The flow of Shiite Islamism – Part I

The flow of Shiite Islamism from first part of Islam till Safavid end The flow that we want to talk about is the flow of Shiite Islamism. The evolution period of Islamism dates back to the period of Prophet Muhammad (Peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) (PBUH). The birth place of this flow was in Saudi Arabia and the city of Mecca. The Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) was much considered during the period of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) (PBUH). On the 18th of Dhu’l-Hijja, 10th Year of Hegira, the Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) via the messenger of Allah was introduced as the heir of that prophet. And due to reason that after the departure of the most generous messenger (Peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) (PBUH) this heir via some of the followers of that prophet, with a citation that the messenger of Allah (Peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) (PBUH) will not keep an inheritance from himself and even the succession did not have an inheritable, was not accepted, and the other people were selected for caliphate. This selection, divided the Muslims into two groups of Shiite and Sunni. The majority number, accepted the caliphate selection of the individuals and the other numbers that were in the minorities, accepted the caliphate of Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH). Therefore, from the viewpoint of formation and social movement of ``Shiite’’ dates back to the period after the death of the most generous messenger (Peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) (PBUH). Although from the theoretical and speech viewpoint relates to the period of the most generous messenger (Peace of Allah be upon him and his progeny) (PBUH) and is introduced via him.
The individuals that in that period were supporting Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH), for any type of relationship with the government, and were taking the permission of the holiness and it was not that without taking the permission, consider themselves empowered and establish a direct relationship with the government, such as Ammar, Yasir, Salman Farsi, Abu Dhar, Miqdad, and ….. When it was proposed to them that you should be war commandant, governor, or governor-general, they were taking the permission of the Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH). The first and the second government of the flow of Shiite Islamism was initiated via the Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH) and Imam Hassan (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH). If we follow the graph of the flow of Shiite Islamism, it has many oscillations. In other words, it means that considering the temporal and spatial conditions and position of the innocent Imam, the flow of the Shiite Islamism could continue its vitality. For an example, in the period of the Prophet Ali (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH) the entire government and during the period of Imam Hassan (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH) a part of government was under his control. During the time of Imam Sadjad (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH) the chart was symmetrical and during the period of Imam Sadegh (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH) that was the period of government bandy again soared. During the period of seventh Imam it achieved a descending order and during the period of Imam Reza (Peace of Allah be upon him) (PBUH) it further soared. Besides, during the period of three Imams, the ninth, the tenth and the eleventh Imams, it reached a state of dissimulation and an issue until we reach the era of absence. In the last days of the Bani Abbas caliphate, some of the Shiite governments were formed in some of the regions of Iran.
When we reach the era of Safavid, they declared the Shiite religion official and formed an independent and dominant government. The people who in that period had accepted the Shiite religion and it is from that period that the flow of the Shiite Islamism finds an absolute majority in Iran. This in other words means that besides having an access to the government, they even invited the Shiite religious jurisprudences from varied points such as Lebanon and asked them to interfere in the state affairs. If we go back to the era of Nader Shah, Nader himself was a negative, egotist and domineering person and strived to destruct more and more Shiite spectrum and convert the religion of the Iranians to the Sunni religion wherein he did not succeed until prior to the Safavid era.
The flow of the Islamism during the Qajar dynasty
The upcoming of Qajar dynasty caused that further the spectrum of Shiite Islamism, slowly raised before the government. Considering that the Shiite scholars were accepted by everyone in the social affairs, although the political power was not in their hands but had much social and democratic power. And its reason was that the Shiite spirituality as the leader of Shiite flow was encountered with the financial sovereignty. The financial sovereignty caused that the spirituality for the conduction of its affairs does not depend on the government command and he independently carries out the decision-making. In this course, they were not only implementing their influence in the state affairs, but also were gathering all those people who were refugee of the government around themselves and were either reference and or magistrate of those who were oppressed. The two important tasks happened in that period, which revealed the influence of the flow of the Shiite Islamism.
Primarily, in the era of ``Mullah Ali Kani’’ as a prime elite clergyman practicing religious jurisprudence of Tehran, made Naser al-Din Shah Qajar stay behind the city gateway and did not permit him to enter the city and said: ``until you cancel the agreement or the prestige of railroad construction that you gave to Englishmen, I will not permit you inside the city.’’ This affair was representative of the influence of the flow of Shiite Islamism in the era of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar.
