Religious intellectualism in Iran (in Persian: روشنفکری دينی) reached its apogee during the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1906–11). The process involved philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and cultural theorists.

Summary

The unifying traits of these intellectuals include their recognition of reform in the Islamic thought, democracy, civil society and religious pluralism and their opposition to the absolute supremacy of the Faqih

Faqih

A Faqīh is an expert in fiqh, or, Islamic jurisprudence.A faqih is an expert in Islamic Law, and, as such, the word Faqih can literally be generally translated as Jurist.- The definition of Fiqh and its relation to the Faqih:...

. The rise of religious intellectuals can be followed through the writings of Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...

. Soroush’s main idea is that there are perennial unchanging religious truths, but our understanding of them remains contingent on our knowledge in the fields of science and philosophy.

Influenced by Persian mysticism, religious intellectuals advocated a type of reformist Islam that went beyond most liberal Muslim thinkers of the 20th century and argued that the search for reconciliation of Islam and democracy was not a matter of simply finding appropriate phrases in the Qur'an that were in agreement with modern science, democracy, or human rights. Drawing on the works of Molana Jalaleddin Balkhi, Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Popper

Karl Popper

Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...

, and Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm

Erich Seligmann Fromm was a Jewish German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory.-Life:Erich Fromm was born on March 23, 1900, at Frankfurt am...

, Iranian intellectuals called for a reexamination of all tenets of Islam, insisting on the need to maintain the religion's original spirit of social justice and its emphasis on caring for other people.

Iranian religious intellectuals criticize both tradition

Tradition

A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...

 and modernity

Modernity

Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...

. They believe that modernity has an essential hardcore (that includes e.g. critical wisdom) and some non-essential associates. Therefore it is possible to define what they call "Iranian modernity" which is not necessarily incompatible with religion.

E'tezalieh movement

The glorious period of religious intellectual achievements was due to a well-known early school of thought known as "Mo'tazeleh". This school of thought flourished during the early Abbasid

Abbasid

The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....

 era. They adopted the method of applying rationality in the process of making interpretations of code of religion.

Two centuries after the death of the Prophet

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

 there were two distinct schools of Islamic speculative theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, the Motazelites who in the 8th century were the first Muslims to apply Greek philosophy

Greek philosophy

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire...

 to Islamic doctrine, and the Asharites, the "nominalists of Islam", followers of the 10th century orthodox theologian al-Ashari. Acknowledging the absolute oneness of God, the Motazelites reasoned therefore that the Koran could not legitimately be thought the co-eternal word of God, which was the orthodox view, but was rather created. There was place therefore for a realm of truth and morality not derived from religion, a rationality or secularity not simply given in the Kuran.

Iranian religious intellectuals, in the tradition of the Motazelites, proceed from a rationality not confined to religion, a free and independent thought which is thoroughly modern in its assertions as distinct from its presuppositions.

History of religious intellectualism in Iran

The history of Iranian religious intellectualism dates back to 19th century. Contrary to widespread opinion, Mohammad Kazem Khorasani

Mohammad Kazem Khorasani

Mohammad Kazem Khorasani was a Twelver Shi'a Marja, Persian politician, philosopher, reformer, born in Tous in northwestern Iran...

 (1839–1911) reasoned that absolute guardianship belongs to God, and absolute human authority (including the prophet) should be rejected.
Khorasani categorizes people's affairs into two areas:

• Public domain, matters which people refer to their chiefs or governments, as political issues or public domain or uncertain issues.
• Private issues, i.e. particular issues relating to individuals. In this area some religious Judgments (Ahkam) such as ownership, marriage and inheritance have been laid down by the religion. To Khorasani, observing these canonical judgments is obligatory on all, even the Prophet
  Prophet
  In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...
  
   or the Imam
  Imam
  An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
  
  s.

