absolute dominion over worldly affairs and subjugate all under the yoke of the caliphate and their leadership wheel. The unjust rulers valued philosophy and funded philosophers to legitimize the caliphate, make the caliph their servant, and justify the corruption and worldliness of the caliphate, thus confining any independent thought within their self-constructed philosophical cage, and drowning dissent in the roar of their media empire, leaving free thinkers imprisoned, listless, and fragmented, unable to open a front against the prevalent caliphal thought or oppose it. The greatest problem for philosophy and jurisprudence in Islam was their sacrifice to the altar of caliphal power, where those engaging in philosophy and jurisprudence lacked the capacity to confront the political motives and exploitation by Abbasid rulers. If they did not oppose Wilayat, they became intellectual victims, cut down by the guillotine of Abbasid anti-Wilayat politics.
• Distinguishing Scientific Method from Partisan Motives

It is necessary to distinguish the rational method of seeking truth from the partisan motives imposed by those in power upon a body of knowledge and to avoid conflating the sound method of a science with improper motivations imposed upon it. Although these unhealthy motives have introduced numerous errors, fabrications, and distortions throughout history, causing much of the accepted knowledge to be rejected, particularly since the roots of jurisprudence and philosophy had to devise a provisional path for seekers of truth in opposition to the Wilayat-oriented school of the Imams. Otherwise, the rational method of philosophy and jurisprudence remains valid. The moral and spiritual corruption lies not in the sciences themselves, but in the political and cultural manipulation of these sciences and their misuse by tyrants, whether in the Abbasid era or subsequent colonialist rulers. The Dominance of Imitative Caliphate over the Fate of Sciences

A society that succumbs to imitation of ordinary individuals and blind adherence to the thoughts of non-sacred figures experiences the death of the spirit of religion, science, and reason. In such a society, fanaticism, rigidity, partisanship, and violence replace free thought, liberty, and humanity. Imitation extinguishes all feelings and sensitivities. Scientific progress and development owe their existence to free engineering, experimentation, and exploration beyond known boundaries. Muslim philosophy, imbued with imitation and submission, never transcended its traditional confines — not because its premises were inherently rational, but rather, akin to how modern psychology relies heavily on Western data, Muslim philosophy internalised the imitation of influential theologians, whose authority was politically endorsed by the unjust caliphs. This imitation pervaded all branches of knowledge due to the widespread and populous nature of philosophy in antiquity. Consequently, the political authorities, representing the caliphate, monopolised the entire scientific and practical destiny of Muslims. By enforcing a spirit of obedience, they suppressed dissent and opposition through imprisonment, torture, execution, and defamation, thus silencing any critic of the caliphs and their affiliated scholars. This oppression forced even geniuses such as Avicenna to wander, lamenting the entrenched stagnation and regression imposed to safeguard the interests of the oppressive rulers, which ultimately reduced knowledge to ignorance, superstition, and decay. The hegemony of imitation blinded all talents, stifling intellectual freedom, creativity, and innovation. The dominance of imitation shielded the unjust caliphs from ideological and social crises, as well as from the emergence of oppositional thoughts. Just as these rulers controlled social protests through this strategy, they also prevented religious crises and factional disputes by enforcing uniformity around the caliph. Imitation preserved tradition and social unity centred on the caliph, depriving society of the experience of crossing forbidden boundaries and venturing into uncharted intellectual territories.

• Teacher-Centredness in Religious Knowledge
• There must be a correspondence between the infallible (Ma‘sūm) and the non-infallible scholar in order for the non-infallible scholarly data to be religiously valid and hold legal authority (ḥujja). This correspondence hinges on a crucial element: the sacred disposition (malakah qudsiyyah) of the divinely inspired scholar (‘ālim rabbānī) and the just mujtahid, or the bestowed guardianship (wilāyah). Religion, if not founded on a wilāyat-based teacher-centred description, is invalid, and labelling such an invalid system as “religion” is merely a verbal convention, not a technical or substantive usage. Accordingly, the definition of religion is equivalent to “true religion.” Similarly, religious knowledge is constituted and sustained by the wilāyat-based teacher. The actualisation of religion and religious knowledge is a teacher-centred matter, necessitating supervision and guardianship by a living, divine custodian (walī ḥayy). The religious and scholarly vitality of society depends upon the divine guardian at every era, who shapes their spiritual progress through love and allegiance.
• During the occultation (ghaybah), wilāyat manifests as sacred jurisprudence (fiqh qudsī) and guardianship, based on the presence of a living, present divine guardian who acts as the deputy of the awaited Imam. Jurisprudence and religious knowledge rest on two foundations: ijtihād (independent reasoning) and justice (‘adālah). The production of religious knowledge depends on both ijtihād and justice. Therefore, religious knowledge bears no relation to the prevalent seminary sciences—which currently flourish more in non-believing (kufr) countries—since those lack connection with prophetic revelation and infallibility. Religious knowledge must align with the revelation and infallibility of God’s Prophets. This correspondence is attained through the sacred disposition and the power of self-preservation (ṣiyānat al-nafs), which is described as justice.
• Just as the divine Prophets possess a selective and gracious system, being chosen individuals who have attained God’s special favour and grace, religious ijtihād also has a sustaining principle, termed the “inner sacred disposition.” This disposition renders ijtihād religious, divine, supported by God, and endowed with authoritative legitimacy (ḥujja). The philosophical tradition, as seen in thinkers such as Ibn Sīnā, maintains that knowledge is “a law for every newcomer who attains it, one after another” and that knowledge is a form of light. The reception of the sacred intellect is a kind of divine inspiration. The sacred intellect is the light God casts into the heart of whom He wills: “Knowledge is a light which God casts into the heart of whomsoever He wills.” Hence, the sciences that formalists presently call “religious” but severed from inner reality, being cut off from the truth of the sacred disposition, are merely religious arts (funūn dīnī). These formalists fall into the fallacy of substituting religious art for religious knowledge, listing the criteria of the former as if they applied to the latter.
• The discovery of religion and the divine intention (ḥaqq ta‘ālā) requires a special connection with God, established through ijtihād and justice, which must at least include the sacred disposition—also loosely called the gifted luminous intellect. It should be noted that possessing the sacred disposition does not necessarily imply possessing wilāyat; although the sacred disposition requires special divine grace, the conferral of wilāyat demands even more stringent conditions and a unique special grace granted only to God’s most beloved servants.
• The sacred disposition is a bestowed capacity contingent upon divine special grace, where acquisition and learning merely provide the soil and conditions for that special mercy to descend; yet there is no essential or necessary correlation with it. A clear sign of possessing the sacred disposition is the ability to produce novel scientific insights that no existing authoritative science can refute and which harmonise with their own valid data. The sacred disposition is a bestowed inner talent rather than an acquired one; acquisition and learning only polish and illuminate that special mercy. It is in no sense something attained solely through study or instruction; one must possess this God-given capacity to sanctify the jurist and endow the philosopher with a luminous and sanctified intellect.
• Difference Between Religious Knowledge and Religious Skill
• As mentioned, religion is a teacher-centred phenomenon. If this teacher-centred nature is considered without reference to a sacred, authoritative teacher of wilāyat, it devolves into a mere skill or craft, losing its status as knowledge. Although academic fields of religious studies share terminology and propositions with seminary sciences, the university system is not teacher-centred and does not cultivate divine prophets; it pursues divine techniques but not religious knowledge.
• Religion, in the domain of infallibility, is true religion that never conflicts with true knowledge of the empirical sciences. However, religion practiced by followers distant from the presence of infallibility becomes contaminated with superstitions and accretions. Likewise, in science, theories unproven or artificially imposed by colonialism do not constitute true science. By eliminating these accretions, no conflict remains between science and religion. It is only non-science and non-religion that clash with both, and such conflict is not genuinely scientific but an irrelevant departure from the subject. The conflict of true science is with the same superstitions that true religion opposes; just as true religion conflicts with pseudo-scientific claims that real science also disputes.
• Religious Vitality
• In our definition of religion, religion is a formal, binding relationship of a human being—both material and spiritual—with the truth (existence), aimed at free and proportional attainment of the perfect nature (worldly health and ultimate felicity) through a systematic collective and volitional progression (both human and divine love) towards closeness to God. This definition is based on a final (eschatological) explanatory framework and a comprehensive, straightforward teaching system under a divine master (a guardian who possesses revelation and infallibility, or a living guardian in the occultation era) governing all human aspects—belief, behaviour, and action. Therefore, religion is a collective phenomenon. A society that attains religious vitality systematically and comprehensively under the supervision of wilāyat leadership enables its individuals to achieve religious vitality. Religious vitality depends on public culture (certain knowledge, love, wilāyat, and justice). Without elevating thought to wilāyat knowledge and action to general love or at least civic justice, religion cannot function effectively for an individual.
• Religion and religious knowledge are sacred and divine realities that guide the upright but lead to loss for the wicked despite outward purity. However, the link between religion and society does not imply that religion is a social phenomenon. Unlike language and culture, religion is not influenced by environment, family, society, or other human factors; true religion is a divine, prophetic reality, not a social construct or method.
• Expansion and Universality of Religion
• The phrase “free attainment” in our definition of religion conveys its expansiveness and universality, contrasting with constraint and dependence. Religious submission must never result in selfish restriction, tyranny, or autocracy. Religion is inseparable from freedom and liberty, yet it opposes lawlessness or abandonment of order.
• The qualifier “formal” in the definition distinguishes religion from faith (īmān). Faith is a genuine commitment specific to believers, while religion is outward and can be attained even through mere verbal profession or formal adherence to religious obligations, such as pronouncing the testimony of faith or acknowledging the prophecy of the final revealed master: “Say (there is no god but God) and you shall succeed.” Therefore, the call to religion differs from the call to faith and special wilāyat and their rules should not be conflated. This distinction rejects defining religion as “responsible servitude.” The intermediate stage between outward religion and the inner faith and special guardianship is truth-seeking, discussed further in the book Sound Economy and Poverty Alleviation. Understanding religious knowledge requires knowing the essence of knowledge itself, which I will elaborate after this under the critique of philosophical thought and an analysis of the active intellect theory.

Conditions of Leadership

All human beings are inherently equal, and anyone who seeks to govern must possess qualities that confer superiority, legitimacy, and the criteria for rightful authority; otherwise, their interventions and actions constitute aggression and transgression. Plato, in his ideal city described in The Republic, rationally justifies the ruler’s authority and reserves it exclusively for the wise. He asserts that rulers should not live like the masses but rather according to their intellect; accordingly, they must live in solitude and with minimal expenses, exercising command and service efficiently — that is, with minimal consumption and maximum output.

In Islamic teachings, it is stated: “The master of the people is their servant.” The lives of the Prophets, saints, and scholars have followed this principle. Many Shia scholars, as we interpret, did not even have the means to light their own lamps but achieved the work of hundreds of missiles, shaping the beliefs and convictions of a society. These convictions either detached the trigger of missiles from their destructive targets to promote peace and tranquility or precisely designated the target to inspire a devoted and loyal nation toward effort and dedication.

The ruler of society must expend the least and serve the most; not one whose personal security detail costs exceed the expenses of hundreds of households. The life of Amir al-Mu’minin (‘Ali ibn Abi Talib) exemplifies Plato’s ideal ruler more excellently than the ideal city itself. For instance, how much did he spend on marrying the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? Their shared carpet was a single animal skin with multiple uses. Prominent figures in early Islam, such as Talha and Zubair, when they saw the treasury’s lights extinguished for them and witnessed Imam Ali’s austere life, understood that injustice would not befall them and, unable to match his justice, rebelled against him.

Imam Ali did not hoard the public treasury or revenues; he distributed all resources promptly to the community and rightful recipients. In summary, what Plato presented in The Republic has been experientially and excellently realised in the Islamic world through the infallible leaders, the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them).

Regrettably, the Shia community suffered under tyrannical rulers of the Umayyad, Abbasid, and other dynasties who were neither wise nor sanctified. What Plato described is a truth for wise scholars, not a utopian or unattainable ideal. The ideal city of The Republic is, for the materialistic and spiritually impoverished Western world, unbelievable and dismissed by self-indulgent secular politicians. However, in the Islamic world, the Fourteen Infallibles represent its highest and most authentic exemplars.

If Plato claims that the ruler must be a wise person who does not live in palaces but commands from a simple tent, this is a plan that no unwise person can implement, lacking the will to resist worldly desires and ambitions. Although the era of tents and simple dwellings has passed, the spirit of his words remains relevant: a leader must avoid materialism, lust, and greed.

This is not an unattainable ideal, but it cannot be realised by anyone other than saintly scholars and sages. Plato’s profound philosophical insight produced this noble theory, tailored to the scale of his society and time.

If we seek to theorise this ideal within an Islamic framework for the present era of occultation, it corresponds to the doctrine of the “Guardianship of the Saintly Jurist” (Wilayat al-Faqih al-Qudsi), whereby the jurist, through a divine grace (malaka qudsiyya), attains inspiration, prudence, just governance, and administrative wisdom. By this divine endowment, he safeguards both himself and society from tyranny and oppression, dedicating his existence to the community without consuming its resources. Otherwise, worldly rulers sacrifice society for their own survival and seek power for personal aggrandisement.

The ruler must possess a sound character, free from feelings of inferiority, pettiness, or narrow-mindedness. He must be noble, genuine, competent, and, above all, just — a justice understood in Shia jurisprudence as a divine, inherent virtue (malaka mohabbati qudsiyya), which confers legitimacy on the guardianship of leadership.

The ruler must be wise; wisdom, supported by divine grace, enables him to manage affairs, design plans, implement systems, and operationalise the lines of governance. Plato stipulated three conditions for rulers: knowledge, courage, and self-restraint. In Shia thought, the three essential criteria for political leadership and religious authority are ijtihad (jurisprudential expertise), justice, and managerial competence.

Management, understood as the power to assert rights through natural and gentle means, requires magnanimity, generosity, and freedom from miserliness, pettiness, and feelings of inferiority.

Reason demands these conditions for leadership; absent them, rulers tend toward despotism, tyranny, and oppression, generating widespread dissatisfaction. Over time, governance degenerates from aristocracy (rule by the elite and privileged) to democracy and eventually to anarchy driven by the whims of the masses.

In sum, a ruler’s legitimacy derives either from divine law (sharia) or from rational proof — the latter admirably illustrated by Plato — and applies universally across peoples and nations.

The Relationship Between Restrained Knowledge and Restrained Power

Power is always subordinate to knowledge, and limited knowledge restrains power. The legitimacy and scope of power are related to the limits of knowledge and understanding. The legitimacy of power can only be justified through Plato’s rational framework, which is universally comprehensible. Plato’s philosophical acumen in this matter is profound, so much so that modern philosophy and political theory remain rooted in the discussions he so divinely and insightfully articulated.

Attainment of Ideal Truths

True knowledge, for Plato, means understanding the Forms (or Ideas). Through grasping these Forms, one knows what each person ought to do naturally and whether they possess the virtue appropriate for that role. Justice within the soul mirrors justice in the city, with the soul comprising three parts — the rational, the appetitive, and the spirited. Plato maintains that to achieve justice, one must seek a wise person capable of intellectually apprehending the realm of ideal Forms.

From our perspective, Plato’s theory of Forms lacks validity and correctness; however, rejecting the theory does not negate his assertion that rulers must be wise. Indeed, this claim remains of foundational and paramount importance.

Theory of Forms (The Realm of Ideals)

Plato considered a wise person to be one who accepts the theory of Ideas (Forms), i.e., who pursues the discovery of the true nature of things and possesses knowledge rather than mere opinion. Although the theory of Forms involves conceptual ambiguities, it serves as the fundamental and central axis of Plato’s philosophical and political thought.

He sought to demonstrate, through his Socratic dialogues, what kind of knowledge is attainable, how it can be attained, and why it is true knowledge. Plato’s theory aims to find permanence and absoluteness.

He observed that everything in the material world is in flux and change, subject to decay and becoming, thus unsuitable for true knowledge. True being is permanent and unchanging, residing in the realm of Forms. For example, individual humans perish, but the Form of Humanity is the eternal and unchanging essence common to all humans, enabling them to be human. What we perceive through the senses are mere shadows or reflections of these truths.

Thus, Plato distinguishes two realms: the intelligible (Forms) and the sensible (perceptible objects).

Dialectical Method

Dialectic refers to a specific method of discussion and dialogue first practised by Socrates to eliminate error and attain truth. This method begins with simple premises agreed upon by the interlocutor, progressing through questions until the opponent must either reject earlier premises or revise their answers. This method, known as the “Socratic method,” remains influential.

Plato believed that all things, material and immaterial, such as courage, justice, and virtues, possess ideal Forms and that true concepts like justice have independent, objective reality, accessible only via the intellect through dialectical reasoning.

He used dialectic as the pathway to genuine knowledge, arguing that through reason and love, the human soul ascends to understand universals and Forms, which are truths of the world.

The Allegory of the Cave

To illustrate the difference between the sensible and intelligible worlds, Plato used the allegory of the cave: prisoners in a dark cave see only shadows cast on a wall, mistaking them for reality, while the actual objects casting those shadows exist outside the cave in the light of the sun — symbolising truth and knowledge.

• Plato’s Theory of Knowledge and Education System
• Plato regarded the commencement of true and accurate knowledge as originating from the intelligible realm rather than from the sensible world, considering knowledge of the sensible as mere opinion and imagination. He asserted that the realm of Forms (Ideas) is apprehended solely through reason, not through the senses, which provide an imperfect and misleading understanding of nature. In Plato’s view, and that of his followers, the premises underpinning reasoning are intellectual rather than empirical or sensory, and the value of these premises and principles is absolute. That is, they are not merely the rules of our thought but the rules and laws of all thought and all things. In other words, the necessary laws of beings exist and have their foundation in the intelligible realm, and all entities are constructed according to them; our reason also operates based on the same laws.
• Therefore, according to Plato, at a higher level than the sensible world lies the ‘realm of Forms’, which is both the source of all beings and the source of all knowledge. Hence, a certain harmony is established between the world of the mind and that of the object. He believed the human soul existed in the realm of Forms prior to its incarnation in the sensible world. Plato maintained that the world perceived through our senses is not the subject of true knowledge but is, in fact, not entirely real.
• Educational and Pedagogical System
• Based on the Theory of Forms, humans are dual beings composed of a mutable and perishable body and an immortal and immutable soul capable of separation from the body to enter the realm of Forms. Before incarnating in the physical body, the soul existed in the realm of Forms and grasped the eternal truths. However, upon entering this world and inhabiting the human body, it forgets all the Forms. Yet, it retains a vague recollection, such that when confronted with various entities and their shapes in the natural world, it recalls the realm of Forms and their archetypes. This remembrance in the soul incites a yearning to return to the true world. Thus, genuine knowledge and understanding for humans is nothing but recollection — the retrieval of eternal Forms and fundamental truths of the realm, referred to as the ‘Theory of Reminiscence’ (Anamnesis). According to him, as long as the soul is imprisoned within the body, genuine knowledge cannot be attained. Any acquisition of knowledge in this world is but a recollection of the intuitive vision the soul experienced before embodiment.
• Based on these beliefs, Plato placed the education of children alongside music and physical exercise, starting with religious teachings, especially monotheism. He argued that it is impossible to achieve scientific knowledge regarding sensible objects. The human body is part of the material and sensible world; therefore, the five senses inherent in the body cannot be trusted. Our senses apprehend the sensible, which is in constant flux, and thus do not provide us with true knowledge. Genuine understanding is attained solely through reason, which is absolute and eternal, dealing only with immutable and eternal entities such as the principles of mathematics. For example, if a teacher asks students which is the most beautiful colour of the rainbow, answers will vary, but if asked what the product of two and two is, all answers are identical because it is a rational and unchanging matter, not a sensible and variable one.
• Having established that true knowledge is acquired by reason, Plato held that the soul and intellect existed before embodiment and comprehended all the truths of the realm of Forms. When entering this world, it carries a store of knowledge but forgets it, and through experience and study, gradually recalls what it once knew. Therefore, the duty of the educational system is to gradually extract the innate knowledge concealed within us through discussion, dialogue, and reflection. Plato maintained that when knowledge is gained, nothing new is learned but rather recalled — knowledge previously acquired in the realm of Forms. This explains why education can begin with monotheism and belief in God’s power, which Plato considered fundamental to social order.
• Plato positioned the realm of mathematical perceptions between the sensible world and the world of Forms. Contrary to his teacher, Aristotle believed universals (intelligibles) are abstracted from sensible objects. Aristotle denied the prior existence of universals and argued that although universals are forms of material objects, they do not have actual existence or precedent.
• Leadership and The Laws
• As stated, Plato believed the wise individual to be one who had attained knowledge of the Theory of Forms. He contended that rulers should be educated in the Theory of Forms and live a modest life akin to soldiers to prevent corruption.
• To cultivate leadership, Plato devised a system based on the Theory of Forms whereby the ruler could maintain integrity and realise justice. For this reason, Plato completely opposed the democracy of ancient Greece in his Republic. However, in his later years, convinced that his ideal city-state could not be realised in the contemporary Greek political climate, he turned to describing imperfect states in his Laws. ‘Laws’ is a political treatise from Plato’s later and more mature period. Unlike the idealism of the Republic, the Laws are grounded in practical sciences and free from the Republic’s idealistic slogans, making them closer to reality. The Laws blend aristocratic and democratic ideas with strong religious influence and regard the ideal state as a theocratic and God-centred entity.
• Plato classified types of government as follows:
• a) Aristocracy: Rule by the wise. Plato regarded training an aristocratic elite as easier than educating the entire population for a healthy democracy. This view remains pertinent especially in turbulent times marked by misinformation and ignorance.
• b) Timocracy: Rule by a group of wealthy and proud individuals, usually military elites. This form may suit wartime but tends towards corruption and gradually devolves into oligarchy in peacetime.
• c) Oligarchy: Government by a few wealthy individuals who tend towards corruption. In this regime, money is the criterion for everything, leading to increased wealth accumulation and social polarization, culminating in revolution and democracy.
• d) Democracy: Rule by the many, arising from popular revolt due to general dissatisfaction. Democracy derives from the Greek words for ‘people’ and ‘rule’. It results in many unqualified individuals governing. Plato’s democratic theory forms the foundation for many contemporary political thoughts opposing aristocracy and spiritual wisdom.
• e) Anarchy: Occurs if democracy fails without a replacement by tyranny.
• f) Tyranny: If competing social groups within a democracy vie for power and one succeeds in monopolising it, democracy is destroyed and replaced by tyranny. Under tyranny, virtues such as justice and piety disappear.
• Plato considered aristocracy and council rule by the wise as the best form of government. Power flowing top-down is monarchy, while its corrupted form is tyranny, which prioritises personal interests. Conversely, corrupt oligarchy serves only the wealthy few. Democracy considers the common good, but its corrupted form favours only the poor and oppressed.
• The Value and Anti-Value of Kingship
• Politics and kingship held great significance for Plato, especially after the execution of his beloved teacher Socrates. One might say that Plato’s most outstanding theory — the Republic — was written for this purpose. He argued that the virtue and perfection of a society depend on its ruler, just as its degeneration stems from the ruler’s inadequacy. This is a wise and accurate observation. He attributed all virtues and vices of society to its intellectual core and leadership, rooting individual education in proper social education, especially leadership. A wise ruler fosters healthy education in the populace, and a well-ordered state produces proper morals. The character of citizens derives from their government, and societal disorders originate from corrupt rulers.
• Plato’s political theory about leadership, combined with his beliefs in the Theory of Forms and recollection, implies that rulers must possess innate and prior wisdom. Thus, aristocracy and rule by the elite are seen as divine gifts. Based on the archetype theory, governance in the sensible world is rooted in the intelligible realm. Shi‘a culture limits sovereignty to God, His infallible deputy, and subsequently the qualified jurist. Philosophy, the mother of sciences, especially political thought, must be correct in its method; otherwise, it leads politics astray. Philosophy guides social and political management, so its misdirection causes social corruption.
• Methodological Differences between Plato and Aristotle
• Plato and his student Aristotle have profoundly influenced Muslim philosophers and their political thought. The Illuminationist Philosophy and Transcendent Theosophy share significant similarities with Platonic philosophy in some principles and methods, while Farabi and Avicenna advanced Aristotelian philosophy. Despite both being philosophers, monotheists, and geniuses, Plato and Aristotle diverge fundamentally in philosophical method. Plato follows a rational and intuitive approach, while Aristotle adopts empirical induction. They also differ on many philosophical foundations.
• Plato’s philosophy is founded on the distinction between the intelligible and sensible worlds and the Theory of Forms, emphasising intellectual connection for true knowledge and deprecating the sensible and material. Aristotle opposed this, grounding his discourse in categories and conceptual science compatible with perception, basing monotheism on the recognition of sensible things.
• It must be noted that we are over two millennia removed from Plato and Aristotle and their works through translations of uncertain fidelity. Yet, their philosophies have laid the groundwork for enduring philosophical systems. For instance, it was not until Mulla Sadra’s Transcendent Theosophy that the primacy of existence over essence was firmly established, although he erred in subordinating essence to existence.
• Distinctions of Our Philosophical System from Plato
• Our ontological system is one of ‘existence’ (wujūd) and its act of ‘manifestation’ (ẓuhūr). Manifestation in the sensible world has real effects and is not devoid of reality. The truth of the sensibles lies within themselves, without requiring the Theory of Forms to access their reality.
• In our philosophy, existence has essence and independence, while manifestation lacks essence. The distinction between existence and manifestation is that