Secondly, the issuance of the judicial decree of Mirza Shirazi that was representative of the influence of the flow of Shiite Islamism in the era of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, even among the women of the harem.
The flow of Islamism during the constitutional era
The other discussion was that, the entire leadership of the constitutional movement till the period of refuge in the Embassy of England was in the hands of the flow of Shiite Islamism, and after the refuge in the Embassy of England was out of the control of the flow of Islamism and falls into the hands of the flow of open-minded or liberalists.
The execution of Sheikh Fazlollah Noori in the Toop Khaneh (Artillery barracks) square of Tehran, is the terminal point on the activities of the flow of Shiite Islamism in the constitutional epoch, and it is after that Mirza Naini, that popularly conducted the theoretical or visionary justification of the constitutional movement and from that viewpoint justified the Shiite religion – he purchased the book written by him and threw all of them in the Euphrates. The reason for all these is that the flow of the Shiite Islamism after the constitutional was secluded from the political arena. With the elimination of the ``elite‘’ principle from the constitution – that was decently kept aside by the liberalism flow – was a terminal point of the activity and influence of the flow of Shiite Islamism in the government was formed.
The flow of the Islamism in the era of Reza Shah
The monarchy prior to the Reza Shah had a traditional state and after the Reza Shah attained a modern state, i.e. the state of ancient Iran during the era of ancient Iran, after the entry of Islam to Iran, the government was out of its ancient state and had achieved a religious state. For an example the names during the Qajar Dynasty was approximately religious. Fath-Ali Shah, Naser al-Din Shah, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, Ahmad Shah and Reza Shah, considered all of them as the backward state and changed the monarchy from the religious state to cultural state. One of the prime tasks that he carried out was that he changed his surname from Mirpanj SavadKuhi to Pahlavi. Pahlavi was the name of one of the eras of Persian language of the ancient Iran – the other tasks of his was that he declared, the name of the individuals should have a state of ancient Iran. The next task was separation of Persian from Arabic teachings. He propagated the Persian script and language and believed that the Persian language should return and find its absoluteness which was present in the ancient Iran and is erased from the Arabic words.
The manifestation target of this matter was that we wish to have a pure language so that it could lead to advancement of the country as an independent mother tongue; but in conscience, the seclusion of the flow of Shiite Islamism was in Iran, since the only danger was then and the Arabic language from the period of Islam access to Iran, entered the Persian language. In the modernity or modernization of Iran, Pahlavi initially conducted a few important tasks: primarily that according to his belief the pattern of Iranian clothing was of backward type since Iranians were wearing clothes like the Afghanis. Reza Shah in order to keep the people of Iran away from their traditional clothes, via the assembly established a uniform clothing law. The uniform clothing law had some sections, the appearance of matter was that the entire Iranian individuals should after the approval of this law, should keep away the old clothing and wear new clothing and wear the triangle Pahlavi caps. But some of the individuals did not accept this law and objected such as Hassan Sadr ol-Ashraf. He was the supporters of the constitution and wrote a letter to the Shah and mentioned that: The noble holiness! What we need from Europe is oil, car and others not the mode of clothing, and the shah himself in response sent him a suit.
The conscience of the matter was that the aim of this uniform clothing was the flow of Shiite Islamism and had targeted the considered law and the spirituality clothing. In this manner, Reza Shah prohibited the spirituality clothing and except the clergyman practicing religious jurisprudence and reference imitation of those who desired to wear spirituality clothing should give probation. If a person would pass in this probation and it was determined that he or she has a sufficient religious literacy he or she could wear the spirituality clothing otherwise he or she should use the clothing considered by Reza Khan. The aim of this law was that to pressurize the spirituality so that the number of clergy people reduces.