Khorasani's ideas differed from the foremost theologians of his time, for example Mirza Hossein Na'eeni who was also very influential in the course of Persian Constitutional Revolution.
In brief, Khorasani firstly considers judgment as a specific right for jurisprudent

Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...

s; secondly, he does not regard legislation

Legislation

Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

 as an obligation for jurisprudents, but their supervision over legislation as necessary, so that no law enters a religious society against the religion; and thirdly, he denies specific right for jurisprudents to manage the public domain. Absolute rejection of jurisprudents' specific right to manage the public domain makes it possible for all people to participate. On this basis, Khorasani announces his historical saying: "In Imam Mahdi's occultation, government belongs to the public". This statement is seen by Iranian scholars as the foundation of democracy in an Islamic society.

The history of Iranian religious intellectualism in the 20th century can be divided into two stages, as follows.

Phase I: The ideological discourse

• Prototype of scholars: Ali Shariati
  Ali Shariati
  Ali Shariati was an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist, who focused on the sociology of religion. He is held as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century and has been called the 'ideologue of the Iranian Revolution'.-Biography:Ali....
  
   (1933–1977)

Shariati thought that modernization might be consistent with traditional religious values. He also disassociated religion from the monopoly of the clerics. Not surprisingly, once in power, the Islamic Republic tried to counter his teachings. Nevertheless, his ideas have continued to have strong resonance within Iranian society.

According to Ali Rahnema: "Shariati was a man of his times. He reflected the mood, conditions, problems, pains and conceivable solutions of his times . . . He does not fit into any classical stereotype. Those who try to portray him as such, simply deform the man."

Shariati was a critic of both tradition and modernity. After several decades of his death, he is still the most influential Iranian religious intellectual inside and outside of Iran.

Phase II: Epistemologial/Democratic discourse

• Prototype of scholars: Abdolkarim Soroush
  Abdolkarim Soroush
  Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...
  
  

Regarding the socio-political role of religion, the epistemological discourse has "minimalist" expectations. "Rationalism", Soroush states, "is one of the most sturdy elements of epistemological discourse," especially as it promotes democratic methods of governance. Further, the collective intellect of society should decide its administration, not a preplanned religious platform that is, in reality, the cumulative understanding of the fuqaha. The rhetoric of this democratic discourse is noncombative and emphasizes the personal "rights" of "citizens" and calls for the institutionalization of civil liberties. Therefore, people’s participation in politics should be based on their political rights and free will as citizens of the state, and not on the basis of their ideological/religious duties as subjects.
The philosophy of Abdolkarim Soroush can be summarized as follows:

• Distinction between "religion" and our "understanding of religion".
• Distinction between "essential" and "accidental" aspects of religion.
• Distinction between "minimalist" and "maximalist" interpretation of Islam.
• Distinction between values and morals that are considered internal in respect to Islam and those that are external.
• Distinction between Religious "belief" and Religious "Iman".
• Distinction between religion as an ideology/identity and religion of truth.

Here is a sketchy comparison of several newly developed Iranian theologies:

• Soroush
  Abdolkarim Soroush
  Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...
  
   theology: Variable nature of religious knowledge
• Kadivar
  Mohsen Kadivar
  Mohsen Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher, University lecturer, cleric and activist. A political dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih , and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran...
  
   theology: Plural nature of religious knowledge
• Shabestari
  Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari
  Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari is a highly influential Iranian philosopher, Shia Islamic theologian, writer and professor at Tehran University. He is noted for his idea that ad-din, is perfect, but not all-encompassing, i.e...
  
   theology: Limited nature of religious knowledge

It is also helpful to compare these modern theologies with the theology developed by Mehdi Bazargan

Mehdi Bazargan

Mehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...

 several years earlier:

• Bazargan
  Mehdi Bazargan
  Mehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...
  
   theology:

Bazargan's main contribution to modern Iranian theology is the following: The main mission of prophets was to inform people about God and the next life. It was not the prophets’ mission to teach people how to manage society, or what kind of government to have. That is to say, it is not necessary for Muslims to refer to the Quran in order to discover laws for politics, economics and society, or theories of mathematics or natural sciences, and so on. To discover these laws, Muslims, like non-Muslims, must refer to collective reason; that is, to rely on achievements in the fields of science and philosophy.