source of essence. Existence is essential, while essence is accidental. Sensibles are manifestations of existence, but manifestation is not mere imitation or shadow. There is an ontological continuity between sensible and intelligible worlds, with existence as the connecting reality.

• Aristotle’s Life and Thought: An Academic Overview
• Aristotle was born in 384 BCE. From the age of seventeen, that is, from 367 BCE, until he was thirty-seven, around 348 or 347 BCE, he was a member of Plato’s Academy. This period constitutes the first phase of his life. Plato considered Aristotle to be his most intelligent student and had a special affection for him among his pupils; it is said that Plato would not begin his lectures without Aristotle’s presence, famously stating: “Let us not begin until ‘Reason’ is here.” Plato also referred to Aristotle as a “reader of books.”
• The second phase of Aristotle’s life began following Plato’s death in 348 BCE. Aristotle left Athens and spent four or five years, between 344 and 335 BCE, on the western coast of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). He entered the service of the local ruler, established a school there, and married during this period.
• The third phase of Aristotle’s intellectual development started around 343 to 340 BCE when he was about forty-one years old and lasted until his death. During these years, he moved to Macedonia, where he served at the court of Philip II as the tutor and guardian of his son, Alexander the Great. Subsequently, he spent approximately four years in his hometown of Stagira, engaged in study and research. Around 335 or 334 BCE, Aristotle returned to Athens, founded the Lyceum, and taught and wrote there until 322 BCE, the year of Alexander’s death.
• Political Unity and Cultural Homogenisation under Alexander the Great
• The rise of militarism and the authoritarian Macedonian state under Alexander led to the destruction of city-states and the creation of a vast empire that unified the ancient Greek world. Alexander proclaimed the equality of all humans, a notion opposed by Aristotle, and created political unity by fostering cultural integration, blending Greek and Eastern traditions. This cultural unification laid the groundwork for the endurance of his empire. Alexander also contributed to the strengthening and completion of Aristotle’s school.
• With the patronage of Alexander and his courtiers, Aristotle founded the Lyceum in Athens, where philosophy and other sciences were taught. Aristotle’s focus leaned more toward empirical sciences and biological research. It is reported that with Alexander’s funding, the Lyceum housed a vast collection of rare books and diverse specimens of plants and animals from across the world. Historians note that Alexander provided Aristotle with a thousand agents scattered throughout Greece and Asia who collected botanical and zoological samples for him, along with a substantial sum (800 talents, equivalent to approximately four million dollars) to equip his research.
• Thirteen years of Aristotle’s life were thus devoted to gathering scholarly works from across the globe, and engaging in pure scientific inquiry under the state’s support. The Lyceum became a formidable rival to Plato’s Academy. Aristotle was known to stroll through the Lyceum’s gardens as he taught philosophy; hence his school became known in Greek as the Peripatetic (meaning “walking”) school and in Arabic as al-Mashsha (meaning “the walker”). It is important to note that Aristotle was considered a foreign resident in Athens, and by Athenian law, he did not own the premises of his school. During this period, he revised most of his works into the form in which they have come down to us. These writings were produced after Aristotle had access to the scientific works of Iran, Egypt, and the Near East, which Alexander sent to him following his plundering of royal treasuries.
• Writings of Aristotle
• Aristotle was both a prolific thinker and writer. He engaged with all fields of knowledge, and in some disciplines can be considered the founder or the founder of the scientific method. According to the catalogue of his works compiled by the Alexandrian school, Aristotle wrote approximately 550 treatises over about forty years. Currently, 106 of these treatises or essays survive. It must be noted that in antiquity, some anonymous writers attributed their works to renowned figures to ensure their preservation; therefore, not all works attributed to Aristotle are genuinely his, nor can all the views recorded therein be confidently ascribed to him. For instance, the Theology (or Theologia), once attributed to Aristotle, is now understood not to be his work but rather a paraphrase of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Enneads of Plotinus. Early Muslim philosophers regarded this work as Aristotle’s and linked it to his Metaphysics, a view questioned by Avicenna. Modern research has confirmed the spurious nature of this text.
• Aristotle’s works contain contradictions, possibly reflecting their composition across the three phases of his life, and especially his exposure to Eastern philosophical texts, particularly those of the Iranian spiritual philosophers. It is likely that this influence led him to revise and edit his works at the Lyceum. Aristotle’s intellectual development shows a progression from a Platonic thinker committed to organising the natural sciences to a deeply empirical naturalist. Although he had long held views that diverged from Plato’s, particularly his rejection of the theory of Forms (Ideas), this opposition is evident in surviving fragments from his early writings.
• Aristotle’s Conceptualism
• Aristotle brought order and terminology to the sciences. However, a significant limitation of his approach was his tendency to reduce metaphysical meanings to conceptual forms, thereby inaugurating a purely conceptual approach to spiritual sciences. These sciences require an inward, spiritual understanding, accessible through the heart and mysticism rather than mere intellectual concepts. Consequently, Aristotle introduced errors into metaphysics, such as his treatment of categories, especially the nature of essence and its types (substance and accident), which diverted sacred wisdom.
• Combining Inductive and Deductive Methods
• Aristotle pursued an inductive method to acquire knowledge, especially valuable in the natural sciences. His strength lay in his attention to the natural world and the processes of change, viewing the sensible world as a bridge to metaphysics. He valued both logical deduction and sensory experience, yet failed to adequately address mystical intuition as a pathway to metaphysical truths. The proper scientific methodology involves using sensory experience and induction as a preliminary step, followed by rational inference, culminating in intellectual blossoming — love and revelation — particularly in the teaching of metaphysics and spiritual sciences, especially to children. Mathematics and biology represent foundational sciences. Metaphysical meanings must be apprehended this way, not confined to conceptual abstraction alone, which renders spiritual knowledge superficial.
• True knowledge unfolds in two aspects: theoretical (thought) and practical (its refinement). It is not mere cognition but closeness to truth, which requires not only intellectual effort but also spiritual disposition and divine grace. Here, ‘science’ refers to all disciplines employing empirical investigation (Science), encompassing both natural and social sciences.
• Theological and Mystical Belief in the Peripatetic School
• Aristotle was a staunch monotheist and the culmination of philosophy, science, and previous scholarly achievements. His philosophy overshadowed Plato’s idealistic school with his own wisdom. Despite political rivalries, Aristotle’s doctrine won the support of statesmen and political figures, establishing a scientific and political consensus on his Peripatetic philosophy. His profound impact continues to influence philosophical debates. The Peripatetic school was transmitted to Muslim scholars, notably Avicenna, who enriched Aristotle’s logic and metaphysics, albeit without fully integrating mystical intuition. This limitation persisted, as detailed in works such as The Stations of the Sufis. Later figures like Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra complemented Aristotle’s method by incorporating mystical insight alongside rational thought, restoring spirituality to the Peripatetic tradition and reviving the lost Platonic path.
• Separation of Powers
• Aristotle was the first to articulate the separation of powers in politics, distinguishing the executive (public interest administration), legislative (authority selection and evaluation), and judiciary (administrative adjudication) branches. In contemporary theory, additional powers such as supervisory, security, and emergency authorities are often recognised.
• Definition of Revolution
• Aristotle defined revolution as a sudden movement of power, often accompanied by violence and bloodshed. He saw the root cause as the violation of justice and equality. If society neglects these principles, revolution ensues. He regarded the social stratification and division of roles as natural and immutable, with each person performing assigned duties. Unlike Plato, Aristotle paid little attention to economic issues, even though politics without economics is ineffective. For Aristotle, economic welfare is foundational to governance and society.
• He viewed revolution as a right of the aristocracy (supporters of meritocracy). Foreign interventions might incite revolutions to gain influence and profit. Revolutions can result in changes of political organisation, government type, ruler, or political structure.
• Man as a Political Animal
• According to Aristotle, the polis (city-state) is a natural phenomenon. Humans are, by nature, political animals. Yet, unlike bees in a hive, political communities are distinctive because their members possess the capacity to understand their laws and deliberate rationally. Good governance and laws are grounded in virtue and happiness. Aristotle emphasised that the goal of the political community is not mere life but the good life, achieved through virtue and well-being.
• Women’s Rights
• One of Aristotle’s most glaring errors was his denial of political rights to women, whom he regarded as “incomplete humans,” inferior to men. His views profoundly influenced the church and contributed to historic injustice against women. In contrast, women possess subtle and influential political skills more compatible with popular tastes and social management. Their soft and covert power can effectively counter the rigid and coercive authority of men. Analyses such as Ayatollah Javadi Amoli’s Woman in the Mirror of Glory and Beauty and its critique, Woman and Human Fortitude, explore this topic further.
• Aristotle also erroneously claimed that children inherit traits solely from the father’s seed, with the mother playing a passive environmental role, whereas

modern genetics has disproved this. Philosophy and Religious-Political Islamization of Philosophy

The significance of Farabi goes beyond his commentary and elaboration on the works of Aristotle and Plato; he extracted a “religious philosophy” and also the “Shiʿite political philosophy” of Islam. In such a way that his philosophy became independently renowned as “political philosophy,” possessing philosophical autonomy, aligned with Islam, and grounded in its own internal ideas rather than relying on the intellectual foundations of Greek philosophy. These features have established him as the father of philosophical wisdom and political philosophy in the Islamic world.

Farabi inherited the legacy of great philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and also the Neoplatonic philosophy, selecting, adapting, and Islamizing their ideas. He endeavoured to synthesise Aristotelian Peripatetic philosophy and Platonic Illuminationism, as well as the two epistemological methods of natural induction and intuitive, spiritual knowledge; though predominantly he aligned with Aristotle’s philosophy. However, Farabi was a creative, innovative, and critical thinker, and cannot be regarded merely as a proficient commentator on Greek philosophy. Through his critical acumen, he transformed Greek philosophy into Islamic philosophy. His innovations in wisdom were such that his philosophy can no longer be considered Greek but rather possesses an independent identity. Thus, philosophy took on a religious dimension with him, and anyone seeking the origins of Islamic philosophy must refer to Farabi’s works as a significant and documented starting point.

The Authenticity of Farabi’s Religious Thought and Vision

Another crucial aspect of Farabi’s work lies in the originality of his religious insight. He was privy to the religious attitude and Islamic intellectual spirit with fewer temporal and cultural distortions, and with proximity to the culture of the Imams, he subtly incorporated it into his philosophical theory.

The Network of Greek Philosophy

Although Farabi had both intellectual genius and spiritual insight, his spiritual journey was not sufficiently elevated to break free entirely from the constraints and rejected theories of his predecessors. Nonetheless, Farabi entered philosophical debates with such capability, systematising and logically developing them that a dominant philosopher like Mirdamad, who recognised no other philosopher but himself, referred to Farabi as “our partner in teaching.” It is said that when a merchant asked Mulla Sadra whether Mirdamad or Farabi was superior in philosophy, Sadra paused; upon noticing this, Mirdamad rebuked him to declare that Mirdamad was superior to Farabi.

The Status of Ibn Sina

Farabi’s greatness in philosophy has ensured his position as the original and primary Islamic philosopher in rational philosophical reasoning. However, due to the volume and scope of Ibn Sina’s works, his extensive writings have overshadowed Farabi’s original treatises. Yet, because Ibn Sina distanced himself from the method of intuitive spiritual journeying and lacked a master who experienced metaphysical realms, his ultimate synthesis did not transcend the philosophical domain to mystical horizons, preserving Farabi’s position as a radiant sun behind a cloud in terms of content value. This historical experience suggests that pure logic and philosophy detached from inner spiritual reality cannot succeed in achieving truth or justifying knowledge, which requires divine grace, purity of soul, illumination, and intellectual spiritual progression. For this reason, Farabi occupies a central circle among Islamic philosophers as a powerful founder.

Sacred Leadership: The Core of Farabi’s Wisdom and Philosophy

The pivotal point of Farabi’s thought is his positioning of Imamate and Wilayah—which had been deliberately ignored in philosophy under the Abbasid caliphs—as the centre of philosophy and wisdom. He founded Islamic civilisation and its culture on the twin pillars of Tawhid (Divine Unity) and Wilayah, which require spiritual and moral elevation of humanity. He preserved the special status of Wilayah and the living divine guardians in each era under the principle of Imamate and infallibility, thereby sanctifying his philosophical thought. According to Farabi, politics is nothing but the service of the wise to the people who have chosen him. Therefore, wise political leadership serves the people, not itself, and does not oppose them. Politics, in this sense, does not deprive the people of will, choice, and freedom, nor does it impose itself through coercion or despotism. Accordingly, the supreme leader, who holds divine legitimacy through his connection with God and the Active Intellect, requires popular acceptance and social legitimacy in the external world for his governance to be realised concretely.

Founder of Religious Political Science

Farabi’s theory of the ideal political system was inspired by Plato’s ideas. It must be noted that political philosophy cannot be articulated without rational methods. By adopting this method, he established religious-political propositions so firmly that he became the first authoritative philosophical reference and founder of political science in Muslim civilisation.

Shiʿite Politics

Abu Nasr Farabi philosophically articulated Shiʿite political thought, endowing it with the capacity to engage in dialogue with opposing and competing cultures. His political system theory, developed through analogical reasoning, became a supra-sectarian theory. He expressed his political views in the works Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City and Civil Policies. He addressed Wilayah and leadership not dogmatically or sectarianly but descriptively and based on political rationality. This was while the Abbasid rulers sought to present philosophical reason as a rival and replacement for Shiʿite Wilayah. During the philosophical era between the 10th and 12th centuries CE, political thought was framed primarily as legitimate governance within the framework of jurisprudence rather than philosophical governance. Farabi’s political theory of leadership and the supreme leader draws heavily on Plato’s philosopher-king and Aristotle’s governance by philosophers, but he organises it through a Shiʿite interpretation, making the legitimacy of ideal leadership analogical.

The Essence of Politics

In Farabi’s virtuous city, political wisdom is nothing other than the sacred service of the wise to the people. He sanctifies the criteria and norms of governance by linking them to Shiʿite Wilayah. In designing religious civilisation, all political matters are intertwined with the spirit of Wilayah and sanctified. Farabi regards the theory of the “Supreme Leader” as the essence of politics in Islamic civilisation. Historically, however, he notes that Islamic countries often operated as “non-virtuous cities.” After the Western Renaissance, which deliberately challenged religious sanctities and sought to secularise politics entirely, politics came to be portrayed as purely worldly and human, stripped of sacredness.

The Relationship Between Politics and Leadership Beliefs

Farabi bases politics on “beliefs,” thus sanctifying it. The “opinions” in his famous book Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City refer to the beliefs of its inhabitants, centred on the beliefs and thoughts of the supreme wise leader. He posits an order for the universe, reflected similarly in politics. He views the entire cosmos as created by a single wise and governing God, and the city must be organised according to the natural order of the cosmos. The natural order of human life is what the cosmic system has established; thus, the city must be governed by the wise in accordance with this divine wisdom.

Farabi’s Ideal Society

Farabi holds that the philosopher should imitate God by approaching His wisdom, obeying His decrees, recognising His will, and becoming acquainted with His governance over beings and their order. A philosopher possessing such qualities who governs the city makes it a virtuous city—a desirable society that enables people to achieve health and happiness. The people cooperate humbly and willingly out of loyal affection for the common good. This cooperation stems from the guidance, encouragement, and facilitation provided by the supreme leader, motivating voluntary participation without reliance on material incentives or propaganda. Universal intention is a condition for happiness; not only the rulers but also the ruled must be happy and benevolent. The condition for happiness is mutual support, not merely agreement of opinion or will. A sense of collective responsibility and practical commitment is essential for attaining perfection. Hence, the fate of society members is intertwined: either all enjoy happiness or all fall into misery. In a successful society led by virtuous politics, it is impossible for a privileged minority to prosper while the majority remain impoverished. The supreme leader binds all members and institutions of society through general Wilayah and “love,” with justice following love, ensuring the continuity of governance and society. This Wilayah-love inspires voluntary enthusiasm and cooperation. Therefore, the two main pillars of the virtuous city are happiness and loving cooperation. Cooperation entails collaboration across social and existential hierarchies, ultimately based on Wilayah and love for the supreme leader in both thought and deed.

Succession and Governance

In the absence of the supreme leader, his successors must possess many of his attributes, know his customs and conduct, and act according to his example. When faced with unprecedented situations, they must derive suitable rulings from his established principles. Thus, they must be jurists, making knowledge of jurisprudence indispensable for the city.

Nobility and Magnanimity of Leadership

Farabi emphasises the character and nature of leadership. The leader must be inherently noble and free from baseness. Such qualities arise only in those whose souls are united with the Active Intellect and receive direct divine emanations. This union implies that the soul first attains the Passive Intellect and then the derived Intellect, eventually connecting directly with the Active Intellect. Such a person is called “king” by the ancients and is one who has received divine revelation by virtue of his spiritual perfection.

Accordingly, Farabi considers the leadership of the virtuous city suitable only for someone naturally endowed with great dignity and authority and possessing voluntary capacity; someone who has traversed the stages of perfection and reached intellectual actualisation, illuminated by the Active Intellect. He asserts that the ruler is one whom God communicates with through the Active Intellect. Hence, the leader’s commands are divinely inspired, and his rule is based on spiritual illumination and intellectual perfection.

Religious Rationalisation of Reason or Rationalisation of Religion

In his rational endeavour, Farabi did not attempt to rationalise religion by ordinary human reason; rather, in his approach, he sacralised reason itself. The significance of his work lies precisely in this: he connected reason to the realm of meaning, sanctified it, and regarded governance as the domain of such reason. This theory stands in opposition to the Sunni doctrinal notion of ‘Caliphate.’ Just as in the Shi‘a tradition, health and happiness revolve around the concept of wilayah (divine guardianship), Farabi, as a political philosopher, situated the health and felicity of the virtuous city upon the authority of the city’s leader—the “First Ruler”—who must be a hakim (wise philosopher). His theory is based on the hierarchical order of existence, especially the “Active Intellect” and the process by which intellects emanate from the highest to the lowest, from perfect to imperfect, down to the level of “impossible existence,” in accordance with the Peripatetic (Mashsha’i) philosophical tradition. He applies this hierarchy to society as well, seeking to justify his civic and political philosophy on the basis of the cosmic order, thus maintaining the natural and realistic grounding of his discourse and avoiding subjective idealism. Indeed, Farabi carefully maintained his sound belief in political ijtihad (independent reasoning) for his own context.

