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Religious devotion to political secularism
Ghobadzadeh, Naser
Ghobadzadeh, Naser
Author
Abstract
By investigating the formation of Twelver Shīʿī theology, this article seeks to show that, despite being political and despite its advocacy of pure theocracy, living in the shadow of a secular state is part of Shīʿī religious doctrine. It is argued that existential threats against Proto-Twelver Shīʿism during its formative centuries led to a messianic conception of the twelfth Imām, the only person whose direct leadership can enable a religiously legitimate state to be formed. Therefore, until his return—which is subject to the will of God—all rulers are usurpers and imposers on the right of the twelfth Imām. Shīʿī leaders are not allowed to seize the institution of government, and non-governmentalism is institutionalized as part of Shīʿī political theology. Instead of focusing on the characteristics of a legitimate ruler and how to form a legitimate government, the founding Shīʿī scholars were concerned with how to co-exist with a usurper. It will be demonstrated that these scholars had differing ideas about the scope and scale of engagement/disengagement with the institution of the state, but none of them discussed the possibility of forming a religiously legitimate government before the return of the twelfth Imām.
Keywords
twelver shīʿism, political secularism, Shīʿi theology, theocracy, hidden imām, qāʾim, age of perplexity, ḥadīth collection, founding Shīʿī scholars
Date
2022
Type
Journal article
Journal
Religions
Book
Volume
13
Issue
8
Page Range
1-20
Article Number
Article 694
ACU Department
School of Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open