Iranian intellectual Islam and modernity

Characteristics of "Intellectual Islam" as defined by Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian scholars or "the principles of compatibility of Islam and Modernity

Modernity

Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...

" can be mentioned as follows:

• First Principle: Comparing with the Official Islam which had been "Formalist", the Intellectual Islam is "Teleological", and believes that all religious precepts, holy rites and propositions are in the service of a lofty goal.
• Second principle: In intellectual Islam this statement “The goal of no religious precept could not be understood by human reason” is not right.
• Third principle: The intellectual Moslems say that without respecting the individuality and freedom of choice human dignity cannot be respected.
• Fourth principle: The intellectual religious are distinguished from La’ic(non-religious) intellectuals at least in three cases:
  • First, religious people including religious intellectuals (Moslem, Christian
    Christian
    A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
    
     or Jewish) are living faithfully in their private lives, believe in God and in the other world, and follow religious styles in their moralities and are people of prayer, following God and religious rites.
  • Secondly, the religious intellectuals are bound to religious morality
    Morality
    Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
    
     in public domain and in interaction with the others. What is more important, is their practical adherence to religious criteria.
  • Thirdly, The religious people and the believers try to observe human dignity, justice and morality in public policy making.

Secularization of religion

Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...

 believed that secularism is not fundamental to modernity and it is the Western case of modernity that is secular. According to Soroush secularism can be in two domains: in the mind and in social institutions. A secular mind cannot possibly be religious. However, it is possible to reconcile secular institutions with a religious society. He also put forward the idea of "minimal secularization".

Saeed Hajjarian

Saeed Hajjarian

Saeed Hajjarian is an Iranian intellectual, prominent journalist, pro-democracy activist and university lecturer. He has been an intelligence official, a member of Tehran's city council, and advisor to president Mohammad Khatami...

 allegedly showed the supremacy of politics as such over any religious norm when he said that the survival of the Islamic Republic was paramount and that no religious ritual should stand in its way. This kind of decision, he states, means that politics are more important than religion and that this acknowledges the secularization

Secularization

Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...

 of religion. In this context, he argues, it is possible to reassess velayat faqih and to reject its supremacy within the political field in Iran.

In brief, Iranian religious intellectuals distinguish various kinds of secularism

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

:

• political secularism
• philosophical secularism
• social secularism

They only accept "political secularism" and reject the two others. According to Iranian scholars, political secularism has two major pillars. One pillar consists of the question of legitimacy and the other consists of the political system’s neutrality towards religious and theoretical schools. They have argued that the system’s legitimacy hinges on justice, not on any particular type of religion, and the acceptance of the system comes from the people.

Religious pluralism and Rumi philosophy

Pluralism was introduced by Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...

 to contemporary Iranian philosophy

Iranian philosophy

Iranian philosophy or Persian philosophy can be traced back as far as to Old Iranian philosophical traditions and thoughts which originated in ancient Indo-Iranian roots and were considerably influenced by Zarathustra's teachings...

. He got the original idea from Rumi, the Persian poet and philosopher.

As John Hick

John Hick

Professor John Harwood Hick is a philosopher of religion and theologian. In philosophical theology, he has made contributions in the areas of theodicy, eschatology, and Christology, and in the philosophy of religion he has contributed to the areas of epistemology of religion and religious...

 put it, pluralism is the belief that no one religion has a monopoly of the truth or of the life that leads to salvation. In the poetic words of the great Sufi, Rumi, speaking of the religions of the world, "The lamps are different but the Light is the same; it comes from beyond" (Rumi: Poet and Mystic, trans. R.A. Nicholson, London and Boston: Unwin, p. 166).

Rumi, very respectfully makes frequent references to Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 philosophers of different schools of thought including the atomists. In many of his poems, he resembles God to sunlight which is reflected in the prism of human thought as different religious orders. This allegory is probably the best illustration of pantheism

Pantheism

Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...

 which regards God as One and at the same time believes in His multiple representations in the world. Although pantheism was not a thoroughgoing pluralism, its advocacy of a pluralistic notion of God's representation, gave rise to a pluralistic tendency in religious and philosophical thought of the Mediaeval Times in the Islamic world, and pantheism even influenced prominent thinkers of Modern Times such as Leibniz and Spinoza.