Farabi asserted: “Learning from wherever it comes is not a fault, and whoever learns, no matter the source, gains a benefit. The important point is that if one becomes a mujtahid (a qualified interpreter), he should not be alien to the society; that is, he should not bring doctrines unsuitable to the people’s intellect and spirit. If so, the mujtahid is a wise man and is worthy of leadership.” Hence, the virtuous city should not be viewed as an abstract utopia derived from a purely intellectual ideal that lacks a place in the terrestrial realm, nor should it be considered a society exclusive to the City of the Prophet or the era of eschatological manifestation. Rather, Farabi sought a rational and analogical model suitable for his contemporary society, which was caught in the intense crisis between Sunni Caliphate and Ismaili Imamate, aiming to resolve this crisis through reason grounded in actual realities.

The Lawgiver and Legislator

When Farabi refers to the ruler of the city as the “lawgiver” (wāḍiʿ al-nawāmīs), he alludes to the ruler’s sacred connection with God. Although prophecy and divine leadership entail infallibility, this connection is not confined to these offices alone. It appears that Farabi deliberately defined the hakim and prophet ambiguously and succinctly, allowing a possible interpretation that slightly lowers the rank of prophecy. Had he wished to be explicit in the politically insecure atmosphere of his time, he would have clearly defined these roles. During Farabi’s era, it was not simple for Shi‘as to openly disclose their beliefs; indeed, three deputies of the Hidden Imam, who were authoritative references for Shi‘ism, operated clandestinely. The intense sectarian conflict between the Hanbalis and other groups, including the Shi‘as, escalated, resulting in Shi‘a casualties. According to Ibn Abi Usaybi‘a and others, after the death of the fourth deputy of the Imam and the commencement of the Greater Occultation, and during internal warfare, Farabi left Baghdad and joined a Shi‘a faction embroiled in civil strife, becoming, according to many historians, among the scholars close to Sayf al-Dawla Hamdani.

Detailed Laws of Wise Governance

In our book Foundations of Leadership, which outlines the operational framework of leadership, we have asserted that the system of Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist) is incontestable. What is crucial, however, are the practical guidelines and codified laws for managing the system, which the leader must present prior to assuming office. This programme acts as a roadmap and indicates the extent of his authority and competence. A jurist is effective and capable of leadership only when he provides practicable methods and religious-political laws, clearly delineates the system’s implementation, plans for the future of the people and society, and transparently defines the governance style through legal frameworks. Qualified leaders present their leadership programmes, goals, policies, and management plans to the public before taking office. Upon public acceptance, they strive for implementation, offering hope to society by solving problems and revitalising it rather than merely resting on the title and formal legitimacy of leadership. In Farabi’s time, when popular opinion was not imperative, the wise leader could have been considered the “lawgiver,” with no need for formal legislation, as the hakim possessed divine inspiration to address unique and unprecedented events.

In Foundations of Leadership, we propose a framework ensuring that having a clear and codified legal programme does not hinder the wise leader’s political acumen or his capacity for beneficent governance, nor does it diminish his attentiveness to the sacred inspirations of the Active Intellect, the source of divine laws.

Farabi’s View on the Virtuous City’s Leader

For Farabi, the essential concern is that the “First Ruler” attains sovereignty and holds power. However, the details of governance, which require different political tactics for each leader and era, cannot be exhaustively enumerated. Hence, Farabi rightly presents this aspect vaguely and reserves the explanation of the laws’ particulars as a principle of law itself. We too have respected this vagueness in drafting the sixfold set of laws, not merely as an implicit condition but explicitly as a stated line of law in that compilation.

In his book The Opinions of the Inhabitants of the Virtuous City, Farabi states: “Such a person, because he receives emanations through the Active Intellect via the acquired and potential intellects, is called a wise man, philosopher, and sage. Moreover, because the Active Intellect’s emanations are bestowed upon his imaginative faculty, he holds the status of prophecy and admonition. He combines philosophy and prophecy, and through both the imaginative and rational faculties, he connects with the Active Intellect and the divine emanations. He is simultaneously the lawgiver, philosopher, and king.” Indeed, Farabi equates the wisdom of the wise man with the opinions and laws of the virtuous city. In any case, Farabi sought to speak realistically about his contemporary society and adapted his philosophy to be local, religious, and Islamic so that it would be accepted within the Islamic community.

The Basis of the “First Ruler” Theory

Unlike Plato, Farabi did not ground the theory of the “First Ruler” on the Platonic Forms (muthal). He rejected Plato’s conception of Forms but attempted to reconcile and reinterpret it in his book The Union of the Two Opinions by aligning it with the images (surur mursama) posited by Aristotle, who regarded divine knowledge as comprising these formal images. However, both Aristotle’s and Plato’s views on divine knowledge are flawed, and Farabi’s attempt to unify these philosophies is fundamentally incompatible with Plato’s system. It can be said that in The Union of the Two Opinions, Farabi employs a flawed and forced approach to approximate two fundamentally different philosophies, which sometimes leads to the destruction of Plato’s and Aristotle’s doctrines. Therefore, he does not succeed in this work. It should be noted that rational sciences do not require approximation and unification of opinions but rather attainment of truth to be credible. Approximation and reconciliation serve practical cooperation and empowerment, not theoretical and scientific realms, where such efforts risk loss of truths.

The Active Intellect

Farabi centres the theory of the “First Ruler” on the Active Intellect, the source of knowledge and cognition and the mediator of human intellect and conduit of knowledge to the First Ruler. The discussion of intellect generally, and of the Active Intellect specifically, begins in the descending series: from the First Intellect to the Tenth Intellect (the Active Intellect), all of which are immaterial. The world of creation and corruption emerges from the Active Intellect. It is called “active” because it is fully actualised from all aspects and creates all human souls, actualising them from potentiality to actuality, creating the entire sensible world, and bestowing all forms upon it. Therefore, the overall intellect is active, meaning it is not passive in itself but operates vigorously on souls and material phenomena. The Active Intellect thus represents universal reason. Ancient Persian sages also referred to it as the “life-giver” in their works.

The hakim, united with the Active Intellect, acquires the capacity for governance, and this intellect legitimises his rule, making his government the foundation of society’s path to virtue and felicity, and rendering his politics virtuous. The city’s ruler receives divine inspiration and God’s will through the Active Intellect, attaining, in other words, a sacred form of understanding. This sacred comprehension consists of two types: revelation of universal truths (intelligibles and universal laws) received by the rational faculty from the source of divine revelation (the Active Intellect), and revelation of particular sensory truths and individual matters received by the imaginative faculty from the Active Intellect. Thus, the Active Intellect is the last intellect in the vertical series and the source of all rational and universal knowledge, tasked with perfecting human souls by granting faculties and principles, which are first intelligibles and axioms. Through these first principles, humans can actualise their potential intelligibles.

Farabi believed: “When the human imaginative faculty reaches its utmost perfection, in wakefulness it can receive from the Active Intellect particulars of the present or future, sensory phenomena and their simulacra, as well as simulacra of intelligibles and other Here, the imaginative faculty is the instrument of prophecy and a means for the manifestation of divine knowledge in the sensible world.

Critique and Rejection of the Epistemic Authority of the Active Intellect and the Forms

Philosophers following al-Farabi have remained loyal to his foundational concept of the “Active Intellect,” each attempting in various ways to remedy its shortcomings and provide rational justifications for it. According to this conception, the acquisition of any form of knowledge or cognition depends on connection with the Active Intellect; knowledge cannot be attained without the soul’s successful linkage to this external intellect. The human soul is likened to an unlit lamp or wick that must draw the flame of knowledge from the fire of the Active Intellect to be illuminated and to emerge from the darkness of ignorance and unawareness.

From the outset, the Active Intellect has faced criticism regarding its essence, existence, ontological role, and epistemological function. We likewise reject the necessity of the Active Intellect as the epistemic custodian, scientific overseer, and master of the soul’s cognition, controlling both its existence and knowledge. We maintain that philosophy has thus far failed to provide a valid proof for the existence of an entirely separate, independent, immaterial entity that acts as the actualiser of the soul’s intellect and reasoning. We deny both the ontological and epistemological necessity of the Active Intellect. The human soul requires no external agent to transition from potentiality to actuality, and the rational necessity does not accompany the “Active Intellect” hypothesis. Therefore, despite its grandeur as a theoretical construct, al-Farabi’s theory of the First Chief remains fundamentally flawed at its core. The world of elements does not require the mediation of an Active Intellect to receive divine emanation, nor is there any sound rational or scriptural evidence to partially substantiate its existence. The extensive discourse on the “Active Intellect” in philosophy relies more on traditional, intuitive reverence for the sages of the discipline than on logical method or evidential reasoning. This historical verbosity regarding the Active Intellect has inflicted the greatest damage upon the solid identity of wisdom and has provided opponents of philosophy with grounds to discredit it.

Epistemology

In general, epistemologies within philosophical systems that regard knowledge as a “form” or as a gift from the Active Intellect are mistaken. Knowledge and intellect are entirely immaterial manifestations and presences. Although knowledge has an object, which may be sensory (material), imaginary (formal), or intellectual, knowledge itself is a determination of the soul and does not require union with any external entity, whether the Active Intellect, forms, or anything else. Knowledge is internal to the soul, whether its object is sensory, imaginary, or intellectual. Reasoning and actuality belong to the soul itself, not to an external agent. Knowledge consists of determinations of the soul without needing attachment to their objects or an activating force. The soul inherently possesses the capacity for vision, observation, intuition, inspection, and other faculties related to understanding and reasoning; it perceives and finds everything—from the sensory to the intellectual—within itself, without requiring union with the object of knowledge or reliance on any external adjunct. The soul derives sensation from its own knowledge, as it perceives imagination from itself and also attains intellect from itself. Knowledge, being immaterial, is also free from form. The external object of knowledge may possess matter and form and may be sensory or intellectual, but knowledge itself is without matter or form and is purely intellectual and immaterial, without place or substrate. Knowledge is a determination of the soul: the purer and more immaterial the soul is, the purer its determinations, and vice versa. Impure determinations are conventionally termed “acquired knowledge,” while pure determinations are “intuitive knowledge.” However, all knowledge is essentially intuitive, and impure souls have weak and distant intuitive knowledge, whereas pure and angelic souls possess clear and near understanding. Therefore, the division of knowledge into intuitive and acquired is flawed; rather, knowledge should be divided into near (pure) attention (vision) and distant (impure) attention (vision). The purer the soul and its determinations, the purer and more refined the knowledge; the more impure the soul, the weaker its capacity for understanding and cognition and the more contaminated its knowledge. Even in all these gradations, knowledge remains intuitive and is never acquired in the sense used in logic. On this basis, perception cannot be divided into sensory, imaginative, and intellectual from the perspective of cognition itself, since these attributes pertain to the external object perceived, not knowledge or cognition. Knowledge that is conventionally termed sensory relates to knowledge whose external criterion is material and sensory; imaginative knowledge relates to knowledge whose external object has form but no matter; and intellectual knowledge pertains to knowledge whose external object lacks both form and matter. However, knowledge is not always immaterial in all these categories and may lose some of its immateriality. Knowledge is a determination and thus a determination of the soul, contingent upon the soul’s materiality or immateriality. Knowledge may be material and sensory for a soul that remains material and has not transcended matter, residing within nature and sharing its kind.

Knowledge is light, illumination, and revelation residing in the soul and its interior without mixing or attachment to the object. Knowledge is the soul’s determination and creation, which the soul discovers through its creative power. The soul directly relates to existential phenomena and existence itself, reflecting them within itself spontaneously. The soul’s relation to the external world is direct and does not require mediation. In its scientific determination, the soul neither imports anything from outside nor exports anything to the outside; rather, it is creative within itself and produces knowledge. The soul itself, and not the Active Intellect, the World of Command, or the World of Fixed Archetypes, is the standard of truth and falsehood of knowledge. The criterion of truth is the method of inquiry, classification, and testing of each thing through study of that very thing; in other words, the reality of each thing is itself, and understanding it requires scientific knowledge of its nature, with conformity to its nature as the criterion of truth. Knowledge is the purity and determination of the soul, which, according to its purity, assumes titles such as mental, psychic, imaginary, intellectual, divine, religious, human, and the like. In all these categories, knowledge remains intuitive and form has no place in it. Knowledge is not an essence nor a conceptual entity but a mode of manifestation. Mental existence is a determination of the soul and its manifestation; this manifestation is the “falling” or emanation of the soul. The soul’s emanation becomes determined as knowledge. Knowledge is a manifestation of the immaterial and lacks form and matter altogether. Knowledge is the soul’s determination and manifestation; thus, it is neither acquired nor universal. The first pure determination of the human soul is the mind, followed by the soul, then intellect, and finally the spirit.

Moreover, philosophical discussions on knowledge have been based on systems that either grant primacy to essence or give it a secondary role; in either case, they have erred, because existence (wujūd) is real and primary, leaving no room for essence. Existence is endowed with manifestation and determination. Its manifestation becomes clearer and more luminous, and it progresses. The manifestation of existence unfolds and blossoms moment by moment, effectuating its own perfection. This manifestation continuously expands and enlarges, and this enlargement corresponds to emanation and annihilation. The soul cannot attain knowledge without emanating from itself; this emanation does not signify loss or separation but rather that with each emanation the soul finds itself larger and experiences stronger inference and more potent intellectual effort. The soul finds all these expansions and determinations within and from itself, without need for an external activating agent. Thus, self-discovery is the key to knowing everything. If the soul is free of impurities, it perceives all things within itself, with no distinction between child and adult, or even between human and animal. Knowledge is not exclusive to humans; other creatures, particularly animals, possess mysterious awareness, some surpassing ordinary humans. Even animals differ in the degree of their perception, though their intellectual advancement is limited. Since the soul possesses everything within itself, even a child contains an immense ocean of scientific propositions and admirable psychic choices. In our true psychology, we have asserted that blossoming talents are unaffected by size or age and do not distinguish between child, youth, or elder. This specialized psychology, sometimes called “tolerance psychology,” lays two crucial foundations for knowledge and cognition: firstly, the removal of bodily residues through physical training and cleansing exercises that purify and lighten the body and remove its impurities and stagnations; and secondly, the purification and refinement of the soul, alongside the law of attraction.

Truth lies within the human being, and the pure soul can perceive it. To know, one must cultivate one’s own truth. Cultivation entails the removal of selfishness: “You yourself are your own veil, arise from it” (Hafez). If the soul is heavy and impure, its intuitive knowledge becomes distant; the lighter and more luminous it becomes, the greater the manifestation of knowledge. If it reaches the hidden realm of the earthly, it relinquishes its earthly understanding and attains sacred comprehension, ascending in its rational immateriality to the understanding of the sciences. If the soul finds the subject of the cosmos, which is “existence,” recognises manifestation, and organises all sciences according to this subject, it can, by belonging to manifestation and existence, ascend to divine immateriality. Since divine immateriality is not numerical but existential, it encompasses the attraction of all things within itself. When the soul is purified, it absorbs all manifestations and phenomena of existence and, through ontological (manifest) union with them, achieves the discovery of their truth. This truth is the “law of attraction” that flows throughout all phenomena of existence and in all realms; however, the attraction to a flower differs in its qualities from attraction to a beloved, and each occurs within its own temporal process. The same applies to the transformation of food into blood, sperm, and energy, all governed by the law of attraction. Yet, in divine immateriality, this law acts with greater speed, proceeding from attention to attachment, connection, union, oneness, and exclusivity with accelerated momentum. According to the law of attraction, attention to a phenomenon draws its inner layer—residing in the soul—into manifestation and appearance, thereby determining it within the soul. As Rumi said:

“O brother, you are all thought;
The rest is bone and root.
If your thought is a rose, it is a rose-garden;
If a thorn, you are kindling for the fire.”

The human soul has such vastness and scope that every entity can potentially become everything else; for every phenomenon contains all phenomena within itself. The soul also contains everything and, through purity, refinement, and the law of attraction, can achieve the scientific determination of anything and manifest it—from material determination, which renders the soul material, to immaterial determination, which renders it immaterial. The soul possesses the capacity from the lowest depths to the highest heights, manifesting all as determinations and appearances; indeed, even the divine essence’s transcendence does not constitute a boundary for it. The soul, according to its purity, unites with every degree to which it is related and truly finds the key and identifier to enter and become that degree. Depending on the determination it attains, it understands its mode of life and function. The emanation of the soul in these determinations is an additional manifestation of the soul to itself, not outwardly. The object of the soul’s determination is the soul itself, whose speed of vision and clarity of knowledge depends on its proximity or remoteness from the soul. The soul is like a spring from which its determinations flow within itself; all its strata and layers are successively penetrated, provided it does not stagnate in any layer but maintains movement, fluidity, and continual creativity, progressing from purity toward greater purity. Thus, the soul’s becoming a knower means the externalisation of knowledge and the manifestation of the inner and hidden, not that anything from outside enters the soul. Hence, knowledge is accessible without the external senses: the soul can see without eyes, hear without ears, and possess knowledge of these senses. Therefore, the soul is a self-originating phenomenon—not the self-originating entity described by the Western Renaissance or Enlightenment severed from the sacred realm, but a self that must itself attain purity and annihilation of selfishness and materialism; a self whose emanation is dissolving and whose manifestation is pure.

In our philosophy, given the foregoing, there is no necessity for the concept of the “Active Intellect” or the “Forms,” nor is there evidence to prove these; although some of the discussions that later philosophers, especially Mulla Sadra, present regarding the Active Intellect—such as the unity of the intellect, intellectee, and intelligible—are, in principle, generally true concerning the world of intellects and immaterials (though not universally or wholly). Similarly, al-Farabi’s conclusions and true propositions about the “First Chief” are correct; yet, basing the foundation of this grand edifice on the Active Intellect, which lacks a definitive proof, collapses the entire structure.

In any case, the proof of the “Active Intellect” in philosophy and mysticism, like the theory of Forms, lacks demonstrative or analogical evidence, and scriptural revelation mentions the Tablet and the Throne but not the Active Intellect or Forms. Religious texts provide no conclusive or reliable evidence for the Active Intellect or Forms. Even assuming consensus among philosophers and mystics concerning these matters—just as many jurisprudential consensuses and commonly accepted doctrines are historically verbose fallacies—accepting them amounts to mere imitation rather than reasoned assent, and such propositions lack veracity.

The Fundamental Condition for Wise Leadership

In our political system, the essential condition for wisdom and prudence in leadership is the leader’s capacity for precise, scientific, and comprehensive knowledge of the realities of existence and things, whether internal or external, and the ability to manage the whole based on scientific cognition. This leadership is that of the “wise ruler” or “wise sage,” who alone can govern by knowledge, awareness, and understanding, providing wisdom and prudence as the core foundations of leadership, not superficial attributes. The wise ruler recognises the real needs of his community and responds appropriately, upholding justice, fairness, and governance according to reason and right, not according to personal desire, whims, or caprice. Leadership is not mere authority or possession of power but is rooted in knowledge and wisdom, which alone can safeguard the community’s interests and prevent injustice and disorder.

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A Fundamental Critique of Sadra’s Philosophy

In the book “Prominent Sciences and Perspectives”, I have presented the most important viewpoints, principles, and foundational rules that underpin my knowledge across various disciplines, including philosophy. This work is organised into three volumes. The first volume addresses the basic sciences. Its first chapter discusses the most significant ideas in my eloquent and modern literature, emphasising the necessity of the science of derivation. The second chapter deals with scientific logic, the third with the Holy Qur’an, the fourth with the philosophy of existence and manifestation, and the fifth reveals the mysticism of the beloved.

The second volume focuses on the principles of jurisprudence and its scientific infrastructure, Shi’a jurisprudence with emphasis on ijtihad based on subject recognition and criterion-finding, as well as the foundations of legal studies.

The third volume of “Prominent Sciences and Perspectives” provides an overview of our key views in psychology, sociology, the science of life, spiritual invocation, the beautiful names of God, Qur’anic divination, dream interpretation, and body language.

In the philosophy chapter, I have stated that the subject of philosophy is existence and its manifestations, considering certain detailed aspects and explaining my most important philosophical views. However, here I wish to address the origin of philosophising. What is the fundamental proposition of philosophy that must serve as the principle of axioms?

Before that, I offer a brief introduction to Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, and then we will address the question: what is the most self-evident concept and self-evident affirmation to which all axiomatic propositions ultimately refer?

The Decay of Sadra’s Philosophy

Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, like other Greek and Islamic philosophies—including Peripatetic, Illuminationist, and even Neo-Peripatetic schools—despite their grandeur over successive eras, belongs to the past. It remains bound by certain obsolete adornments and decayed foundations and is not accepted by discerning modern scholars as truthful or justified propositions. This philosophical system fails to justify and systematise the structure of existence and lacks lively presence and acceptance in society; it cannot organise the complex propositions of ontology, epistemology, and anthropology within its framework. The output of this system leads to distortion of truth and casts a dense veil over its understanding. This veil is, however, an academic one, which may serve as mental exercise for acquaintance with the history of philosophy and a means for purification, refinement, and spiritual ascent for its students—provided the master of this philosophy has not remained stagnant but has himself attained the ascent and entry into the fortress of truth.