The second law that was approved in this field was the law of veil discovery. This was also approved via the National Consultative Assembly. The enthusiasm of veil discovery initiated when Pahlavi I travelled to Turkey. In this travel, Reza Khan observed that the ladies of Turkey were unveiled and their country is also more advanced in comparison to Iran. In that period, half of the Iranian population was constituted by women. He thought that the women since they have veil are inactive and lead to the backwardness of the country and we will discover the veil so that this 50 percent population of Iran turn active and the country advances. This law was approved with this justification, and even was implemented in the villages. The unrest of Goharshad Mosque in 1314 (1939) is the result of this law.
After these cases, the law of prohibition of religious functions such as the mourning of Muharram and Noha lament was implemented that formed a part of the Shiite academy. The formation of new foundations in the administrative, judicial and educative module was the next task. In the ministry office administrative module and in the judiciary module, the justice and the Ministry of Justice have changed in the present form. The appearance of this work was that we want to save the judiciary situation of the country from the unorganized state. The conscience of this work was that because the judicial registry offices, despite the registry office of divorce, marriage, documents and properties was governed in the hands of spirituals and the spirituals had the judicial courts, they strived to shorten the hands of this spectrum from the judicial positions. Here also a huge conflict occurred. In the education module, the foundation of schools in new and European style ``the primary and the secondary schools’’ and establishment of Tehran University in 1313 (1938) happened that was generally for the shortening of the spirituals and theoretical from the education.
Another big task of Pahlavi I was that there was irreligiousness in Iran and it is exhibited from the tasks that was conducted by him. The other important point was the coming of Reza Shah to Iran via Englishmen, and was for this reason that the entrance and propagation of communism is prevented in Iran. The Russian communists were providing a slogan that we will export our revolution to the world and this slogan of revolution issuance would keep the western benefits into a danger.
If Russia was successful to convert Iran to a Marxist country, considering the adjacency of Iran with the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and the oil wells of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and petroleum module of Middle East was out of the control of west and since the world of west had realized this danger, they decided to keep Iran as a focused and modern government and fight with the communism virus, so that it is not released fast. And justly Reza Shah conducted his duties very well. The other important task that was carried out by Reza Shah was that there was arresting and jailing the group of 53 individuals of the Marxist that were in Iran. But since in 1320, its political life came to an end, the prisoners were released and later formed the mass party, although their leader was Dr. Taqi Arani who died in the prison. In any case Reza Shah performed his duty to prevent the influence of communism in Iran very well. These plans were entirely via the liberalists that have to be operative in a long term. In reality the plan and design were from liberalists and the execution was via Reza Shah. At the first meeting that Reza Shah had with liberalists, in the beginning, gaining the empowerment, promised them that the plan should be from you and execution by me. This modern section from the viewpoint of flowology was the planning of liberalists. One of the other important tasks that were carried out by them was that the endowments should be in the hands of government and its assignment should be determined. The main matter was that the endowments were in the hands of spirituals and should be out of their control. Any government that tries to weaken its oppositions but in appearance, lesser expresses that what is our purpose? The opposition of Reza Shah with spirituals was also the same.
The flow of the Shiite Islamism during the missing shah period
From 1322 (1947), the era of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi initiates and it continues till 1357 (1982) and even he continues his father’s tasks. From 1320 (1945) to 1332 (1957), Mohammad Reza was young and the government was administrated via the prime minister. One of his tasks in relationship with the ancient era, was the conduction of 2500 kingdom function that in this function he wore the Achaemenid clothing and stated this popular statement that ``Kourosh sleep cause we are awake’’ and he meant that Kourosh! Sleep because we will continue your style and task. Among his important tasks in the modern era was that he could train a cadre that his one foot was in Iran and the other foot was in the west. Among the other tasks of his, was the formation of Pahlavi Foundation. Pahlavi though claimed that it is a non governmental foundation and conducts charitable tasks, was identifying the intelligent individuals and deported them to foreign. However, the thing that they desired did not happen because they outside the country was affiliated with the opposition groups and were not returning back to the country, till 1357 (1982) that the Islamism people could change the government and in the 22nd Bahman 1357 (10th February 1982) could close their files. But, whether the dynasties became inactive? No, they are hard striving outside the country and since from the financial viewpoint are in good condition, have expansive propaganda efforts. They are like a wounded snake and are waiting to achieve supporters and return back. Therefore, in the country the flow of dynasties does not exist, but outside the country they have much activity and a probability of danger exists for us.