Tolerance and Iranian religious intellectualism

Hafiz, the renowned Iranian poet of the eighth/fourteenth century exalted tolerance

Toleration

Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...

 to the point of saying: "In these two expressions lies peace in this world and the next / With friends, magnanimity; with enemies, tolerance". Hafez knew well that, in a religious society, inviting people to exercise tolerance would fail to have any impact or captivate hearts unless it was accompanied by an insightful theory of human nature and religion. This is why he astutely tried throughout his works to use the language of poetry and allusion to elucidate a theory of this kind and to persuade his audience that his recommendation was not just a case of well-intentioned sermonizing but that magnanimity and tolerance were sound
philosophical notions that rested on solid foundations.

Hafez

Hafez

Khwāja Shamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī , known by his pen name Hāfez , was a Persian lyric poet. His collected works composed of series of Persian poetry are to be found in the homes of most Iranians, who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day...

 even drew on the troubling notion of determinism

Determinism

Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...

 (predestination

Predestination

Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...

, fatalism

Fatalism

Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...

) to reinforce his tolerance-inclined thinking. He says, we are all prisoners of destiny; a Muslim person is Muslim by virtue of geography and history, just as a Christian is a Christian on the same grounds.

One century earlier, Rumi stated that we each hold a portion of the truth in our hands and no one has all of it. This admission of the deficiency of knowledge is enough to make us more humble, and patience and tolerance are nothing other than one of the fruits of the tree of humility.

Iranian religious intellectuals borrowed the concept of "tolerance" from these Persian thinkers and developed it further.

Democracy, religion, and Iranian philosophy

Democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 is one of the propositions that has always been afflicted with confusion and misunderstanding. Hence, many religious people are afraid of approaching it. According to the philosopher of religions Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush

Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...

 we do not have one democracy but many democracies from ancient Greece to today, hence plurality of democracies in the international community. What emerged was that a democracy prevailed in different eras depending on the conditions of the time. What alters the hue and color of democracy is a society’s specific characteristics and elements.

Democracy where coincides with certain things, it can be secular or religious. But what occurs is coincidence

Coincidence

A coincidence is an event notable for its occurring in conjunction with other conditions, e.g. another event. As such, a coincidence occurs when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens under conditions named, but not under a defined relationship...

, and not unity. Relativistic liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 and democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 are not identical. On the other hand democracy is not violated when a faith is embraced, it is violated when a particular belief is imposed or disbelief is punished.

Religious democracy means that the values of religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 play a role in the public arena in a society populated by religious people. Religious democracy is an example of how democratic values can exist in a different cultural elaboration than what is usually known before. But, in a secular society, some other characteristic is deemed important and focused on, and that becomes the basis for democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

.

Two major idea against the religious democracy could be recognized:

•From the secularism

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

 point of view, the ideals of a democratic society and a secular state are in unified. Therefore the firm separation of religion and state is insisted such that without this separation there can be no freedom from tyranny. Absolute sovereignty of the people dominates in this idea. Religion should be put aside from the scene of life in order to establish democracy and freedom.

•From the legalism

Legalism

Legalism may refer to:In philosophy:* Legalism , Chinese political philosophy based on the idea that a highly efficient and powerful government is the key to social order....

 point of view, democracy can never enjoy a general acceptance in a religious society. Anything outside of the rigid, but pervasive, interpretation of the religious texts is rejected and the absolute sovereignty of God prevails such that there is no role for the sovereignty of people. The less freedom a society enjoys, the stronger religion will be.