Most past philosophical propositions suffer from a death-like decay; a philosophy that has not been free and has been shaped by non-spiritual, superficial philosophers who, like religious servants adorned with excessive embellishments and irrational compliances, have severed it from wisdom and knowledge. If once philosophy was defined in connection with inner wisdom as “the human mind becoming equal to the objective world”, today, due to the severance from the inner dimension, such a definition appears overly optimistic. This definition speaks of wisdom, which is a completely bestowed gift for the possessors of special grace and sacred faculties, and, at a higher level, the possessors of authority (Wilayah). There is a distinction between wisdom and philosophy; the philosophical identity connected to wisdom is one of truth-seeing, not of naïve and illusory credence. Indeed, contemporary dominant philosophy—prevalent in academic institutions and severed from wisdom and the inner dimension—remains stuck in its antiquity and cannot endow the mind with any new qualities or align it with reality. That philosophy, burdened by outdated accretions, has become a historical relic and belongs now to the history of science and philosophy. It is not an ultimate goal upon which one can pause to reconstruct or rethink, nor is it a stable station on which to build anew; rather, philosophy requires a fresh foundation that, in addition to wisdom, draws upon empirical and natural sciences to gain both robustness and a shared language. We have re-established and restructured philosophical principles anew and, if given the opportunity to present them, they will be subject to the critique and evaluation of the scholarly community.

The Major Problem of Islamic Philosophy and Sciences

The primary challenge of Islamic philosophy and other Islamic and human sciences is their severance from the possessors of wisdom and authority throughout the long history of the Occultation. Philosophy experienced decline from the moment the sages were lost and the domain monopolised by superficial philosophers and religious servants who served the unjust Abbasid caliphs. This problem—the severance from the possessors of sacred faculties and authority, who have the power to generate divine knowledge and religious science—is the root cause of the crises in scientific culture and the challenges of Islamic and human sciences. The absence of skilled and powerful theorists in these fields also stems from this disconnection. This serious affliction has turned religious sciences into Islamic techniques and these techniques into appendages of university and non-traditional centres, while the foundation of Shi’a culture is based on authority-centred and inwardness, meaning that the master, due to a faculty of justice commensurate with his ijtihad and expertise (called the sacred faculty and the lowest level of authority), or by divine authority, sanctifies his scientific productions, and his statements are deemed religious and grounded in God Almighty. Such a specialist must inevitably be a sage; not one who has merely read many books in Islamic and human sciences, but one who possesses within himself a version of the objective world and, by virtue of his sacred faculty or authority, gains knowledge from this comprehensive book. The current predicament of philosophy and other Islamic and human sciences is the detachment of centres claiming these sciences from Shi’a inwardness and authority, replaced by counterfeit, sometimes perfunctory and superficial, occasionally distorted versions of ethics, mysticism, and Islamic philosophy, instead of authority-centred, inward, sage-based approaches. The sage truly holds the cure for all Islamic and human sciences, possessing by divine gift the power to unify all specialisations, albeit such sages are very rare and scarce in times of emergence. Sciences find their growth path only by following their guidance and engineering their propositions accordingly. The balm for the deep wounds and agonising injuries of Islamic and human sciences lies with the beloved saints. The beloved are truly sages, meaning their objective world is a version of their inner world and they hold the plan and blueprint for everything, perfect and complete, such that no part of their knowledge and practice puzzle conflicts. The mystic beloved embodies the statement: “The transformation of a human into an intellectual world akin to the objective world.” It is more accurate to say that the objective world is a version of them. The “Divine Beloved” has a population, and the truth of the world is modelled on his truth; not that he is a version of the objective world. Whatever he utters is a fragment and aspect of the external world expressed through him.

The Importance of Ontology

The significance of ontological discussion in philosophy relates to the fundamental role of existence in the cosmos. Since the cosmos is existence and its coherence depends on existence, and the reality and truth of the world is constituted by being and existence, ontology is essentially the study of truth. In other words, “existence” is the foundation of all beings and objects, which are the subjects of all other sciences, and understanding existence and its general laws and principles amounts to understanding the foundation and subjects of all sciences and their common universal laws.

The Transcendent Reality of Existence

In Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, existence is a transcendent reality, whereas in previous philosophies it was considered only as a general and conventional concept, wherein truth was taken as the essence of things and not their existence. Mulla Sadra bases his philosophy on the self-evidence of the concept of existence and does not question its meaning. Although the general and abstract concept of “existence” applies to all beings, the reality of existence is higher than all possible beings, because all things and everything else have two limitations—restrictive and causal—while the essence and truth of existence, i.e., absolute existence without conditional division, is sacred and free from these two aspects. The restrictive aspect causes limitation and essential determination in possible beings and the ontological descent of their existence from the level of eternal necessity and obligation, dressing their existence with essence and finally deserving the attribute of creation. The causal aspect entails need, dependence, contingency, and existential poverty. The truth of existence has none of these two aspects, although in its descent it acquires rules pertaining to the levels and boundaries of existence, not to the essence of existence. Thus, existence in its ontological descent to possible levels and its manifestation in the forms and manifestations of creation acquires created laws related to the limits and stages of existence—i.e., its manifestations and modes, such as restrictive, causal, and relative aspects.

Although existence is a general concept applicable to all beings and conceptually indefinable, because it transcends Aristotelian ten categories and does not fall under any general genus that can be defined by genus and difference or essential or accidental properties, and although conceptually clear and self-evident, existence has a reality identical with the actualisation of beings. According to Mulla Sadra, this is the particularity and individuality of external beings, and he endeavours to prove its primacy. Though existence is undefinable due to its lack of essential limit, it is not entirely unknowable; rather, existence is grasped through immediate perception and annihilation (fana), although its essence and depth cannot be comprehended, but its principles such as the primacy of existence, unity of existence, doubtful levels and semantic commonality are recognizable through immediate perception.

The Self-Evidence of the Concept of Existence

Returning to the topic of this writing: the subject of philosophy is “existence.” Sadra’s philosophy, like Permary concept, philosophy can regain its vital connection to wisdom, truth, and the entire spectrum of human knowledge.

The Starting Point of Philosophical Discourse: The Primacy and Generality of Existence

In our view, the true point of departure for philosophical discourse—rendering it intersubjective and open to dialogue—is not the immediacy and more-known status (a‘raf) of existence itself, but rather the generality (a‘amm) of existence, which is apprehended and understood intuitively prior to that immediacy. The generality of existence constitutes the first philosophical principle. Existence possesses a general concept, and a comprehensive conception suffices to affirm the generality of existence. No concept attains realization without the concept of existence, and the realization of existence itself is nothing else. The actualization of everything is by virtue of existence. This generality inherently necessitates the more-known and clearer status of existence. Since we find existence to be general, we thereby accept its immediacy. Existence is immediate because it is general, not the other way around. Truth is identical to existence and cannot be more general than existence; for to be more general, either existence would not exist—whereas there is nothing but existence and non-existence stands in opposition to it—or something must lie between existence and non-existence, which is logically impossible as it would require the coexistence of two contradictory extremes.

The truth of the general existence is unrestricted and can encompass everything. This comprehensive knowledge resides within the essence of all phenomena, and all perceive that without existence, there is no sensation or experience. In any case, logic and philosophy must be founded upon the generality of existence, which implies that beyond the mind, there exists a fixed reality and truth accessible to thought to some extent and to the heart through intimacy and love. This is the first certain proposition upon which all other propositions rest.

The Principle of Identity

Following the acknowledgement of the generality of existence, the first proposition derived from this self-evident conception is: “Existence is existence”—that is, the principle of identity, or self-sameness (haqiqat al-huwiyyah), the notion that “each thing is itself.” Logically, this principle precedes the principle of non-contradiction. The predicate of this identity proposition is intrinsically predicated upon its subject, with the unity of subject and predicate being a true, immediate, intrinsic, individual, and existential reality, possessing actuality and truth. The truth of this proposition bears ontological and epistemological necessity; for if anything were other than existence, it would require proof. Yet general existence is predicated upon itself and decrees that existence is existence, and the truth of existence is attributed to existence.

The Absolute and Infinite Nature of Existence

Gradually, alongside the generality and self-sameness of existence, one attains the notions of its absoluteness and infinity. Although the understanding of infinity tends to limit it and the understanding of absoluteness confines it, thought only reaches this dimension through solitary reflection and intimate communion in quietude, wherein the pain of existence becomes the cradle and source for the emergence of presence. Through this anguish, one rises to a presentiment of existence, becoming suffused with it until one speaks only in the language of existence, and existence speaks through one, for the language of existence in this realm is nothing but existence itself. Without such solitude and connection, the dense veil of matter and the impurities of the soul present insurmountable barriers to knowledge, distracting the individual with mere verbal constructs. The cognition of existence depends on this primordial character and perpetual intimacy with existence; this original character and realization of intimacy and love suffice for immersion in the ocean of existence and the annihilation of limitation and determination. Without it, the adorned statements of science become a coffin of madness, a cage of conceit and particularity.

Pure human thought recognises its own infinity and existence’s infinity, likewise seeking an infinite and endless purified self, yearning and desiring it. The truth of existence becomes self-evident in this connection through the annihilation of determination. The subject of philosophy is the general and infinite existence. This general conceptual existence, in its particular manifestation, is an infinite existence that pervades everywhere, leaving no place void. It is pure existence, an existence that is not attributable to essence, for it has no essence.

The Simplicity and Definition of Existence

Existence is simple, pure, and absolute, not directly referable. Yet every reference is to it. The definition of the manifestation of existence is attainable by entering the vast ocean of its greatness. At this point, the one who attains it—the love inherent in its essence—is an existent who defines existence. Accordingly, existence is definable. Nothing other than existence can define it, because there is nothing other than existence. Existence possesses the attribute that it can define itself; yet each level of existence defines the same level of existence in its apparent and hidden aspects, and in the totality of the apparent and hidden. All such definitions are true. Every definition spoken from the language of each phenomenon is from the language of existence itself. Besides the true definition, existence has numerous admonitory definitions which, at times, provide immediate and momentary attention to the truth of existence.

Existence does not have a verbal or conceptual definition; however, definition is not limited to words, and existence possesses an existential language for defining existence. All forms, vessels, and determinations—which are the colourful, manifold, and graded garments of existence—are all definitions of existence, albeit definitions of a certain level of existence. Verbal definition itself is a level of existence called “concept,” whose meaning and truth is existence itself. As long as this conceptual knowledge is general and existential, it remains within the domain of philosophical thought; otherwise, as the subject of existence becomes particular and individual, the sphere of philosophy ends, and the trust of knowledge is entrusted to the guardians of mysticism and gnosis, who dive into the ocean of existence to bring forth wisdom. This wisdom has the power to transform the pearls of heartfelt wisdom into rational propositions capable of transmission through the language of science and structured as demonstration, thus producing a philosophy-like discourse.

Intimacy and the Appearance of Existence

Through intimacy and solitude with existence, one perceives existence as an incessant rain of manifestation. Existence is the heart of manifestation, the beloved of manifestation, the soul of manifestation. Manifestation dwells in the secure shelter of existence, cradled by existence. Manifestation is the life of existence, the very union with existence. Manifestation is the lover of existence, the sweetness of existence, the enduring stability of existence. The presence of manifestation delights the hidden existence. Manifestation is immersed in existence, coloured by existence, the uproar of existence—and we are but a page in the imagination of existence’s uproar.

Manifestation is at ease with existence. Manifestation is the body of existence, the face of existence, the nakedness of existence. Manifestation is drunkenness for existence, its intoxication, the field of existence. The strife of manifestation is the love of existence. Manifestation is the seductiveness, dignity, beauty, and bewildered beauty of existence. Wisdom is the attainment of existence, manifestation, and determinations. Wisdom is the insight of thought regarding existence, the demonstration of the vision of existence, the foundation of reason and the philosophy of existence.

Philosophy is the sacred and pure reason of existence. Philosophy is the guidance of reason towards existence. The guide is the soul of existence. Anything else is illusion and conjecture. Philosophy is not the superstition of illusion, nor the rumination of thought, nor the imitation of appearances, nor the conception of imagination. Philosophy is not futile speech, nor stubbornness, nor the weapon of coercion and force. Philosophy is not the splendor of gold, the display of hypocrisy, the deceit of hypocrisy, nor the predication of accident upon essence. Philosophy does not negate “occurrence” but affirms the eternal and endless creation. Philosophy is the perspective of manifestation, not causality. Philosophy is companionship, not precedence and succession. Philosophy respects relativity. Philosophy embraces the presence of appearance and reality.

Time in philosophy is a description of the statistical determination of the corporeal. Determination is the hidden grace. The world is the heart of the invisible particles. Movement is the passion and longing of the nature of phenomena. Love is the harmonious dance of existence and movement in determination. Love is the face of the truth of existence. Love is the attraction of particles to existence with rhythmic movement. Love is the flowing of souls toward existence. Love is the beloved of existence.

Philosophy is the recognition of the locus of fear against existence. Philosophising requires existential security. Truth-seeking demands existential freedom.

Free and Powerful Mysticism

Historically, the people of knowledge and mysticism have divided into three major groups:

One group pursued asceticism and mysticism solely for their own sake. Ultimately, they attain no result and become hypocritical and ostentatious, pretending to mysticism and knowledge.

Another group pursued extreme asceticism but remained ineffective in achieving any result. Even if they attained some spiritual level, physically they became weak, frail, and miserable, rendering their spiritual authority ineffective as their physical weakness overwhelmed them.

The third group—the true seekers of mysticism and power—are free and truth-seeking individuals. Their quest for freedom and truth led to their suppression by worldly authorities due to their independent thoughts. They realised that mysticism, freedom, chivalry, and youthfulness could not survive without power, so they turned to spiritual strength and physical prowess, becoming exceptional individuals who positively influenced their own training and society. Mystic warriors in all cultures, particularly in China, India, and Iran, practiced these techniques, combining mystical pursuits with bodily strength, forsaking comfort until they possessed spiritual power and strong, disciplined bodies, mastering combat techniques to exert influence.

Winking ( )

Old and Expired Books

Many of the topics, rulings, principles, and regulations presented in jurisprudence under the name of religion suffer from two major flaws: firstly, they are neither accurate nor genuinely religious, nor are they substantiated by God. Secondly, these errors and accretions, due to the passage of time or significant scientific and religious issues of the predecessors, are no longer applicable today. Correct religious rulings must be derived within a system of scientific and knowledge-based jurisprudence, continually updated and renewed, so that religion can maintain its acceptance and practical relevance within society and among the people. Of course, when we say their “expiry date” has passed, it does not imply that these rulings were once valid; the term “expired” typically refers to something that was once sound and effective but has now lost its utility. However, many of these rulings were neither correct nor ever valid historically. Jurisprudential, theological, philosophical, mystical, and Quranic discussions and rulings of the past may either be genuinely religious and scientifically enduring—whether directly derived from explicit divine texts in the Holy Quran and authentic narrations or based on scholars’ interpretations—or they may be flawed and subject to critique. This latter category divides into two types: those issues and rulings which were once valid, appropriate, and contextually applicable to their time but have since become ineffective due to changes in circumstances, and those rulings that were never accurate and are purely flawed additions that may still be accepted by many literalist jurists and traditionalists without sufficient scrutiny. Many of these, having become social and cultural constructs, require diligent scientific investigation. The jurisprudence and scholarly heritage of past generations must be rigorously and carefully reassessed and reconsidered. Any negligence in this regard will undermine both the essence of religion and the Shi’a clergy as its custodians, as well as the Islamic system arising therefrom. For years, we have devoted serious attention to identifying these rulings and principles in both our writings and teachings, considering ourselves champions in the struggle against religious accretions.

Winking ( )

Worldly Scholars

Some individuals pursue worldly gains and recognise nothing beyond money and materialism. In contrast, the scholars of the past had no worldly ambitions and acted solely for God. Unfortunately, the contemporary religious seminaries face a fundamental problem: some so-called scholars claim to speak of God but simultaneously chase worldly gains. Their actions are driven not by devotion to God but by worldly interests. Sometimes, they preach one thing but act differently, resulting in fatigue and increasing difficulties in their work. Neither God nor the world is clearly apparent in their conduct. In brief and firmly put: today’s worldly scholars and the worldly-oriented seminaries are spiritually defiled; their religion and their world, their present and their afterlife, have merged indistinguishably, like a woman whose urinary, fecal, or menstrual channels have become one due to injury or childbirth.

The pious and godly of the past—or the very few remaining today—if truly knowledgeable, maintain clarity of purpose. Yet those who conflate religion and worldly matters have neither this world nor the hereafter and, as the Holy Quran states, from the smallest to the greatest, they have indeed “lost both this world and the Hereafter” (Quran 2:121). I speak from witnessing the afterlife of such worldly scholars; there is no need for references or evidence. They will encounter increasing troubles and have no good outcome.

Winking ( )

Temporal Conflict

The temporal realm is the place of conflicting interests, confrontation, and enmity. Hatred and enmity are objective realities, undeniable and universally understood, affecting everyone to varying degrees—from ordinary individuals to the Almighty God. Good or bad, big or small, believer or non-believer, creator or creature—all have enemies.

Winking ( )

The Great Enemy-Making

It is crucially important in the temporal world that prominent, distinguished, and virtuous individuals have more enemies; greatness breeds enmity. Distinguished individuals attract more and harsher enemies and experience this phenomenon directly.

Just as manufacturing enemies is undesirable, having enemies is not necessarily bad. Enemies purify, strengthen, and cleanse good individuals to the extent that one might say the enemy is a purifier of the virtuous. Those who have enemies exercise greater caution and resilience; those without enemies remain weak, fragile, and prone to complacency and self-satisfaction.

The enemy is akin to alchemy—a transformative agent that refines the human soul. One without enemies cannot be pure and upright. Though the term ‘enemy’ is generally disliked, it surpasses all alchemical substances and brings greatness. The enemy resembles snake venom, rarer and more precious than gold. Anyone can possess gold or benefit from it, but snake venom is not for everyone. It is purer than gold and free from impurity. Although venom is deadly, it also purifies many impurities. Only those with high authority can handle venom; similarly, only those who can tame the snake can access the venom, and those who tame snakes are great and powerful.

Today, the field of politics is dominated by the economy. Politicians, if they do not possess economic power themselves, become mere tools in the hands of economic cartels. It is the economy that shapes the political landscape, either developing or weakening it. Economic cartels, empowered by their financial resources, achieve what can be called nothing less than miracles. Buying and selling ministers and deputies is effortless for them; indeed, they can easily barter a government or a political system alongside their lavish gifts, not merely for a few years but for several decades. These cartels, unlike former kings, are no longer the sovereigns of economy and politics but their tyrants.

The Security of Autocracy

In the past, rulers were called “Sultans.” A Sultan, by definition, was someone whose heart found peace and tranquillity in the dominion and mastery over all affairs, which in turn brought security to his subjects and people.

However, it must be noted that sometimes the despotism of a ruler brings insecurity to the majority of the populace. The attribute of “security” can either stem from the wisdom, prudence, sagacity, and authority of the ruler or from his tyrannical, autocratic, and dictatorial nature. In the latter case, the breath of scholars and enlightened elites is held captive under the pretext of ensuring security—for the security of the autocrat himself—and the power of criticism and dissent is stripped from all holders of scientific and political authority. Yet, most people remain calm due to the passivity of the elites and the silence of the privileged. Opposite the Sultan stands the “Suleita” (tyrant), who possesses neither peace nor grants peace to those he dominates, causing disquiet and insecurity for all.

The lion is called the “king of the jungle,” despite not being the most powerful or cunning compared to its rivals such as tigers, gorillas, bears, leopards, or deer. Wolves are apex predators known for their social cooperation and ferocity, hyenas have the most voracious appetites, and foxes are the most cunning. Yet, only the lion is named king because, unlike the sensitive tiger, it is patient, enduring, and tolerant. This endurance endows the lion with dignity, majesty, charisma, power, and steadfastness. The lion only hunts when hungry and takes only what it needs, not more; it is not greedy nor a predator of the weak. It spares pregnant females, shows mercy, and after hunting, it allows its family to feed first. It never hides or buries its leftovers from other animals and exhibits generosity and foresight. When old or ill, it separates from the pride and relinquishes leadership to avoid being a burden.

The Primacy of Empirical Politics over Philosophical Certainty

In political philosophy, it is crucial to align philosophical certainties with the practical realities of the present society to maintain relevance. Political philosophy that is abstract or dogmatic risks being dismissed by practitioners who engage in politics with practical intent. As governance precedes theory on how to govern, empirical political events take precedence over theoretical constructs. Despite modern appearances and eloquent rhetoric, today’s world is essentially a jungle clothed in modernity, allowing the powerful and wealthy to manifest their destructive desires more openly, causing even the divine to sigh in lamentation.

Modern political humans, both in the Western world and in the unreliable East, are enveloped in layers of fabricated evils, prone to injustice and criminality. Though eloquent, their sole aim is self-preservation and profit, often committing one atrocity after another. These criminals seek to control the public by forming artificial and fabricated political parties and groups to politically subjugate the populace. Thus, anyone attracted to them is effectively corrupted, no longer a healthy or fulfilled human being.

Political Power Resources

Power, while it can be a means to ensure security, reconstruction, growth, development, and cultural advancement, is also susceptible to misuse, transforming into tyranny and dictatorship, serving the survival of power holders and creating autocracy and repression. Political reasoning, historically confined to monarchs and philosophers, has always sought to control and supervise power. Political science, which emerged seriously with the advent of democracy, nationalism, and widespread education, has entrusted the public with power regulation through democratic engineering.

The People

“The people” are among the most significant sources of political power. Politicians and thinkers cannot practice politics without considering the populace. Political authority today belongs to the people, and political power cannot be indifferent to the masses’ interests, welfare, comfort, sufferings, or pains.

Definition of Politics and the Sacred Source of Power

Political science analyses the actions of powerful rulers (or those possessing force), focusing on power relations, orientations, and goals. The core of political analysis is sovereignty and the governing system that wields power.

Our philosophy of politics, which we might call “tactical politics in the moment,” involves collective prudence to achieve the good (spiritual health and luminous happiness) of phenomena. Achieving this good requires a source of power, namely aid from a sacred bestowed faculty (supreme justice aligned with communal management and jurisprudence). Thus, tactical politics is exclusive to a sacred sage, though the executive manager need only emulate him. Tactical politics is a precise science that makes political phenomena predictable for the wise politician, preventing surprises. This science, rooted in sacred principles, relies on illuminated reason and does not suffer from the weaknesses of ordinary human intellect. However, acquiring knowledge of political subjects requires appropriate tools for gathering relevant information. Therefore, academic study by non-sacred individuals aims to discover general, relevant, and predictable laws and is a craft that improves with practice, distinct from political science itself.

Leadership Personality

Another critical source of political power is the personality of leadership. The power of a wise politician derives primarily from his personality, which is beloved by God and connected to sacred blessings, knowledge, and the heartfelt love of benevolent phenomena. Conversely, a non-sacred ordinary politician’s power stems from separate factors such as population, quantitative rather than qualitative human resources, strategic geopolitical position, economic resources (especially agriculture, modern technology, natural resources like oil, gas, uranium, gold, copper, diamonds), tourism, maritime resources, and importantly, military capability. Armed forces are a fundamental element in the power equation for non-sacred authorities. A non-sacred leader with a degraded or humiliated personality who projects a fabricated persona to appear strong often becomes the source of destructive corruption, transforming power into tyranny and autocracy. Such a leader considers financial and human resources his personal property.

Popular System

Wisdom and knowledge inspired by a sacred faculty are qualitative power sources for a sacred, religious politician, elevating his leadership to a highly valued status, creating charismatic leadership beloved by the people. This force of justice, piety, and divine inspiration shields him from corruption, autocracy, nepotism, and disorder. He approaches his people with love and benevolence and distributes the country’s benefits to all its people, not merely a privileged class that maintains an individual’s power through loyalty and flattery. He acts as a trustee over these resources, not as their owner. The wise politician combines his gifted abilities with the affection, influence, and high acceptance he enjoys among the people. In contrast, non-sacred leadership relies on subordinate organisations that unquestioningly execute and promote only his views, particularly the military. Power for him is detached such that these organisations rebel and engage in corruption when they perceive weakness or corruption at the top, sometimes organising coups. If these organisations lack popular support, they resort to violent coups, but with popular participation, they focus on soft or colourful coups. Sacred leadership instils political dignity and vitality in the people, encouraging active participation in local governance and seeking their help in fair resource distribution, effectively maintaining a popular system. Conversely, non-sacred rule aims to build a state—regardless of its unpopularity or opposition to the people—as a source of executive power and ideological, philosophical legitimacy, and above all, “security” for its survival, where “national security” means the ruler’s personal security. Such a state is essentially a tool in the hands of ravenous wolves who, despite internal power struggles, are ruthless and despotic. Upon sensing corruption or weakness in leadership, these wolves seize opportunities to enhance their personal status through conspiracy and increasing dictatorship and egocentrism.

Autocratic Leadership and the Engineering of Powers

If non-sacred power takes on a tyrannical form that ignores collective welfare, it must engineer a practical separation of powers by extending influence over the legislature and judiciary, rendering them ceremonial. Presently, only the United States formally maintains the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial branches, though all are controlled by global Zionist and acquisitive interests. We define sovereignty as the supreme and independent real power within its territory, with internal freedom of influence and immunity to external interference. Without these, power is nominal and ceremonial, not genuine and official. Tyrannical sovereignty pursues only self-interest, disregarding the collective good. We adopt a political concept of government as the executive force of power. Sacred governance never compromises divine beliefs or maximum popular participation, maintaining leadership dignity and decorum so that the people experience its wisdom through practical governance and organizational interactions. Over time, this wisdom becomes more entrenched without needing theoretical justification.

The Caliphate Movement and Christianised Islamism

In the last century, two major anti-colonial movements emerged in the Islamic world: the Caliphate and Salafism, leading the Sunni countries, and the apparent and jurisprudential authority movement in Iran, which led the 1979 revolution, transforming the monarchy into the Islamic Republic.

Industrial Colonialism and Fabricated Liberation Movements

The nineteenth century, marked by industrial and economic expansion in Europe, saw the onset of “industrial colonialism” to secure cheap or free raw materials. The industrial colonial powers of the West and subsequently the Tsarist Eastern Bloc developed policies to secure their colonial interests, often through fabricated liberation movements designed to control colonised societies indirectly.

Egypt and Sayyid Jamal

At that time, Egypt was still under Ottoman suzerainty but allied with the anti-Ottoman Allied Powers (Britain, France, and Russia) during the Second World War. In 1888, Egypt gained control of the strategically crucial Suez Canal, which connects the three continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. During this period, Egypt was also the centre of activities of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1254–1314 AH). Sayyid Jamal, who held ministerial positions in the Sunni Afghan government, advocated for the general idea of Islamic unity and inter-sectarian rapprochement and is regarded as one of the earliest theorists of Islamic fundamentalism. However, despite his celebrated reputation, his practical efforts failed to benefit the Islamic world and squandered the opportunities of his era. He paid little attention to the masses and maintained extensive relations with rulers and political elites, serving the Ottoman state. One of his students in Iran, Mirza Reza Kermani, assassinated Nasser al-Din Shah (1210–1275 AH). Nasser al-Din Shah had fully captured Herat, Afghanistan; however, the British compelled him to withdraw from Herat and accept Afghanistan’s separation from Iran by dispatching a warship and troops to Iran and capturing Bushehr. In any case, Sayyid Jamal exerted considerable influence in Egypt as well. Eventually, Egypt declared independence in 1922, but the canal was handed back to the British in 1936.

The Muslim Brotherhood Movement

Hasan al-Banna, a prominent Egyptian cleric, founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, which has since become the largest Sunni political organisation worldwide. In 1942, the anti-colonial movement led by Gamal Abdel Nasser emerged in Egypt. In 1952, Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. He also established the Free Officers Movement. Initially, he maintained close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, though the movement later appeared to distance itself from him. Alongside the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt saw the rise of two other anti-colonial movements: Arab nationalism and socialism. However, the Muslim Brotherhood enjoyed greater prominence and influence. Ostensibly, the movement assassinated state figures favourable to the British one after another, paving the way for the rule of Gamal Abdel Nasser and subsequently Anwar Sadat, both of whom, paradoxically, served British interests during their presidencies. While Nasser initially displayed socialist and anti-Western tendencies until 1953, he reached an agreement with Britain in 1954 to administer the Suez Canal jointly with the Egyptians. Strikingly, he arrested nearly four thousand supporters of his own movement and executed many who had been drawn to the Brotherhood by their pursuit of freedom, orchestrating a bloody purge within the military. It seemed that the Brotherhood was, for him, a trap to hunt down opponents of his pro-Western policies, rather than a movement to be preserved for anti-colonial struggle. The Arab-Israeli war began during this period, and Egypt and the Arab states suffered humiliating defeats against Israel. Paradoxically, at a time when national unity was essential and the Brotherhood appeared to reconcile with Nasser, Sayyid Qutb—a thinker with views differing from the Brotherhood’s mainstream—planned to assassinate Nasser. He was arrested and executed before any action could be taken, providing the government a pretext to launch a brutal crackdown on the movement.

After Nasser’s death in 1970, Anwar Sadat, once a close friend of Nasser and also formerly associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, came to power. Sadat pursued a policy of de-Nasserisation, fought socialism, introduced state-led economic reforms, and aligned Egypt closer to the United States. He authored a memoir entitled My Son, This Is Uncle Nasser. Sadat institutionalised reconciliation between the state and Islam in the constitution, formally apologised and made conciliatory gestures towards the Muslim Brotherhood, yet simultaneously implemented policies repressing fundamentalist freedom-seekers. In 1971, he amended the constitution to declare Islam the official religion of Egypt and submitted this change to a public referendum. Sadat was the first Arab ruler to sign a peace treaty with Israel, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. He maintained warm relations with Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who affectionately called Sadat his “beloved brother.” Sadat was a staunch opponent of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was assassinated in 1981 by Khalid Islambouli, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Despite this, the Brotherhood continued to make political advances not only in Egypt but across many other countries. While parts of the Brotherhood may be genuinely committed to freedom, it appears that the movement’s organisational structure—governed by a consultative council responsible for legislation and policy and supervising activities—has not been immune to foreign influence and has, at times, become a tool of external colonial powers. The movement considers itself supra-national and enjoys support in many Arab countries. Brotherhood members are present in 72 Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal generally hold ideological ties to the Brotherhood.

In 2011, following the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood formed the Freedom and Justice Party, which brought Mohamed Morsi to the presidency. Due to the Brotherhood’s influence over Hamas’s military wing, rocket attacks on Israeli settlements ceased during Morsi’s tenure. Morsi also destroyed most of the weapons-smuggling tunnels in the Sinai Peninsula used to supply Gaza, thereby halting arms shipments. On 9 August 2012, Morsi attended the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, where he handed over the chairmanship to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opened his speech by saluting Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, three caliphs revered by Sunnis. After the 2013 coup by the military against Morsi’s government and the detention of numerous supporters, the left-wing Egyptian party Al-Tajammu filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood. On 23 September 2013, the court banned the Brotherhood’s activities and confiscated all its assets.

The Politics of Manipulation

Paradoxically, most of these ostensibly anti-colonial movements, often classified as Salafi (caliphate) movements, upon assuming power, have abandoned their former slogans and loyalties, adopting pro-Western policies aligned with Western interests and resorting to violence and authoritarianism against their own populations. Essentially, these movements pose as opponents of rulers, but in reality, the reins of power remain in their hands, manipulating governments to ascend or descend. History reveals that those who rose to power with their support invariably pursued colonialist policies. Therefore, tracing the continuous trajectory of these movements, one must question their genuine anti-colonial credentials and conclude that many have been forgeries serving colonial interests. The caliphate movement, once claiming to fight colonialism, now manifests in extremist groups like al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and ISIS, which have become centres of terrorism and Islamophobia worldwide.

Western powers support these groups to destroy the compassionate culture of Islam, its philosophy, rationality, mysticism, and spirituality. They present their own democracy as a source of love, respect for human dignity, and human rights, as a superior alternative to organised violence by radical Muslim factions. These rigid, dogmatic elements attribute violence to the essence of Islam and its laws rather than their own personal rigid interpretation, thereby defiling the religion and its jurisprudence in the public mind.

The Consequences of Violence and Extremism

Violence and radicalism in politics and society are coercive, unnatural movements and will eventually cease, giving way to the influence of licentiousness and secularism—especially in matters of sex, alcohol, usury, and immodesty—which appeal to those wearied by violence and war. These forces unwittingly drive people towards humanism in thought and democracy in politics, portraying themselves as saviours from the darkness of oppression imposed in the name of religion. Yet, even if westernised reformers adapt humanism to local cultures, its essence remains a self-centred, secular philosophy authored by economic cartels and political elites as a global prescription. This perpetuates the endless cycle of violence, colonial oppression, and selfish dominance by the global economic and political oligarchy.

The Danger of Violent Wahhabi-Style Literalism

As mentioned, violence from colonial-derived groups inflicts the greatest damage on the essence of true religion. To understand the roots of violence and extremism, one must refer to the concluding verses of Surah Al-Fajr (The Dawn), where God says:

“O tranquil soul, return to your Lord well-pleased and pleasing [to Him]. Enter among My servants, and enter My Paradise.”

Human beings possess two aspects: an earthly (clay) and a spiritual (light) nature. They can develop themselves in accordance with their inherent nature or their divine reality. The earthly self relates to mundane relations and is shaped by ego, selfishness, and calculation, attaching itself to external possessions like clothes, wealth, family, and status. The spiritual self is the true essence, inseparable from the individual, embodying purity, sincerity, faith, servitude, knowledge, and awareness—or conversely, hatred and vice.

Those preoccupied solely with their outward selves are empty inside, unlike the saints who are ever mindful of God and their true nature. Those who seek the inner self never become attached to superficiality, whereas those obsessed with appearance never invest in their inner being. Such people toil ceaselessly for certificates and sustenance and seek money for its own sake. They are like lifeless bodies acting out human roles, their identities reduced to possessions and titles, prone to enmity and jealousy. Hence, the human being is not a mere physical organism but a living divine spirit endowed with intellect, love, faith, and consciousness.

This true understanding illuminates the error of the Wahhabi approach, which applies strict literalism and enforces external compliance without inner spiritual engagement. The rigid enforcement of the Shariah’s outer form, devoid of its inner spirit and meaning, leads to violence, extremism, and misinterpretation of the religion. The great majority of Muslims do not embrace this violent literalism. Instead, the essence of Islam calls for love, compassion, and peace, which have been obscured by extremist distortions.

The Rise of the Clergy’s Power in Iran from 1963 to 1989 (1342 to 1368 Hijri-Shamsi): An Analysis

The ascent of the clerical establishment in Iran during the years 1342 to 1368 Hijri-Shamsi once again sounded the alarm for the political overlords and economic cartels, directing their attention towards the Shi’a jurisprudence (fiqh). These powers devised plans to curb and weaken the authority of jurisprudence, seeking to alienate the Iranian populace from all aspects of Shi’a fiqh and religion, thereby preparing them to embrace a culturally engineered framework aligned with their own agendas.

It must be understood that “politics” and the art of governance sometimes involve studying the techniques of ruling, often reflected in manuals that delve into historical political strategies and the cunning employed by predecessors. Political skill is acquired through an understanding of the theories, principles, and rules distilled by political philosophers, alongside the tactics utilised by great statesmen, supported by their experiential knowledge. However, the practice of politics in the empirical world, within the domain of governance, is a science rather than merely an art. It requires prompt decision-making and creation of directives based on unique, irreproducible circumstances. This distinguishes practical politics from theoretical political study, which relies on observing past events and news. A statesman must make the correct decisions amidst the singular conditions of actual events.

The High Capacity of Shi’a Jurisprudential Political Wisdom

In any case, Shi’a jurisprudence, with its profound political wisdom, holds the key to triumph and strategic prowess in the deceitful global political arena. Its strength lies in recognising unique, unprecedented issues and issuing appropriate rulings accordingly. This capacity positions the jurist as a distinctive political figure — a sacred and spiritual persona — whose practical success confounds those who limit politics to fixed principles derived from historical events. One of the immutable political principles of this knowledge-centred jurisprudence is the recognition that new topics require new policies; politics should not be rigidly applied from old rulings to novel matters. Knowledge-centred fiqh has its own political functions, rooted in the divine essence of religion and the sacred faculty of the jurist, rather than in advisors and entourages. Such jurisprudence neither condones acts like the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran nor the execution of dozens of military and scientific experts, nor does it permit delayed and indiscriminate trials regardless of rank or position.

The Sacred Politics of the Enlightened Leader

Following the 1979 popular revolution, the world had the opportunity to witness political science manifested through spirituality, knowledge, and wisdom. Unfortunately, this potential was not realised. Knowledge-centred jurisprudence is concerned with the present moment, addressing unique situations fraught with conspiracies, complexities, and crises engineered by external powers. Without reliance on conventional military equipment, propaganda, or advanced information technology, but instead depending on divine power and popular affection, it demonstrates remarkable and unexpected initiatives that are effective and endorsed by the people. The knowledgeable jurist discerns and operationalises good phenomena within their domain with love, maintaining the dignity and pride of the people throughout their political and religious leadership and decision-making processes, recognising them as the true leaders of the nation.

If knowledge-centred jurisprudence prevailed, politicians would re-experience the power of philosophy and religious culture politically—a power that is consciously constructed, characterised by full mastery and noble presence, a revered and spiritual politician who embodies dignity and divine firmness, without resorting to contemporary political theories to justify or rationalise their decisions. Such jurisprudence sanctifies political science, as the jurist’s expertise benefits from a sacred faculty, an intermediary possessing authoritative legitimacy between God and His servants. This jurist is universally recognised by their spirituality, sacredness, serenity, dignity, and firmness. In this jurisprudence, the wise jurist issues decisions through the sacred faculty, a bestowed gift, leaving no doubt about their divine origin, as the correctness, effectiveness, and popular acceptance of their decisions become empirically evident.

It should be emphasised that politics without the justice of the jurist and the sacred faculty—what jurisprudence calls “justice commensurate with ijtihad”—cannot be deemed religious or authoritative. Even if political theory is expressed within jurisprudential technical frameworks, it remains ordinary human knowledge, neither sacred nor religious, and thus the slogan “our politics is our religion” refers exclusively to politics derived from legitimate jurisprudence, not to any political conduct.

The 1979 revolution, supported by popular enthusiasm and the theory of Guardianship of the Jurist (Wilayat al-Faqih), if presented correctly and implemented with the requisite wisdom, dignity, and internal sanctity by a capable jurist, could have stood in opposition to the global political masters and economic cartels from the early 20th century until today. These powers aimed to undermine the sanctity and dignity of Shi’a leadership through military aggression, extensive terrorist attacks, ongoing economic sanctions, cultural infiltration, and the promotion of humanism and secular philosophy. However, the dominance of superficial jurisprudence lacking spiritual depth failed to endow Shi’a fiqh with such sanctity and influence. Instead, radicalism and extreme revolutionary zeal transformed jurisprudence into a culture of violence and perpetual conflict, inadvertently aligning with the objectives of neocolonialism. This significant deviation has led the revolution into a deadlock, one that even the bloodshed during the war cannot sustain, as those sacrifices were made for a correct Shi’a culture, which current claimants have corrupted into violence and injustice, fundamentally opposing the values of the Ahl al-Bayt.

The Shi’a School as a Strategic Target of Modern Colonialism

It is naïve and simplistic to assume that the centre of Shi’a religious power is not a primary focus of hostile political strategies by global powerholders seeking their preferred Middle East, complete with infiltration plans. Francis Fukuyama, a renowned American political philosopher and economist, stated at the 1989 Jerusalem Conference that the greatest enemy of democracy, namely Western humanism, is the Shi’a ideology. He described Shi’a as a bird with two wings—one red and one green. The green wing represents Mahdism and justice-seeking; the red wing embodies martyrdom. The bird’s third dimension is the armour of “acceptance of guardianship,” unique to Shi’a in the Islamic world, enabling it to remain invincible and grow through martyrdom.

Politics of Changing the Iranian Public’s Preferences

Fukuyama proposed the “micro-politics of desires and micro-physics of power,” asserting that to conquer a nation, one must change its people’s desires. If the desires of Iranians do not shift from martyrdom, self-sacrifice, and magnanimity towards materialism and Westernisation, efforts will be futile unless backed by a power that supports these changes. Eliminating the Guardianship of the Jurist would cause the Shi’a bird to fall, making it vulnerable. Subsequently, transforming martyrdom into materialism would eliminate the spirit of Imam Mahdi from society, paving the way for moral decay and permissiveness.

Global powerholders aspire to impose a secular, non-religious Islam that promotes humanism and libertinism—cultures effectively launched by superficial jurisprudence lacking resource management and inciting violence and war. Such trends not only exhaust their own nation but also allied Middle Eastern nations, leading to despair and surrender. Through gradual injection of secular philosophy and spirituality, persistent emphasis on violence and war, and attempts to undermine religious leadership’s dignity, they aim to break religious resistance and instigate a renaissance that aligns with their interests.

Superficial and extremist interpretations of Islam, which ignore its spiritual dimensions and reduce it to physical jihad and conflict, are ultimately betrayals of the comprehensive, knowledge-centred Shi’a fiqh. They inadvertently serve anti-Islamic global agendas, promoting a secular Islam incapable of meeting the spiritual and material needs of the people. Consequently, society suffers from psychological disorders, unchecked anger, hostility, and social malaise under the influence of such jurisprudential currents.

If knowledge-centred jurisprudence, with its rich content, is not properly introduced to the public, the reputation of Shi’a culture will be tarnished by superficial jurisprudence, facilitating the gradual shift of Iranian society towards Western humanism. The power that emerges will, in effect, govern as if Christian and impose a secular humanist Iran.

The Consequences of Authoritarian Superficial Governance

Today, Tehran, as one of the world’s mega-cities, is the political capital of Iran. Since the time of Amir al-Mu’minin and especially with the Safavid dynasty, Iranians have been identified with the Shi’a Alawi school and the Ja’fari Twelver doctrine. Following the 1979 revolution, the political system ostensibly transformed from monarchy to Islamic republic; however, based on philosophical scrutiny and decades of experience, it can be characterised as a regime of authoritarian contraction. According to Iran’s constitution, rulers and officials must base governance on Islam. This discussion aims to address one of the fundamental and root issues in religious politics: that the first step towards religious politics and legitimate governance, which grants political strategies divine sanction, is acquaintance with the pure language and culture of religion.

Colonial Opposition to the Revolutionary Shi’a School

As a preamble, it must be acknowledged that revolutionary and perfecting schools, which inherently oppose tyrants and oppressors, have always been subject to attacks and sabotage by depraved oppressors and colonialist usurpers. The Shi’a school, which holds guardianship as its central tenet, advocates for justice, love for the poor, and the expansion of equity—values deeply rooted in divine mandate and leadership—has endured the harshest and most severe assaults throughout history. These attacks have created numerous obstacles for the scholars and leaders of this school.