Some particular problems

There are many issues about Islam that have been the origin of human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 concerns over the last few decades. Many of such problems have been solved (in theory) almost hundred years ago by Iranian philosophers of religion and many of such problems are now "considered history" in Iranian academic circles. Such questions however have been a matter of concern among traditional theologians. Here is a list of some such problems that have been solved by traditional theologians:

• Apostasy
  Apostasy in Islam
  Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
  
  :
  • Solved by religious intellectuals hundred years ago
  • Solved by traditional humanists Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel is a Hojjatoleslam Shia Muslim cleric, an Iranian theologian seminary lecturer, researcher, author and "prominent" member of Iran's largest reformist political party, the now outlawed Islamic Iran Participation Front...
    
     and Hossein Ali Montazeri.
  • Solved in some specific cases by fundamentalists: Ali Khamenei
    Ali Khamenei
    Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
    
     and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
    Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
    Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi is a moderate Iraqi-Iranian politician and Twelver Shi'a Marja. Hashemi Shahroudi was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has caused objections to his serving as the head of Iran's Judiciary System upon his...
    
     in the case of Hashem Aghajari
    Hashem Aghajari
    Hashem Aghajari also Seyyed Hashem Aghajari is an Iranian historian, university professor and a critic of the Islamic Republic's government who was sentenced to death in 2002 for apostasy for a speech he gave on Islam urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics...
    
    .
• Stoning
  Stoning
  Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
  
  :
  • Solved by traditional humanists: Allameh Tabatabaei
    Allameh Tabatabaei
    Allameh Seyyed Muhammad Husayn Tabatabaei was one of the most prominent thinkers of philosophy and contemporary Shia Islam...
    
    
  • Solved by fundamentalists: Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
    Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
    Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi is a moderate Iraqi-Iranian politician and Twelver Shi'a Marja. Hashemi Shahroudi was the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has caused objections to his serving as the head of Iran's Judiciary System upon his...
    
     (As the Head of Judiciary, he ordered a ban on the practice of stoning in December 2002.)
• Suicide bombing:
  • Solved by traditional humanists: Yousef Sanei and Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel is a Hojjatoleslam Shia Muslim cleric, an Iranian theologian seminary lecturer, researcher, author and "prominent" member of Iran's largest reformist political party, the now outlawed Islamic Iran Participation Front...
    
    
• Blood money:
  • Solved by traditional humanists: Yousef Sanei
• Hijab
  Hijab
  The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
  
  :
  • Solved by traditional humanists: Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel is a Hojjatoleslam Shia Muslim cleric, an Iranian theologian seminary lecturer, researcher, author and "prominent" member of Iran's largest reformist political party, the now outlawed Islamic Iran Participation Front...
    
    , Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari, Mahmoud Taleghani
    Mahmoud Taleghani
    Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani was an Iranian theologian, humanist, Muslim reformer, democracy advocate and a senior Shi'a cleric of Iran. Taleghani was a contemporary of the Iranian Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and a leader in his own right of Iran's Shi'a resistance movement...
    
     and Hossein Ali Montazeri
• Clerical administration and theocracy
  Theocracy
  Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
  
  :
  • Solved by traditional humanists: Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel
    Ahmad Ghabel is a Hojjatoleslam Shia Muslim cleric, an Iranian theologian seminary lecturer, researcher, author and "prominent" member of Iran's largest reformist political party, the now outlawed Islamic Iran Participation Front...
    
    
• Trans sexuality
  Transsexual sexuality
  Transgender sexuality is the sexuality of transgender people.Transgender people exhibit the full range of possible sexual orientations and interests, including the potential for a lack of interest in sex.-Sexual orientation labels:...
  
  :
  • Solved by Ruhollah Khomeini
    Ruhollah Khomeini
    Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
    
     and Mehdi Karimi Nia.

Ideological issues like Jihad

Jihad

Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

 do not have any place in modern Iranian theology since the end of the ideological discource (phase 1). However some issues like homosexuality

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

, prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

s and promiscuity

Promiscuity

In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...

 are still under investigation in the context of Iranian theology. The current view among religious intellectuals is that the act of homosexuality is "simply immoral". However no one conducted a solid research on the issue in Iran up to now. The current understanding about the nature of homosexuality among such scholars seems to be similar to European psychologists' view before 1885.