The Political Silence of the Superficial

Any regime dominated by superficial actors loses its political language, becoming mute, dumb, and silent. The political language and culture of a country can either contribute to the greatness of its regime and the nation that follows this culture and language or lead them to isolation and obscurity due to lack of articulation. Unfortunately, because some holders of power and deeply embedded political layers are unfamiliar with the language of religious politics, this epistemological language in Iranian politics has been forgotten. Instead, a governmental or better said, a power-centric language has replaced it. This deliberate substitution is a consequence of the political jurisprudence of the regime and the entrenched mafia from Qom, which has relegated the political knowledge and philosophy emerging from religion entirely to the shelf of oblivion and forgotten archives, covering it with the dust of superficial propaganda devoid of substance, so it remains neglected underneath. This language is authoritarian, commanding, and narrow-minded, causing Iran’s isolation in the international system. Such political language and culture lack the necessary options for rights-seeking and spirituality-oriented engagement to attract the inner God-seeking and truth-seeking nature of the people. It reduces truth to a highly embellished, authoritarian, antagonistic, stubborn religion full of errors and devoid of the necessary civilisational elements and the options needed to respond to spiritual needs. This language is devoid of spirituality, mysticism, guardianship, and God, and lacks Islamic identity, Quranic culture, and love for the ‘Wilayah of Ali’. Meanwhile, the political language of divinely epistemic guardians and the culture of science, love, universal guardianship, and the pure and infallible school of Ahl al-Bayt manifests with such strength and capacity for the people that it influences global political literature and religious cultures. Within such a system, the export of the culture of Wilayah is generated and the expansion of this language and literature is emphasised, making its ideology the dominant culture of scientific centres and the Islamic Ummah. This global expansion is indebted to the knowledge, love, wisdom, and highly effective political strategies of a sacred policymaker emanating from luminous intellect and divine reason within the domain of power, governance, and management. The language of a system born from luminous knowledge and such a wise culture is open, expansive, and strives to avoid any restrictions or contraction; otherwise, wherever contraction occurs, a system forms that replaces Islam and the Shi’a school, creating a governmental religion in the name of Islam. Its followers and loyalists promote the preservation of this artificial and counterfeit system instead of the love-driven, Wilayah-centred Islam and labour tirelessly and ineffectively for it.

Intrinsic Contraction of Superficiality and the Lack of Social Base

A closed language and culture lead to a closed society, limiting its growth and rendering it superficial, devoid of truth, unappealing, and fostering hypocrisy and division. Such language is incomprehensible and unattractive to others because it lacks the essential elements to meet the true needs of humanity. Moreover, because contraction nestles deeply in its essence, and its outward form lacks inner truth—consisting only of superficiality and empty slogans, albeit of religious vocabulary—it does not continuously inspire or attract, inevitably stalling somewhere. This superficial language, focused solely on outward appearances and slogans, devoid of any truth and essence, alienates the faithful who consciously remain committed to the pure Wilayah Islam and efforts to revive its grand culture. The consciously loyal to true Wilayah, though driven into isolation by the pressures of superficial actors, retain within their hearts the expansion, enthusiasm, and creativity necessary to energise Wilayah vitality and long for the realisation of such a governance with a facilitative and generous Islamic culture; a system that requires minimal propaganda yet produces the greatest positive renewal, relying little on armaments but strongly supported by powerful divine forces and spiritual aid. Certainly, it enjoys the sincere popular support of hearts simple and loving towards its leadership—leadership whose power rests on the “people,” not on large capital investments in propaganda and information. The superficial jurisprudence and its resulting system, due to its intrinsic contraction, narrow-mindedness, and limited practice, will increasingly diminish its social base, becoming weaker and less successful in winning hearts and affections; for both minds and hearts of the people are aware, and their hearts only respond to the divine, Wilayah truth endowed with divine expansiveness and governed by leadership derived from a sacred faculty. True reality and virtues alone can captivate the human soul.

This ominous fate befalls part of the followers and heirs of the superficial system due to their fixation on superficial words, disconnected from essence and reality, severed from the inner world, trapped in satanic and carnal contractions that freeze their minds, constrict their hearts, and close their views. This weakness and suffering pervades all their dimensions and fields of engagement, turning into a systemic epidemic. Philosophically, the system based on superficiality is systematically corrupted both structurally and in content, and its despotism becomes systemic, the stench of tyranny from the apex of power to its lowest echelons assaults every mind. The dominant superficial ideology blocks many pathways to scientific progress, economic development, urban civilisation, mental health, and eternal happiness, causing weakness and bankruptcy throughout all scientific disciplines and crafts, transforming an appropriate jurisprudence and system into one that destroys, prohibits, and restricts—bringing division instead of unity, robbing freedom and liberty, and planting the thorns of demonic contraction, arrogance, tyranny, selfishness, despotism, and aggression instead.

Should this regressive superficial faction gain access to the pinnacle of power—as they did from the beginning within the popular Islamic Republic system and monopolised all its pillars—the inevitable fate of such superficial contraction will be global boycott, popular rejection, and widespread revulsion; a fate already partly realised, which, due to its name being Shi’ism, has also tarnished the reputation of the school and the sanctity of religion. Contraction and closure have no language—they bring silence and muteness, making dialogue and discourse incomprehensible and alien. The familiar emotion of contraction is contraction itself, the repetition of “no,” opposition, and dissent—why this happened, why that did not. Generally, anything subjected to contraction and prohibition loses its language, blocking the path to understanding and development, leading to stagnation and inertia. Culture without an expansive, free, and open language becomes mute, inert, and talent-suffocating, robbing its people of vitality, leaving them under the bombardment of seductive carnal cultures, which promote unrestrained sensuality, and thus abandoned and confused. Naturally, anarchists and wanderers neither want a master nor can they have a leader. In sum, our argument is that the language capable of calling the people of Iran and the world to the pure culture of Shi’ism is the language of jurisprudence and epistemic culture—not the language of powers seeking to replace it and impose their contractionist language on the people, engineering coercive and violent selections for the people instead of popular choices.

Comprehensive Engineering of the Governance System

The 1979 Revolution aimed, in its thought and slogan, to fundamentally differ from all other revolutions—not merely overthrowing the tyrannical monarchy but taking responsibility for the management of the system based on the school of Islam, transforming a political revolution into a cultural movement. This rich culture is partially reflected in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, though its full detail exceeds the Constitution’s summary. We have presented the comprehensive engineering of the governance system in six volumes entitled “Leadership Foundations,” “Macro Management,” “Healthy Economy and Poverty Alleviation,” “Family,” “Justice and Punishment,” and “Regulations of the Shi’a Clergy.”

A political system can only survive healthily and correctly if it possesses a reflective, intellectual brain empowered by sacred reason and divine endowment, capable of outlining the comprehensive roadmap of the Islamic Republic’s future. Neglecting this leads to problems arising from erroneous law-making, flawed law enforcement, and wrong policy-making, one after another, resulting first in apathy and subsequently in system opposition and religious estrangement. Only a comprehensive cultural and epistemic engineering of the system can sweeten the people’s experience of a correct religious system and preserve its sanctity—a sweetness so bitterly lost under the tyrannical regime that the people were compelled to revolt, protesting and dismantling that structure. The people, wounded by betrayal, foreign allegiance, oppression, corruption, and injustice, endured a deep injury that could only be healed by revolution; healing that depends on correcting social culture and returning to the pure Sharia.

Revolution itself is a consequence of infected wounds, injuries, and atrocities and remains sustainable only if it becomes a culture; otherwise, wounds and grievances repeatedly resurface through wounded and sick individuals. The “political revolution” is like surgery, and “cultural formation” like the post-operative care and recovery period.

Religious Doctrine and the Root of Superficiality

God says in the Holy Qur’an:

“And the good land brings forth its vegetation by permission of its Lord; but that which is bad, [does] not bring forth except sparse, with difficulty. Thus do We diversify the signs for a people who give thanks.” (Surah Al-A’raf, 7:58)

Saadi, in Golestan, eloquently interpreted this verse as:

Rain, in its gentle nature, does not discriminate — it causes tulips to grow in gardens and thorns in barren wastelands.

To realise a good, pure, and pleasant phenomenon, mere effort and activism are insufficient; the conditions and predispositions of the recipient, their prior endowment and inherent nature, and divine, esoteric, and prior requisites play the primary role. The expectation of pure fruits and pleasant outcomes belongs to pure essences, endowed with prior divine grace and blessing; otherwise, if the emergence of a phenomenon is inherently woven from the names of impurity, then no amount of effort, slogans, and superficialities can transform it. If the soil’s seed is evil and impure, it cannot yield fruit, and we must acknowledge the essence of a phenomenon with its inherent qualities. Superficial efforts and political slogans have no effect if the origin of the phenomenon and its inner essence remains unchanged. In brief, the root of all superficiality is spiritual and religious ignorance—ignorance of the intrinsic realities and the profound divine principles governing governance, politics, jurisprudence, and social management. Only by reconnecting with these realities, returning to epistemic culture, and restoring the language and culture of genuine Wilayah can this superfluous veil of superficiality be lifted, allowing the pure religion and school of Shi’ism to flourish and regenerate within the hearts and minds of its adherents.

The Holy Faculty (Malakah Qudsiyyah) from the Perspective of the Late Vaheed Behbahani

In his work Al-Fawa’id al-Ha’iriyyah (p. 509), the late Vaheed Behbahani discusses the conditions of Ijtihad, stating:
“The conditions prescribed for its acquisition include knowledge and the Holy Faculty (quwwah qudsiyyah). As for the Holy Faculty, it is attained through the struggle of the self (jihad al-nafs), supplication to God Almighty, earnest pleading, insistence, and seeking assistance from the infallible holy spirits (arwah qudsiyyah) and subsequently from the pious jurists (faqihs) — may God be pleased with them. One must greatly honour them, respect them, love them, and rely on them, for the heart guides the heart; when the bonds between hearts, or between the heart and the spirits who are alive before their Lord, become strong and firm, the gates of divine grace and perfection open, and one’s heart is illuminated by the lights of knowledge and understanding — for it is a light that God casts into the heart of whomever He wills.”

“O my brother, I have experienced this myself; therefore, adhere to what I have mentioned, again and again. Beware — and beware especially — of becoming estranged or disinclined towards our jurists and turning towards your own self, for this results in deprivation from attaining the rank of jurisprudence altogether, leading to confusion, perplexity, error, ignorance, and great folly, as I have witnessed with my own eyes by God’s permission.”

The Holy Faculty, according to Behbahani, is attained through rigorous self-discipline, sincere prayer and supplication, and seeking assistance from the pure spirits of the infallible Imams and the righteous jurists. When a seeker’s relationship with these sacred and pure spirits — who are alive in the presence of their Lord — becomes firm and solid, the gates of divine grace and perfection open to him, and he is granted the illumination of knowledge and understanding, as knowledge is a light that God casts into the heart of whomever He wills.

What is emphasised here regarding the necessity of the Holy Faculty has been confirmed by my own experience. Do not let your heart become estranged or alienated from our jurists, nor incline towards self-centeredness, as this causes deprivation from achieving the rank of jurisprudence and leads to confusion, ignorance, misguidance, and severe folly, as I have personally witnessed.

Vaheed Behbahani is among the jurists who successfully climbed the ranks of Ijtihad and vigorously defended the sanctity of jurisprudence, understanding well the conditions for its attainment. It is essential for every individual to know these conditions to uphold the respect and honour of this noble status and gift.

The Holy Faculty and the virtue of piety are among the most fundamental conditions of Ijtihad, indeed this condition forms the foundation of all other conditions. Without this, religious and legal reasoning cannot be considered divinely sanctioned. A person possessing the Holy Faculty is protected from personal biases and wrongful inclinations in Ijtihad, which are major impediments to understanding truth and reality. Just as the external senses can be impaired — for example, the eyes might see objects unrealistically due to some affliction — so too the inner faculties and spiritual senses may become corrupted due to poor inclinations and improper, self-serving desires, leading the individual toward erroneous thinking.

One lacking the Holy Faculty is subject both to innate misguidance from internal impurities and acquired distortions stemming from factors such as uncritical imitation or the emergence of doubts that inadvertently give rise to arrogance and self-centredness. Moreover, the Holy Faculty protects the individual from stubbornness, intellectual tyranny, and pride, encouraging deep investigation and genuine Ijtihad through the fullest possible effort. The foremost requisite of the Holy Faculty is that the jurist must not be autocratic in any aspect of life. This faculty grants discernment, skill, acumen, and insight, enabling the separation of truth from falsehood, returning subsidiary matters to their principles, identifying the source of new issues, and mastering the art of division and classification.

In summary, possessing the Holy Faculty is an indispensable condition of Ijtihad, and knowledge — especially jurisprudential knowledge — is a light cast by God into the heart of whomever He wills, and this light does not shine upon a darkened heart. It should be noted that mere longevity in preliminary studies does not guarantee spiritual refinement and may in fact cause hardening and insensitivity of the heart.

Misinterpretation of the Holy Faculty

Some self-proclaimed jurists, lacking the experience of the Holy Faculty, do not regard Ijtihad as sacred or a divine gift, but rather as an acquired and attainable science. They reject the sacredness of Ijtihad in the sense of a special grace and divine favour bestowed from the unseen, considering it merely a high-level expertise achievable through effort. They point to jurists with significant scholarly rank who nonetheless erred gravely, concluding that the presence of sacredness or special divine guidance (qudsiyyah) in Ijtihad is neither guaranteed nor necessarily operative, and thus cannot be described as a form of ‘semi-infallibility.’ Rather, they interpret ‘qudsiyyah’ in a lesser sense of noble status and great excellence that may be achieved with endeavour.

This interpretation applies to the technical and skillful aspects of religious knowledge, not to the sacred knowledge capable of generating science. The technical skills of jurisprudence are accessible to all interested individuals, among whom there are those morally sound and those flawed; the scriptural traditions condemning errors refer to this level. Apparent sciences require Ijtihad and deduction, which without the safeguarding of the self — the Holy Faculty — cannot properly form. Otherwise, mere external knowledge is akin to a miracle: it is of no value and even a clever disbeliever may acquire it.

One who lacks the Holy Faculty suffers from both inherent intellectual distortion and acquired misguidance due to previous uncritical imitation or inadvertent doubts that cause pride and self-centredness. The Holy Faculty is not something taught but bestowed by divine grace.

Historical Roots of Neglecting the Holy Faculty

The widespread neglect of the condition of the “Holy Faculty” in religious knowledge and jurisprudence stems from the historical development of Usul al-Fiqh, particularly among Sunni scholars who largely abandoned the esoteric and spiritual dimensions of religious authority. Moreover, the dominance of the Akhbari (narrativist) school within Shi’ism and Salafism within Sunnism, both fundamentally literalist, contributed to sidelining the sacred spiritual aspect of Ijtihad.

Vaheed Behbahani (d. early 13th century AH) rose against such misguidance and superficiality and reopened the correct path of Ijtihad, emphasising the necessity of the Holy Faculty as a foundational condition and insisting that religious knowledge must be acquired from the living, divine guides of each era.

Conclusion

The Holy Faculty — the sacred spiritual power — is the essence of genuine Ijtihad and a divine grace granted only to the pure and faithful. It protects the jurist from self-will and pride, guiding them towards true jurisprudential insight and enabling them to distinguish truth from falsehood.

In contemporary religious education, the neglect of this condition has transformed Ijtihad into a mechanical, academic exercise devoid of its sacred essence. A return to the original Shi’i Ijtihad and the school of Wilayah — which draws from the divine light of sacred authority — is essential to restoring the authenticity and vitality of Islamic jurisprudence.

Of course, the assertion that the sacred faculty (malakah qudsiyyah) is a bestowed gift should not lead to the misconception that the path to attaining divine rulings is entirely closed to others; for taqlid (emulation) provides a methodological route to arriving at the Shariah ruling, and whoever reaches the truth of the Shariah ruling through any method will be successful. Just as segmentation (tajziyah) in ijtihad is permissible. Jurisprudence (fiqh) is a procedural matter for interpreting the Shariah and striving to understand the legislator’s intention. Since this scientific expertise is procedural, it remains effective even during the presence of the Infallible Imam, as exemplified by Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) directing certain jurists to issue legal verdicts (fatwas) to the people. The society always requires qualified mujtahids—even in the time of occultation—and the presence of the Infallible Imam does not negate the necessity for their expertise. This also invalidates the requirement of proving the superiority (a‘lamiyyah) and the obligation to refer to the most learned mujtahid in taqlid, unless the most learned among the mujtahids is proven by itself.

Above the sacred faculty lies the inner bestowed guardianship (wilayah), which we have elucidated in the book Sociology of Religious Scholars. Jurists endowed with inner wilayah inherit the entire realm of knowledge, justice, and power from the family of Ismat and Taharah (Infallibility and Purity), and the best example of perfection-enhancing and elevating taqlid is to follow these living, knowledge-centred saints in every era.

Note (Glance) on the relationship between Mystical Wilayah and Juridical Wilayah

Humans are created naturally and originally free, with no one having a legitimate right of guardianship or authority over another; only God possesses true guardianship and sovereignty over His servants, as discussed elsewhere. Hence, the legitimacy of guardianship and sovereignty depends solely on divine sanction. Previously, we discussed the relation between mystical wilayah and juridical wilayah. Just as the inner wilayah and the authority over rulings are concomitant in the case of the Infallible Imams—who are direct appointees of God for governance and support of the people—the same concomitance must be maintained during the era of occultation. Therefore, it is not the case that for non-Infallible deputies there is no relation between mystical and inner wilayah and juridical wilayah and that juridical wilayah is purely conventional or fabricated, separate from the inner guardianship. Whoever is at the head of governance cannot be an ordinary, common individual subject to the same errors and limitations as others. A person possessing bestowed wilayah has a spiritual and inner backing and is not regarded as ordinary, but rather has sanctity and infallibility, such that the likelihood of error is relatively minimal and not absolute. Juridical wilayah is not merely conventional but is a true and inner perfection.

The Shia school’s movement is based on imamat. The Shia identity is tied to the Imam, and this creed must manifest somewhere during the occultation; otherwise, it will become dormant and inactive. The embodiment of imamat in the time of occultation is the “Wilayah of the Jurist” (Wilayat al-Faqih).

Wilayah is an inner reality, while the imamat of the community pertains to the outward leadership and guidance of the people. Imamat and wilayah represent a form of interaction between God and the people. The wali (guardian) relates to the inner realm—connected to God—while the Imam relates to the outer realm, facing the people, but this outer aspect is supported and assisted by the inner. The Wali al-Faqih is a delegated Imam, whose powers correspond to those of the Imam, albeit commensurate with his rank in ijtihad and justice; for the Imam possesses divine knowledge and infallibility, whereas the Wali al-Faqih is conditional upon ijtihad and justice. The difference between divine infallible knowledge (‘ilm ladunni) and ijtihad, and between justice and the sacred faculty, is the difference between the finite and the infinite. Yet what connects this finite to the infinite, forming the link and basis for inheritance, is the sacred faculty of the jurist. Based on this correspondence, wilayah is established for jurists possessing the sacred faculty, spiritual power, and necessary qualifications during the occultation.

Invalidity of the Legal Authority of Mechanical Jurisprudential Skill and Rote Fatwa Issuance

If a jurist confines jurisprudence to a mere technical skill and treats issuing fatwas mechanically, then their claim to wilayah is also conventional and devoid of perfection. Such jurisprudence lacks the element of hujjah (authoritative proof) and has no legitimacy in controlling political and social affairs, nor in directing anyone. Knowledge, justice, and power are three qualities inherited from the Fourteen Infallibles for the time of occultation. A jurist without justice, harmonious with the sacred faculty required by the subject and ruling, cannot attain ijtihad, religious authority, or juridical wilayah. The power in wilayah is also an inner attribute, rooted in the wali’s heart, not based on barracks or armies that obey every command, nor on troops capable of assaulting anyone. This is the first fallacy in the discourse on wilayah and imamat. Among the divine prophets, power split into two branches separate from the other two companions, knowledge and justice: political power and miraculous power—this was the second fallacy. The theory of Wali al-Faqih and its social and political authority united power and knowledge. Yet, in the Imami school, both the power and knowledge of the Imam with infallibility, and those of his deputy in the form of the jurist, must be accompanied by justice to be legitimate. We have repeatedly stated that justice akin to religious ijtihad is the sacred faculty, elaborated in detail in this book.

It must be noted that the teachings of Wilayat al-Faqih by Ayatollah Khomeini lack the lofty stature of Shia wilayah; they were presented in a closed, oppressive environment dominated by literalists who even watered the pottery of Agha Mustafa. His theory contains only minimal and downgraded aspects of wilayah, which are subject to critique and evolution. His views on governance and Wilayat al-Faqih were in constant flux, lacking a comprehensive scheme. This is evident from his works—Kashf al-Asrar, Al-Rasa’il, Tahrir al-Wasilah, Al-Bay‘, Islamic Government or Wilayat al-Faqih, and his speeches and letters post-revolution, documented in Sahifah al-Nur. For example, his view on the scope of Wilayat al-Faqih and its absolutism as expressed in a letter dated 16th Dey 1366 (Iranian calendar), where he wrote about the supreme authority of the jurist being in line with the Prophet’s absolute guardianship over all Shariah rulings.

Khomeini’s close students were literalists who did not recognize inner and mystical ranks either scientifically, epistemologically, or experientially. This weak content was later embedded in the Constitution, shaped by mostly literalist jurists. The ceiling of wilayah demands is not here; the ceiling of Shia Wilayat al-Faqih can be designed and pursued on the foundation of knowledge-centred jurisprudence during the consolidation of the Wilayat al-Faqih system. The Constitution mentions conditions and contexts of leadership in Article 5 only superficially and vaguely, setting no clear standards. Our discussion of Wilayat al-Faqih and leadership in the book Leadership Foundations has raised it to a high level, free from criticism regarding this critical office and the selection method. This is one of the constitutional deficiencies—none of the leadership traits have clear and explicit standards.

The Constitution should have explicitly stated that the Islamic leader’s authority, given all necessary conditions, is equivalent to that of the Infallible Imam, without difference. Anyone holding a different belief about Wilayat al-Faqih, despite the genuine presence and verification of leadership conditions, should not be overly confident in their allegiance. The Wali al-Faqih can directly intervene in all branches of the system without obstruction.

Capability to Manage Knowledge and Society

A qualified jurist has the expertise to deduce religious rulings, which is far more challenging than other sciences. Jurisprudence is among the most advanced and complex sciences, requiring not only acquired knowledge but also the sacred faculty and divine grace. It is through this faculty that the jurist can produce knowledge—especially religious knowledge with a claim to divine authority. All human sciences need the jurist because the sacred jurist can generate theory for them. With his scientific power and sacred assistance, such a jurist attains the capacity for just and proper management—not only of society but also of many sciences—and, like the Holy Quran, can hold leadership and guidance roles in sciences. Admittedly, at present, there is a vast difference between the ideal and the actual, and jurisprudence as practiced by some present jurists has many deficiencies. However, the deficiencies of some jurists do not imply deficiencies

present jurists has many deficiencies. However, the deficiencies of some jurists do not imply deficiencies in the sacred faculty itself or the concept of Wilayat al-Faqih. It is also improper to assume that all jurists who attained ijtihad and justice are capable of social governance. The requirement of justice is an essential but not sufficient condition; the sacred faculty must also be present.

In short, the sacred faculty and divine grace create the authority for leadership and governance during the occultation. The jurist, through ijtihad, jurisprudence, justice, and the sacred faculty, is the legitimate representative and deputy of the Hidden Imam in all affairs.

The Inner Spirituality of Martyr Chamran

The inward spirituality of Martyr Chamran, rooted deeply in his nature and conscience, shaped him into both a believer in God and a compassionate humanitarian who regarded the oppressed and the suffering as the dependents of God. This luminous conviction forged him into a courageous and steadfast struggler, a seasoned guerrilla who preferred the humble garb of exile and combat to the honoured titles of scholarly achievement. Through his divine spirit, Chamran became a valiant fighter against oppression; a hero whose sincerity in servitude to God and love for the Divine compelled him to the battlefield, endowing him with an indefatigable and unwavering spirit. Chamran writes: “The world is a testing ground, the purpose of which is nothing but love. I love the whole universe. I love all creatures. I love all people, even my enemies. With all my heart, I love the tiniest particles of dust and sand, the rocks, the leaves of trees, the fish of the seas, and the birds of the air, and I dissolve entirely in this love.”

In his love for God, he possessed a pure clarity that led him to articulate profound truths: “How strange it is that death, harsh and cold and terrifying, becomes so gentle, radiant, and beloved by love that the lover rushes into its embrace; fear and horror only overcome him when he is unable to sacrifice his existence. The need of the lover is to burn; his pleasure is in suffering; his survival is in self-sacrifice; his fatigue and reproach lie in living safely.”

This purity drew him to mournful and melodious prayers, in which he communed solely with the Divine: “O God, I am in pain, my soul burns with the intensity of pain, my heart boils, my feelings blaze, and every fiber of my being screams with pain; my heart is broken, I desire nothing more, this world is no longer my place, I want to be alone with my God.”

Chamran viewed the Islamic Revolution as a spiritual revolution, and regarded political spirituality as a revolutionary necessity for a revolution that had triumphed over a great tyrant but remained at risk from the infiltration of many smaller tyrannies within it: “In these times when faith and martyrdom have toppled the greatest tyrant, yet the dimension of iron and fire governs the destiny of the people, and rebellious breaths have raised their heads, here and there small tyrants have emerged. They will build under the shadow of military iron and fire a tyrannical system in which thousands of small and large tyrants, born from selfishness and opportunism, will cover the clear and pure sky of the Islamic Revolution of Iran with clouds of oppression, ignorance, and disbelief. In these critical days, more than ever, we need mysticism.”

Chamran had closely observed the danger of infiltrators and, based on his sincere experience and warnings about the connection between politics and profiteering, and the need to avoid revolutionary commercialism and the infiltration of emerging tyrants, he himself became a victim of these warnings, ultimately falling martyr through targeted and planned actions.

The Essence of Modesty (Ḥayāʾ)

Modesty and reserve are the hallmarks of dignified individuals.

“Ḥayāʾ” denotes the power of self-restraint from committing undesirable acts in the presence of others, out of respect and affection for them. It is an intrinsic moral quality which, when manifested in outward conduct, transforms into courtesy. The following noble verse speaks of manners reflective of ḥayāʾ:

“O you who have believed, do not enter the Prophet’s houses except when permitted for a meal, without awaiting its preparation; but when you are invited, enter and, when you have eaten, disperse without engaging in conversation. Indeed, that harms the Prophet, and he feels shy of you; but Allah is not shy of the truth. And when you ask them for something, ask them from behind a partition. That is purer for your hearts and their hearts. And it is not for you to harm the Messenger of Allah or to marry his wives after him, ever. Indeed, that would be in the sight of Allah an enormity.” [Qur’an 33:53]

O believers, do not enter the Prophet’s chambers unless permitted to partake of a meal, without lingering in expectation, but when invited, enter and, having eaten, depart without lingering for idle talk, as such behaviour causes distress to the Prophet who is shy before you, although Allah is never shy of the truth. When you request anything from his wives, do so from behind a screen, as this is purer for both your hearts and theirs. It is forbidden for you to harm the Messenger or to wed his wives after him, for this is a grievous offence in the sight of Allah.

The attribute of knowledge inherent in ḥayāʾ, which perceives the beloved and exalted Lord as a witness and observer, instils in the individual vitality, resilience, serenity, and contentment, as well as a willingness to desist from complaint. It engenders satisfaction with the conduct befitting one who honours their Lord.

Ḥayāʾ arises from a person who already possesses the virtues of patience, dignity, calmness, endurance, gratitude, and, most importantly, knowledge and faith. Only thereafter does the discourse of reverence and affection emerge. The combination of these traits produces ḥayāʾ and nobility of spirit. Thus, those who lack endurance, are dissatisfied, ungrateful, unaware, or fail to revere others or love anyone cannot exhibit ḥayāʾ. Poverty similarly undermines ḥayāʾ and faith. A society afflicted by economic weakness cannot embody endurance, self-restraint, patience, contentment, awareness, faith, and consequently, ḥayāʾ. Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect respect, affection, magnanimous behaviour, and dignified conduct from the impoverished. Hence, intellectual awareness, wealth, and financial empowerment are necessary for the promotion of ḥayāʾ in society, since poverty naturally inhibits faith. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Poverty nearly leads to disbelief.” The impoverished, burdened by psychological and material hardships, develop an aggressive demeanour, inadvertently exhibiting hostility, contempt, gossip, slander, and impurity. They excessively scrutinise others’ lives, covet their wealth, and resent their happiness. Such individuals cannot maintain decorum, dignity, or ḥayāʾ. Expecting civility and grace from them is ignorance and misplaced. Poverty wounds the capacity for politeness, replacing it with harsh and unfavourable behaviour. Naturally, exceptions exist, and conversely, wealthier individuals may become discourteous.

The root of ḥayāʾ is knowledge. True knowledge engenders faith, which in turn produces ḥayāʾ. Knowledge and faith clarify the greatness of the one before whom modesty is observed, inspiring reverence and affection for them. Therefore, reverence and affection are integral to ḥayāʾ. Affection is the lowest degree of love; the greater the love, the more profound the ḥayāʾ in the presence of the beloved. Love brings proximity. Psychologically, when one loves something, proximity to it increases love and attraction. Modesty follows this pattern; the closer one feels to another, the greater one’s ḥayāʾ. Affection is inferior to love; affection is an internal attribute, whereas love is a heartfelt attribute linked to a living soul. Affection may lead to enmity or abandonment, but love and its superior form, passion, never turn to enmity or neglect; even if the beloved behaves poorly, love remains. Love is companionship within the soul, and passion is unity.

Ḥayāʾ arises from purity, dignity, and nobility. Noble youths possess ḥayāʾ, and their great character protects them from discourtesy, granting them composure, steadfastness, and resilience.

Ḥayāʾ is a moral attribute, a striving by the servant to avoid disgraceful or flawed actions. God, possessing all perfections and never subject to imperfection or falsehood, does not have ḥayāʾ and is not described by this attribute. Thus, the noble verse above states: “Allah is not shy of the truth,” and falsehood never approaches the Divine. God denies this attribute elsewhere: “Indeed, Allah is not shy to present an example – that of a mosquito or something even smaller.” Yet, like the daughter of Shuʿayb, who loves and esteems Moses ﷺ and, so as not to diminish his stature, approaches him with modesty: “So one of the two women came walking shyly to him.” When the Qur’an attributes ḥayāʾ to Shuʿayb’s daughter, it implies she possessed virtues such as knowledge, faith, reverence, and affection, as well as patience, dignity, calmness, endurance, and gratitude.

A Wink ( )

The Fundamental Problem of Iranian Society

This note was written many years ago and is appropriate to present here: today is the 4th day of the 4th month of the year 1382 in the Iranian calendar. During these years, I have considered the fundamental and root problem of Iranian society to be the dominance of excessive passion and the failure to employ reason, as well as the lack of institutionalisation of the culture of science and knowledge. The thoughtlessness and emotionalism of the people of this land have perpetually embroiled them in unfortunate events. With the slightest spark, society can be provoked and led to arson, where one group sets another ablaze; meanwhile, even the greatest knowledge, intellectual ability, rational calculations, and transformative epistemic power prove insufficient. It is necessary, in principle, to limit the grounds of emotionality and to institutionalise principled rational thinking in areas dominated by emotion to establish an appropriate balance.

Though this statement is brief, the practical realisation of each of these concise points requires extensive groundwork so that, in the long term, the problems of Iranian society and its valiant and emotional people might find balance and suitability. But what must be done? In summary, I list the necessary actions:

Qualitative Advancement

• If a nation seeks a decisive and pivotal role in the modern world, it must enhance its quality rather than merely rely on quantitative factors such as large population size. Qualitative factors include the level of science and awareness, military power, professional and occupational competencies, as well as genetic correction and the prevention of hereditary diseases and defects, all of which, if addressed, will enable the nation to play a major role in future global affairs and resource allocation.

Managing Passion and Religious Transformation

• Popular fervour requires control, and to elevate the culture of reason, knowledge, and awareness, comprehensive planning and collective consultation to draft a master roadmap are essential.
• I state frankly and without concealment that the current religious system in the country will inevitably lead to the failure of religion itself. This system must be completely and fundamentally transformed, especially the activities of sycophantic eulogists and superficial preachers who possess limited knowledge and are prone to repetitive, unsubstantiated rhetoric, often linking any matter arbitrarily to the interests of the government based on shallow emotions, must be strictly regulated.

Rational Religion

• The grounds for reactionism, ignorance, fanaticism, and traditionalism must be entirely eradicated, and the slogan of a rational and just religion must be pursued. Religion and faith should be reconsidered, reclaimed, and revitalised from this perspective.

Prohibition of Organised Begging

• All forms of organised begging must be prohibited, and altruism, generosity, and cooperation should be established on a proper, healthy, and transparent foundation.

Management of Religious Propaganda

• Instead of expanding and promoting unsubstantiated shrines and mausoleums, the production and practical application of scientific knowledge must be encouraged. Unnecessary religious speeches, disruptive provocations, and sectarian agitation should be avoided altogether, confining religious assemblies solely to scientific, cultural, emotional, and modern ethical discussions, led by knowledgeable and morally sound individuals.
• Avoid constructing non-productive structures; build only according to necessity.

Ban on Excessive and Unnecessary Construction

• Given the housing needs of families, the construction of prayer halls (musalla) for Friday prayers across the country is excessive, unnecessary, and unjustified. Funds should not be spent on these; prayers can be held within mosques or even in the streets. Instead, all redundant religious and governmental facilities should be redirected towards providing housing, non-personal ownership accommodations, or for creating jobs and businesses. Spaces, ranging from small to medium, should be allocated freely to those in need, under certain conditions and limited terms, as detailed in my book Comprehensive Management.

Review of the Constitution

• The constitution and government management must be entirely overhauled. Islamic systems must be derived from authentic Islamic texts—both the Qur’an and Sunnah—using scientific ijtihad. I have partially outlined the structure and practical realisation of this reform in a six-volume series: Foundations of Leadership, Comprehensive Management, Sound Economy and Poverty Eradication, Family, Judiciary and Punishment, and The Shi’a Clergy Code. In Foundations of Leadership, I state that Iran’s politics, constitutional laws, and general country management are based on the Qur’an through scientific ijtihad. The Qur’an is the primary managerial reference for trustees, managers, and officials. Leadership implements the five branches of government and the objectives and programmes of governance within this six-volume framework, with full oversight.

Economic Management of Seminaries

• A plan must be developed to manage the economy of religious seminaries and provide stipends to students to completely eradicate hypocrisy, ostentation, and reliance on religion for personal gain. Religion and the people must not become a means for worldlier clerics to sustain themselves.
• Illiterate, hypocritical, and greedy individuals must be kept away from religious offices, freeing religion from being an instrument of worldly powers.
• Although ignorance, backwardness, fanaticism, and unawareness are the most severe ailments of society, knowledge and information, if not accompanied by piety, faith, religious understanding, and commitment, hold little value and become mere vanity and self-promotion.

Pragmatic Action

• For perfection, alongside knowledge and awareness, practical foundations and relative religious commitments are essential. Neither can exist without the other.
• Empty rituals devoid of knowledge and understanding yield little outcome; however, knowledge without rootedness in practice and faith is equally ineffective in guiding the human towards the Truth.

Recognising Enemies and Opposing the Enlightened

• The prevailing culture of the contemporary world, engineered by worldly powers, seeks to embroil Iranian society in reactionism, fanaticism, and widespread ignorance, accompanied by knowledge without substance, faith without religious commitment, and spirituality without jurisprudence. They aim to secularise Shi’ism just as they seek to degrade all of humanity. Alongside the hostility of rigid, superficial clerics and worldly interests, this forms one of the main fronts against genuine enlightenment.
• The imperialist world, through wars in Muslim-majority countries such as those in the Middle East, undermines the social foundations of these nations to impose a form of “American Islam”—one endowed with industry and technology but secular in content and infused with Western liberalism and Christian doctrines.
• It is imperative not to fall into their trap, and rather than direct or proxy wars, the policy of forming a united and widespread Islamic Ummah, compatible with multiple Islamic governments and communities—an essential need of current global politics—must be pursued, along with fostering brotherhood and mutual support among fellow Muslims.
• The obstacles to this must be identified, and the establishment of an Islamic brotherhood system that negates sectarian distinctions between Shi’a and Sunni must be operationalised. The strategy for this is outlined in my book Comprehensive Management, where the priority of Iran’s foreign policy is to strengthen the power of the Islamic world through the unity of Islamic countries and the formation of a “United Islamic Community.” Without this, Islamic countries remain weak, under colonial domination, and perpetually embroiled in destructive conflicts.
• Support and defence of other Islamic nations are neither feasible nor meaningful without the realisation of the United Islamic Community and are not a duty of the government or the people otherwise. The diplomatic corps must strive to establish amicable relations with Saudi Arabia to resolve Islamic world problems by leveraging the strategic position of Mecca and Sunni leaders’ fatwas towards fostering harmony and unity among Muslims.
• However, God responded to the plea of Prophet Yunus (Jonah) and saved him from that dreadful predicament. Not only did God shelter Yunus and sustain him, but He also established this as a universal principle of His fidelity towards those who observe the condition of faith: (“And thus We save the believers” — وَكَذَلِکَ نُنْجِي الْمُؤْمِنِينَ). All verses containing the word (كَذَلِکَ) denote a general rule, implying that the incident described is neither a particular event limited to the Prophet or a divine guardian nor a personal occurrence, but rather a universal principle that holds true wherever its subject applies.
• The phrase (لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ), known as the Yunusi supplication, is a highly efficacious, sacred, and weighty invocation. Its effect is mentioned explicitly in these verses: it resolves seemingly insurmountable difficulties and opens pathways in dire straits marked by loneliness, estrangement, and despair. In such moments, fear must not prevail; rather, one can engage in this invocation to establish a spiritual connection with God, seeking His secure refuge, assistance, and strength. It is preferable to utter this prayer discreetly and inwardly within the heart. By reciting it, the servant acknowledges that the multitude of difficulties burdening him do not originate from God’s sacred and lordly essence but arise from his own shortcomings and afflictions, which are termed as injustice (ظلم). What greater injustice exists than self-idolatry and the claim of independent existence, when in reality, one’s manifestation is merely an apparition.
• The phrase (لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ) exclusively attributes absolute and intrinsic infallibility to God alone, while the phrase (إِنِّي كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ) clarifies that God does not commit any form of injustice or unfairness, especially through trials and tribulations; rather, He treats His servants with kindness and even with an abundance and intensity of love. Even prophets and divine saints possess only relative infallibility (* عصمت تنزيلى*), not absolute. Generally, the beauty and perfection of existential phenomena derive from God’s fitting love, whereas deficiencies and afflictions stem from the intensity and abundance of that love.
• Prophet Yunus endured for an extended period inside a sea creature. The human body, provided it is healthy and free from illness or weakness, possesses an innate capacity for transformation and renewal and can adapt to any circumstance. Humans can withstand extreme heat by developing a tolerance to heat, and conversely endure intense cold, despite common medical advice which typically addresses ordinary bodies under normal conditions. Nevertheless, the human body has the power to acclimate to darkness and regulate its sensitivity to light. A healthy body is a dynamic system in harmony with its environment — especially the bodies of God’s saints, who possess volitional and collective mastery over themselves and their surroundings.
• The phrase (لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ) is dialogical, indicating a present and sincere monotheistic communion between Yunus and God. This dialogue requires vision, not merely conceptual reference. It expresses Yunus’s immediate, witnessed, and intimate relationship with God. Through this love-stricken supplication and exchange with the Divine, he enters a profound union with existence and divine presence. The power of prophets and saints in confronting difficulties stems from their existential proximity and connection with God. Through this bond with the source of existence, they gain spiritual and intellectual authority, which enables them to live and flourish. Power demands wisdom: (رَبِّ هَبْ لِي حُكْمًا — My Lord, grant me wisdom). Connected to this infinite power, they practice the path of truth in a deeply rooted and practical manner — a path neither outdated nor finite; meanwhile, the tumult of falsehood eventually subsides and bursts like a bubble, however splendid it might seem. Connection to the Divine renders the servant enduring, perpetual, and renewed. The will of the divine saints is a true and existential will that saves them and gives efficacy to their invocation.
• Prophet Yunus, through the Yunusi supplication, secured his protection and emerged safely from his ordeal. He mobilised the power of existence within his soul through this invocation and sustained himself spiritually, enabling him to remain alive and rejuvenated. His connection to the power of existence was a proximity-based, divine relationship, not an illusory or anthropomorphic one. He nurtured God’s power in his being through monotheism; this strong connection served as a talisman, safeguarding and revitalising him. Humans are the pure manifestation of God, and if they establish a genuine connection with existence, they attain acceptance and submission. This bond grants sanctity, health, and felicity to the servant.
• The relationship between God and the prophets endowed the latter with esoteric knowledge and spiritual authority, both of soul and psyche. Without this sacred, inner divine connection, the servant’s authority becomes an organic façade, severed from God, relying instead on disconnected military forces, weapons, intelligence, and propaganda — through which even the least capable might claim apparent power. However, such power, due to its detachment from the sacred realm, is not divinely sanctioned or legitimate; rather, it is mechanical illusion, an empty spirit devoid of God and filled with vain fantasies. The legacy of the divine prophets remains authentic only through this connection.
• Therefore, what matters most in worldly life is this connection, which every servant may establish directly and without intermediaries. While specialised spiritual stages require devotees to seek guidance from their beloved leaders and students to rely on learned authorities (the Infallibles and divine guardians who are proofs and custodians for servants), the fundamental connection with God is a constant right for all servants. This connection imparts divine grace and power to the servant; otherwise, life becomes the systemic design of economic cartels and politicians, depriving humanity of spiritual and religious vitality, confining them to an earthly, muddy existence severed from meaning and faith.
• The human’s authority and scientific knowledge derive from their connection to the Divine and proximity to existence. Life imbued with this connection becomes illuminated and spiritual; without it, the system is a mechanical, animalistic operation controlled by non-divine powers in every sphere, even if cloaked in religious terminology, since jurisprudence severed from God and unable to connect with Him is a human artifice lacking divine legitimacy.
• Connection to the power of existence provides the servant with the insight that the system of existential phenomena is governed by an all-powerful administrator who protects terrestrial phenomena from harm. In the immaterial realms, no entity can trespass upon another’s domain, and these realms are perfectly secure. In the terrestrial world, humans possess the capacity to trespass; however, even their demons and spirits are governed by overseers and supervisors. Humans can associate with these administrators and custodians and, by absorbing existential emanations, assume the specific form of any realm. For example, one can define the realm of Barzakh in this world and effect worldly influence therein. Thus, the power of connection and absorption is crucial in analysing events.
• For instance, if the soul can find a way to connect with a phenomenon, the power to influence it remains intact; powerful souls after death can maintain connection with their physical body for many years, preserving it against decay and change. The Friday ritual bath (Ghusl of Friday) is one means by which the soul maintains companionship and intimacy with its body, protecting it from post-mortem decomposition.
• The soul may possess infinite existential manifestations and assume any station or condition, adapting and managing these manifestations. The soul can even transform its body into spirit and accompany it in other realms suited to those realms. This adaptability extends to knowledge, beliefs, ethics, and practices — including Sharia, tariqa, and haqiqa — just as the body can transform souls. The power of transformation grants the soul the capacity to adjust to any situation, making all manifestations it accepts durable and lasting.
• The human’s distinction over animals lies in the ability to adopt their powerful and perfected characteristics, effectively embodying their traits. Just as humans can attain pure intellect and govern their desires, they can also emulate the movement of ants, lions, leopards, and other animals. Indeed, scientific studies replicate animal motion for human use, especially in artistic domains. Humans may surpass animals in swimming and marine survival. While preserving their humanity, humans can embody any attribute, see through walls, and perceive future events in the present without relying on sensory tools.
• This very human, who outwardly “eats food and walks in the markets” (يَأْكُلُ الطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشِي فِي الاَْسْوَاقِ), foretold years before the fall of the Persian emperor and the severance of the Khosrow dynasty’s power. Such is the authority and comprehensiveness of the human soul.
• The Formation of Society and the Role of Unity, Culture, and Leadership
• A gathering of individuals only constitutes a society when unity and cohesion arise based on mutual attraction and tolerance. Scientific authorities, those possessing capital, and political forces must engage in dialogue and discourse with one another. Such a society is capable of nurturing culture and civilisation, transitioning from primitiveness to civility, and developing a specialised scientific language. This kind of society elevates its members to greatness and prominence, marking them as exemplars to the world.
• In the absence of culture and freedom, a society’s talent and ingenuity are squandered and wasted. Its governance falls into the hands of ordinary individuals and petty, insignificant figures burdened by complexes of inferiority. Such individuals neither comprehend the elites nor nurture them to preserve their own power; rather, the prevailing currency among these small-minded and base people is the destruction of talent. Geniuses and elites in such societies suffer profound deprivation, enjoying neither peace in this world nor happiness in the hereafter.
• In societies afflicted by cultural deprivation or trapped in ignorance and despotism—two anti-cultural forces—personalities lose their efficacy, and scientific and specialised language fail to prevail or be comprehensible.
• If the three civilisation-building elements—namely, geniuses, their scientific language, and social culture—are not on their proper course, ordinary individuals become mere followers, and the masses are led by deceit and hypocrisy or by money, force, and entreaty. The result is widespread, systematic ignorance, tyranny, and corruption arising from unhealthy governance and misguided decisions. The public receive only superficial spectacles devoid of sound content, which the media relentlessly pursue, resulting in a society obsessed with appearances and superficiality. The masses find solace in such façades that lack truthful substance; this suits those driven by self-interest, as following superficial trends spares them the difficulty of engaging deeply with truth and the bitterness of walking the path of righteousness and loyalty.
• Self-interested masses severed from truth become instruments of power in the hands of hypocritical elites, fueling social movements against the righteous. Moreover, the traditional-modernity conflict further drives some into division and alienation from traditions, which are superficially promoted emotionally but lack depth to attract and sustain intellectual followers. Since they cannot accept hollow and deceitful propaganda that remains superficial, intellectuals find refuge only in isolation or captivity by superficialists, forced either to conceal themselves in fear or face imprisonment should they dare to present scientific and investigative findings. The dominion of ignorance and despotism, with its power to mobilise the masses as its dark army, reduces a genius to a worthless zero in isolation or prison, while their scientific discoveries are plundered and exploited by oppressors who erase the name of the suffering owner and, at times, claim the discoveries proudly as their own.
• Currently, modernity itself has become superficial, dominated by pseudo-intellectuals who lack true philosophical understanding and commitment to civilisation’s foundations.
• National Wealth and a Healthy Economy
• Cultural progress depends on national wealth and a sound economy. In any society, the economy precedes culture. This matter is elaborated in my book A Healthy Economy and the Eradication of Poverty. For example, the Arabic language, compared to Persian, benefits from a billion-strong population and the economic power and wealth of Arabs. Although they have no production of their own and are generally dependent on the West, Western powers and economic cartels maintain their exploitation of Arabs by marketing their products in Arabic. Persian, by contrast, lacks such economic power to attract industrialists and cartels for similar attention.
• Arab countries possess emerging technologies but suffer from detachment from their national culture and social cohesion, limiting their ability to derive full benefit from these industries. They enjoy technological advances from the West but at the cost of losing their culture and social cooperation. Despite immense wealth, even capital owners and leaders of large companies do not feel satisfied. Money and oil cannot substitute for an independent national culture that confers identity, dignity, and fulfilment. Imported culture, despite bringing wealth and technological manifestations, remains colonial, exploitative, and degrading, lacking respect and honour, causing its bearers to face crises of identity and dissatisfaction. Arabs have become puppets controlled by external powers who easily replace their presidents and sheikhs, a manipulation far removed from genuine national awakening. This stems from a dependent, imported culture lacking a national infrastructure. Arabs have distanced themselves from the rich Islamic culture—scientific, prophetic, and Alawite—and lack an Islamic social and cultural life. They reject the Alawite culture and do not recognise the prophetic culture; what they possess are distortions from unjust caliphs and Umar’s jurisprudence. The dominant culture among their rulers is the violent Daesh culture with Salafist beliefs, lacking independence, greatness, and mercy.
• The Alawite Culture and Its Characteristics
• The Alawite culture has figures such as Malik al-Ashtar al-Nakha‘i, who the masses disdain and ridicule without realising that he was a commander under the Commander of the Faithful (Imam Ali). Malik prays for those who insult him so they do not suffer worldly consequences. The Alawite culture advocates chivalry, humility, peaceful coexistence, supporting the poor, and protecting the weak. Its warriors are the most humble towards their people, wishing them greatness and nobility. Imam Ali had the most approachable and people-friendly commanders and was himself a devoted follower of Abu Turab.
• This merciful Alawite culture fosters social cohesion with loving and sincere cooperation. The Shia of Ali demonstrate the greatest compatibility with others, especially their opponents. This culture and civilisation manifest tolerance and peaceful confrontation, even with hostile groups such as the violent Kharijites, who ultimately met destruction due to their ignorance and obstinacy. The Alawite community represents a modern cultural society which illuminated the darkness amidst unjust caliphs, clarifying the boundaries of truth and falsehood for the occultation period of the Twelfth Imam.
• This culture of cooperation and peaceful living is the Shia Ja‘fari school of thought. Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq stated that a Shia is one who, if possessing two garments, gives one to a needy neighbour. The Alawite culture does not merely stir fleeting emotional interest manifested in weeping for Husayn’s suffering, while remaining weak and fearful in defending truth. As Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq questioned, “Where is the brotherhood?”—reflecting on the absence of true Alawite Shia culture. Without this sincere culture ruling a country, there is neither genuine Islamic Wilayat culture nor the foundations for establishing Islamic civilisation; only slogans, facades, and distortions exist, which prevent mature understanding of the Wilayat school. The violence injected into this culture breeds an anti-Shia culture supported emotionally by masses and revengeful groups, along with opportunistic superficialists who flock around power. Eventually, this culture resembles the Arab Salafi culture, though Wilayat itself is not without divine grace, as the awaited Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will expose and punish false claimants and ultimate injustice.
• The Identity of Islamic Culture
• Islamic culture exists only when it embraces compatibility and mercy within its identity, manifesting visibly in society’s structures and expressions. This is achievable only by identifying and supporting geniuses, promoting scientific language, and institutionalising it socially in a manner rooted in truth and essence, not merely superficial formalities.
• Compatibility and granting freedoms occur within a Wilayat-based or civil society governed by principles, rules, and laws—as discussed extensively in my six-volume legal collection and the book New Rights. The difference between freedom and licence is clarified therein. A Wilayat or modern civil society is one governed by liberating and perfecting laws respected from the lowest to highest levels. Cooperation and harmony are founded on laws derived from pure Sharia, centred on public Wilayat, love, mercy, and sincere, benevolent loyalty. This foundation allows all groups and viewpoints to coexist peacefully with mutual respect and dignity, particularly among Shia, and just behaviour toward followers of other sects in a civil society.
• If this is not realised, dictatorship, arrogance, despotism, power-seeking, militarism, monopoly, populism, and vulgarity prevail, fostering a decadent and oppressive culture of submissiveness. Society only attains peaceful coexistence when relationships are genuinely sincere, either through factual truth expressed as justice and fairness, or essential truth expressed as love and Wilayat. Society must be governed by factual truth and justice for non-Shia, independent of faith, while Wilayat societies depend on essential truth, love, and devotion. Thus, a truly free society is either monotheistic and religious or truly civil; otherwise, it is decadent and tyrannical, governed by lies and injustice.
• In such societies, there is no room for freedom and love; only lust, deception, hypocrisy, appearance without substance, lies, and oppression prevail, isolating saints and driving religion into loneliness and despondency.
• Appropriate Utilisation of the Blessed Month of Ramadan
• A pure and sound religion provides a complete programme for managing a healthy society. The greater the individual’s or society’s problems, the more difficult it becomes to implement religious commandments. Difficulties in fulfilling religious duties arise from insufficient readiness of the individual or society.
• For example, reluctance to worship stems from a lack of spiritual purity. Difficulty or neglect in obligatory worship results from not performing recommended voluntary acts and the failure to embed these in society. If individuals fail to fast during Ramadan, it is because of a lack of preparation throughout the year, expecting to complete all in a single month. Fasting becomes burdensome and is often neglected because individuals have not prepared themselves. One cannot indulge freely for eleven months and then suddenly abstain from food, drink, and other prohibitions for one month without hardship and significant effort.
• To prepare and benefit fully from Ramadan, one must practise voluntary fasting throughout the year to prevent exhaustion during the blessed month. Sudden and total restraint after a year of complete freedom inevitably leads to difficulty. Proper timing, proportion, and physical and spiritual readiness enhance one’s ability to seize this precious opportunity.
• The Transformative Role of Women