Criticism

This movement and its ideas have been criticized from different viewpoints. On one hand some intellectuals and academicians like Javad Tabatabaei

Javad Tabatabaei

Dr. Javad Tabatabai is a political philosopher, historian and university professor.Tabatabai studied law at Tehran University. He then shifted to philosophy and did his doctorate works at Sorbonne University. Tabatabai was a professor of philosophy at University of Strasbourg as well as Tehran...

 has criticized using religious as the attribute of intellectualism. On the other hand some others like Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher...

 has criticized them because of merging Islam with modernism. Furthermore theologians like Morteza Motahhari

Morteza Motahhari

Ayatollah Murtaza Motahhari was an Iranian scholar, cleric, lecturer, and politician.Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association...

, Javadi Amoli and Mesbah Yazdi have criticized them because of diversion from Shia and Islamic theology.

Notable figures

• Akhound Khorasani
• Allameh Na'ini
• Mahmoud Taleghani
  Mahmoud Taleghani
  Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani was an Iranian theologian, humanist, Muslim reformer, democracy advocate and a senior Shi'a cleric of Iran. Taleghani was a contemporary of the Iranian Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and a leader in his own right of Iran's Shi'a resistance movement...
  
  
• Yadollah Sahabi
• Mehdi Bazargan
  Mehdi Bazargan
  Mehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...
  
  
• Ali Shariati
  Ali Shariati
  Ali Shariati was an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist, who focused on the sociology of religion. He is held as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century and has been called the 'ideologue of the Iranian Revolution'.-Biography:Ali....
  
  
• Morteza Motahhari
  Morteza Motahhari
  Ayatollah Murtaza Motahhari was an Iranian scholar, cleric, lecturer, and politician.Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association...
  
  
• Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari
  Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari
  Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari is a highly influential Iranian philosopher, Shia Islamic theologian, writer and professor at Tehran University. He is noted for his idea that ad-din, is perfect, but not all-encompassing, i.e...
  
  
• Abdolkarim Soroush
  Abdolkarim Soroush
  Abdolkarim Soroush , born Hosein Haj Faraj Dabbagh , is an Iranian thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar and a former professor at the University of Tehran. He is arguably the most influential figure in religious intellectual movement in Iran. Professor Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the...
  
  
• Mohsen Kadivar
  Mohsen Kadivar
  Mohsen Kadivar is an Iranian philosopher, University lecturer, cleric and activist. A political dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih , and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran...
  
  
• Saeed Hajjarian
  Saeed Hajjarian
  Saeed Hajjarian is an Iranian intellectual, prominent journalist, pro-democracy activist and university lecturer. He has been an intelligence official, a member of Tehran's city council, and advisor to president Mohammad Khatami...
  
  
• Alireza Alavitabar
  Alireza Alavitabar
  Alireza Alavitabar is an Iranian political scientist and a leading reformist intellectual and writer.Alireza Alavitabar is a member of Islamic Iran Participation Front and was the editor of the now closed Sobh-e-Emrooz newspaper....
  
  
• Mahmoud Sadri
  Mahmoud Sadri
  Mahmoud Sadri is an Iranian sociologist.Mahmoud Sadri is a full professor of sociology at the Federation of North Texas Area Universities that includes Texas Woman's University, University of North Texas, and A&M University, Commerce. His major interests include Sociology of Religion, Sociology of...
  
  
• Ali Paya
  Ali Paya
  Ali Paya is a contemporary Iranian philosopher and writer. He is a faculty member of the national research Institute for science policy in Iran and a Senior Research Associate and Visiting Professor at the Center for Study of Democracy, University of Westminster.He's written a number of books,...
  
  
• Ahmad Zeidabadi
  Ahmad Zeidabadi
  Ahmad Zeidabadi is an Iranian journalist, academic, writer and political analyst and the secretary general of Office for Strengthening Unity. He is one of the notable figures of the Iranian reform movement....
  