My book *The Knowledge of Life addresses the role of women in life and society in detail. This is a crucial issue not to be overlooked, as the fate of nations depends largely on women’s status and function. Women, as primary family caretakers and educators, hold immense influence in society, nurturing and cultivating future generations.

The health, values, and dignity of families are primarily the responsibility of women. If women preserve their dignity and protect the family’s honour, society will prosper and ascend. Women’s health and refinement directly impact society’s health and progress. Societies in which women are deprived or disrespected fall into decline, corruption, and moral degradation. Therefore, Islamic culture and governance must establish women’s dignity and proper status to ensure the growth and stability of the nation.

• This represents the global transformation that has even engaged traditional Iranian society and culture, prompting the demands of women and public opinion to require scientific responses and pragmatic solutions. I have critically examined the book The Legal System of Women in Islam by the late Motahhari and Woman in the Mirror of Majesty and Beauty by Ayatollah Javadi Amoli, under the title Woman and Human Solidity, with the aim of realising this objective and stripping away misconceptions from religious propositions as well as pseudo-scientific notions regarding women. I have sought to highlight the necessity of revisiting laws that are either ignorantly or unjustly formulated or whose rulings have not been appropriately deduced due to changes in their subject matter. The results of these critiques have been extensively and meticulously incorporated as part of the proposed legal reforms in my book Family.
• The book Woman in the Mirror of Majesty and Beauty, in its role of analysing and coherently defending the theory of equality between men and women in rights, suffers from an overabundance of extraneous information, which may be attributed to the format of the book—essentially a lecture—and the weakness of the interlocutor. The excessive, sometimes unrefined and superficially treated information can unconsciously lead to fallacies arising from sheer abundance. In such fallacies, instead of reasoned defence, irrelevant examples are cited, provoking emotional agitation and the desired conclusion. Throughout the process of refining the discourse, the book falls into numerous fallacies, most of which I have addressed in my critique titled Woman and Human Solidity.
• On Clairvoyant Women and False Claimants
• I possess numerous works on the understanding of women and the psychology of gender. Here, I wish to address a point that might mislead some: the clairvoyance claimed by certain women despite the absence of any formal training or education in accessing the unseen.
• One characteristic of women is that at times they become so attached to a person or matter that they become utterly devoted and absorbed in them, while at other times they threaten their beloved with complete simplicity and cruelty, even enjoying tightening their grip upon them. The root of all these varied and contradictory transformations lies in the emotional nature of women, with the source of all their perceptions, actions, and reactions being their dominant feelings and affection. It is feeling that forms the basis of all a woman’s thought and will. Given the dominance of these transient feelings, the husband and wife resemble glass and stone; if that glass shatters due to the clumsy and unaware handling of the man in responding to a woman’s emotions, the shards will fall back upon him.
• Women have been likened to many things—such as snakes, the world, scorpions, and crooked ribs—but I liken a woman to a sieve with many holes, who excels in concealing the secrets behind these numerous invisible apertures, never allowing a man to discover them all. Based on these apertures, a woman can access certain unseen matters and foretell the future, which then materialises. Additionally, a woman may possess demonic perceptions enabling her to uncover some secrets, which sometimes causes superficial thinkers to believe she has attained supernatural insight; whereas, in reality, her insight is confined to this world and is based on her connections with demons, not a seeker of true spiritual perfection.
• On Women’s Exclusive Occupations
• In my book Family, I have argued that women must dedicate themselves to feminine occupations to satisfy the secondary level of their social dimension. These occupations include medical systems, education and preaching (such as oratory and lecturing), security maintenance, markets, economic investment, transportation, and the like. Due to certain conditions, I have not elaborated extensively on these details and have confined myself to generalities.
• One crucial matter in managing an Islamic society is that every city must have a women-only market, where exclusive women’s occupations are assigned to them, giving them opportunities for investment and production without any male intrusion. This market would serve as a suitable place for manufacturing and distribution occupations, income-generating activities such as goldsmithing, jewellery sales, boutiques, beauty salons, fashion, ladies’ clothing and tailoring, as well as cultural venues like women-only theatres, singing and dancing halls, sports centres, cafes, and restaurants. This market is exclusively for women, and all its staff should be women. Depending on population distribution and investment, this market could be a special shopping centre or a large market located appropriately within the city. The administration of such a women-only market requires education, investment, and women’s cooperation. Islamic jurisprudence, grounded in knowledge, prohibits men from selling women’s underwear and jewellery and forbids women from buying these items from men, prescribing penalties for violations. In the jewellery trade, many deceptive tactics are employed, which mostly men can exploit only if they have female customers. A woman who perceives a male seller’s gaze during jewellery shopping becomes anxious and cannot select the desired item properly, allowing the jeweller to impose his choice upon her. Women cannot sell or buy gold at fair prices unless the jeweller is a woman—especially a devout one—ensuring psychological comfort and protecting the customer’s rights. Women must develop and feminise these occupations to curb widespread public corruption. The foundation of a women-exclusive market is an Islamic prerequisite for societal Islamisation. It is worth noting that the great lady of Islam, Lady Khadijah, was herself a merchant and investor.
• On Women’s Social Presence
• To remove distortions from women’s rulings, I have authored several books, written with regard to temporal and spatial conditions, so not all that I have presented is definitive. I have analysed, reviewed, and critiqued the late Morteza Motahhari’s The Legal System of Women in Islam under the title Woman and Freedom, though I have not adopted a positive stance nor suggested replacements for its rejected content. This book suffers greatly from jurisprudential distortions and an inability to identify and critique them properly. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli’s Woman in the Mirror of Majesty and Beauty similarly suffers, and I have analysed and critiqued it under the title Woman and Human Solidity. This book is even more confused than The Legal System of Women in Islam. The main fault in both books is their failure to correctly recognise the subject of discussion, namely “woman.”
• In jurisprudence, I have maintained that understanding the subject matter of a ruling is essential, and a knowledge-based jurist regards it as his necessary duty. The jurist must identify the subjects of legal issues and consider removing uncertainties about specific instances as part of his responsibility. Subject identification in knowledge-based jurisprudence requires that, in addition to important religious and theological foundations outlined in mainstream jurisprudence, cognitive, rational, sociological, psychological, and other sciences—particularly empirical and laboratory data—be employed to serve jurisprudence. Knowledge-based jurisprudence and scientific ijtihad approach “woman” with a subject-oriented perspective and continuously observe the feminine nature in each era. Islamic rulings imposed on women pertain to a society in which women had no social role and their identity was defined by isolation from society. Women were considered second-class and subordinate citizens. The Arabs, driven by ignorant prejudices, imposed gender dominance over women’s humanity and thus easily buried innocent girls alive under the pretext of protecting family honour. In such a society, women had to obey men and suffered great abuse if they resisted. Women’s community involvement was minimal or non-existent. These conditions made women’s legal subject matter isolated, necessitating specific rulings accordingly. Therefore, some rulings imposed on women lack intrinsic and true identity, being conditional and separable from the social conditions of the time. Women under such rulings were confined to domesticity, deprived of social capability, which was reflected in the legal framework.
• Today, women have regained their social identity and possess scientific capability and social authority; they are no longer subjugated, obedient, and blind followers of men, and with their newfound authority, they have overcome past hardships. An example of this subject change is the issue of women’s testimony: previously, women’s weakness made them susceptible to men’s power, intimidation, and bribery, necessitating two women’s testimonies to equal that of one man. Today, women have achieved social authority, fear and weakness are removed, and they have become socially capable individuals rather than mere subordinates; thus, the testimony of a single woman holds equal weight to that of a man. This is not a change in ruling but a careful attention to the changing subject matter and its relevant conditions. We have not discussed this in the book Judiciary and Punishment due to unsuitable conditions but address such rulings in this book to illuminate the path of knowledge-based jurisprudence and temporal foundations.
• Another point regarding women’s jurisprudence is attention to the various categories of women.
• In jurisprudence, we regard the creation of women as complete and excellent, though possessing a unique nature; the notion of women’s intellectual deficiency is a distortion. If properly educated without imposing weakness and fragility, women’s capacity for healthy social participation blossoms in accordance with their nature, enabling them to create a safe and wholesome environment. Here, we neither affirm identical rights between men and women nor equality. The potential of both genders is actualised differently according to their inherent natures, producing various subject matters with specific rulings. Women, like men, comprise multiple categories, with rulings varying accordingly. Not all categories of women share the same ruling. Legal subject matters, like human talents, are situational and change with differing conditions, revealing specific subjects. The knowledgeable jurist, with expertise and mastery of religious texts, and aided by a sacred bestowed faculty, can discern the particular ruling of each subject—immutable until the end of time. Recognising women’s diverse talents and psychology is essential for the jurist, as these lead to varied subject matters across time and conditions. This holds unless men restrict women within their own selfish desires, personal rigidity, or prejudices, demean and weaken them due to their own weaknesses.
• Throughout history, the forces of disbelief, falsehood, ignorance, and distortions have controlled social affairs, opposing Islam’s constructive programmes for women’s healthy participation to advance their colonial aims. The world and mundane existence do not readily embrace divine truth and its pristine rulings, often dominated by the forces of falsehood. The true calibre of those who resist this vast and dominant opposition is revealed through their struggle. This conflict has produced the holiest and most devoted divine figures in the mundane world, unmatched in any other realm. Regarding women, numerous distortions have perpetuated their perennial oppression, with the hands of the forces of falsehood and satanic colonial aims preventing scholars from fully exploring this field. Women in young societies possess rulings absent in old societies. Safe, healthy, advanced, and civil societies produce subjects lacking in corrupt, unsafe, or primitive ones—these conditions influence the subject matter of women’s rulings. One of the prerogatives Islam grants women is their social presence, which Islam has designed in a modern manner compatible with women’s nature and psychological and personal delicacy. This is the unadulterated Islam that honours women, recognises their God-given natural freedom, considers all aspects of their being in its design, and shows them respect—not the distorted, superficial Islam espoused by formalists.
• Women’s Dress
• As another example, I can speak about women’s dress. Attention to the various categories of women renders the duty of dress diverse for them. The dress of the devout and loyal believers differs from that of women overpowered by folly and ignorance or those descended from jinn. The Holy Qur’an provides a historical narrative concerning the arrival of Bilqis at the palace of Prophet Solomon. The splendour of the palace, for Bilqis—herself a queen of a kingdom—was striking and dazzling. She found the palace floor to be like a pool full of water and thought she was about to step into water. In this encounter, she meticulously observed the formal etiquette of entering Solomon’s palace, as was customary for rulers, demonstrating considerable political acumen. Nevertheless, she raised her dress above her ankles, revealing her calves. It may be said that Bilqis was a woman who did not believe in the One God; however, she observed the palace etiquette and, at the very least, Solomon ought to have provided her with a chador (covering) so that she could cloak herself and then be permitted entry, thereby instructing her regarding religious dress. Yet, Solomon did not do so.
• In knowledge-based jurisprudence, we assert that dress serves to preserve the dignity of the woman, and if a woman does not wish to maintain her dignity—so long as she does not violate public modesty—she retains a measure of autonomy. Compelling dress beyond what is necessary to preserve public modesty is not obligatory. It is incumbent upon a woman to cover her feet from non-mahram men; however, if a woman neglects this religious duty and does not preserve her dignity, or exposes part of her hair, no one is obliged to compel her to comply, and coercive treatment is not religiously permissible—otherwise, Islamic matters would degenerate into tyranny. Of course, if she exposes herself to an extent that public modesty is harmed, appropriate measures must be taken against her; just as in any country such women are dealt with legally, even if the laws are not Islamic.
• In Chapter Eleven of my book Family, entitled “Comprehensive and Dignified Dress,” I have presented the principal rulings on women’s dress based on unembellished jurisprudence. There, I state: “Non-Muslim women or those who voluntarily do not cover their hair or calves, and for whom viewing their hair and legs does not constitute a violation, are restricted and compelled to wear coverings only in limited circumstances. No one is permitted to admonish or infringe upon these women or to restrict societal freedom; just as assaulting covered women and restricting their freedom is a crime. The crime of nudity is defined according to this legal line. Dress is a dignity granted to women by religion and law, and one who does not respect herself and does not observe covering of hair and legs to the knees is not obliged or compelled to do so. A normal glance at such a person who does not regard lack of covering as dishonour or shamelessness, and whose understanding of dress and its philosophy is absent in her human nature, and who suffers from weakness or hostility, is not problematic.”
• By women whose “understanding of dress and its philosophy is absent in their human nature, and who suffer from weakness or hostility,” I refer to certain women who may be descended from jinn. The characteristics of such beings are detailed in my book Nahayat.
• In my book Family, I have emphasised that the extent of dress (other than the religious dress exclusive to the elite and the devoted, which is also a religious necessity) is a rational and contextual matter, subject to change. It is not the case that its subject remains uniform from the advent of Islam through subsequent periods. Some changes in this rational and customary subject do not amount to violation of social values, public dignity, or disrespect toward women and are accepted by society as normal and among customary norms. The recognition of whether dress constitutes violation or non-violation depends on custom, and is subject to temporal and spatial perceptions and changing conditions, with established criteria.