  
• Hashem Aghajari
  Hashem Aghajari
  Hashem Aghajari also Seyyed Hashem Aghajari is an Iranian historian, university professor and a critic of the Islamic Republic's government who was sentenced to death in 2002 for apostasy for a speech he gave on Islam urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics...
  
  
• Yousef Sanei
• Hossein-Ali Montazeri
• Mostafa Mohaqqeq Damad
• Mohammad Khatami
  Mohammad Khatami
  Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
  
  
• Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari
• Abdol Ali Bazargan
• Ezzatollah Sahabi

See also

• Intellectual movements in Iran
  Intellectual movements in Iran
  Intellectual movements in Iran involve the Iranian experience of modernity and its associated art, science, literature, poetry, and political structures that have been changing since the 19th century.- History of Iranian modernity :...
  
  
• Institute for Interreligious Dialogue
  Institute for Interreligious Dialogue
  Institute for Interreligious Dialogue is a non-governmental organization devoted to dialog among religions throughout the world.The institute was founded in 2000, following the efforts by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami for promoting dialogs among cultures and civilizations...
  
  
• Liberalism in Iran
  Liberalism in Iran
  This article provides an overview of liberalism in Iran. It is limited to the Iranian liberal movement and liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in the majlis ....
  
  
• Clericalism in Iran
  Clericalism in Iran
  Clericalism in Iran has a long history and had remarkable impact on Iranian society, politics as well as on Islamic theology.-Emergence:There are controversies about the emergence of clericalism in Iran...
  
  
• History of fundamentalist Islam in Iran
  History of fundamentalist Islam in Iran
  The history of fundamentalist Islam in Iran covers the history of Islamic revivalism and the rise of political Islam in modern Iran. Today, there are basically three types of Islam in Iran: traditionalism, modernism, and a variety of forms of revivalism usually brought together as fundamentalism...
  
  
• Religious traditionalism in Iran
  Religious traditionalism in Iran
  Today there are basically three types of Islam in Iran: traditionalism , modernism, and a variety of forms of revivalism usually brought together as fundamentalism....
  
   (Iranian traditional humanism)
• Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
  Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
  Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
  
  
• Liberal Christianity
  Liberal Christianity
  Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
  
  
• Humanism
  Humanism
  Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
  
  
• Islam and modernity
  Islam and modernity
  Islam and modernity is a topic of discussion in contemporary sociology of religion. Neither Islam nor modernity are simple or unified entities. They are abstract quantities which could not be reduced into simple categories. The history of Islam, like that of other religions, is a history of...
  
  

Scholars:

• John Hick
  John Hick
  Professor John Harwood Hick is a philosopher of religion and theologian. In philosophical theology, he has made contributions in the areas of theodicy, eschatology, and Christology, and in the philosophy of religion he has contributed to the areas of epistemology of religion and religious...
  
  
• Javed Ahmad Ghamidi
• John Esposito
  John Esposito
  John Louis Esposito is a professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University...
  
  
• Hamid Dabashi
  Hamid Dabashi
  Hamid Dabashi born 1951 in Ahvaz is an Iranian-American Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City.He is the author of over twenty books...
  
  
• Mohammed Arkoun
  Mohammed Arkoun
  Professor Mohammed Arkoun was considered at the time of his death to have been one of the most influential scholars in Islamic studies contributing to contemporary islamic reform...
  
  

External links

• unofficial religious intellectualism on facebook
• Religious Pluralism and Islam, Lecture delivered by John Hick
  John Hick
  Professor John Harwood Hick is a philosopher of religion and theologian. In philosophical theology, he has made contributions in the areas of theodicy, eschatology, and Christology, and in the philosophy of religion he has contributed to the areas of epistemology of religion and religious...
  
  to the Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought, Tehran, in February 2005
• Abdolkarim Soroush: official website
• Mehdi Bazargan and religious tolerance (BBC Persian)
• Renewal of religious thinking in Iran (BBC Persian)
• Political philosophy of Akhound Khorasani (in Persian)
• The Critical Cleric, Reclaiming Islam for a new world
• Authority in Contemporary Shi'ism
• The Changing Approach to the Text: Iranian scholars and the Quran