Hossein Montazeri
Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri ( fa, حسینعلی منتظری ; 24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer and human rights activist. He was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution and one of the highest-ranking authorities in Shīʿite Islam. He was once the designated successor to the revolution's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, but they had a falling-out in 1989 over government policies that Montazeri claimed infringed on people's freedom and denied them their rights, especially after the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners. Montazeri spent his later years in Qom and remained politically influential in Iran, but was placed in house arrest in 1997 for questioning "the unaccountable rule exercised by the supreme leader", Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini in his stead. He was known as the most knowledgeable senior Islamic scholar in Iran and a ''grand marja'' (religious au ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grand Ayatollah
Marji ( ar, مرجع, transliteration: ''marjiʿ''; plural: ''marājiʿ''), literally meaning "source to follow" or "religious reference", is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia authority, a Grand Ayatollah with the authority given by a hawzah to make legal decisions within the confines of Sharia, Islamic law for followers and lower-ranking clerics. The highest ranking ''marjiʿ'' is known as the ''marja al-mutlaq'' or ''marja al-taqlid al-mutlaq''. Sources differ as to when the institution of the marja˓ emerged, with Murtadha al-Ansari (d. 1864) and Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni (d. 940 or 941 CE) both being called the first marja'. Title Currently, maraji' are accorded the title ''Grand Ayatollah'' ( ar, آية الله العظمی ''ʾĀyatullāh al-ʿUẓmā''). Previously, the titles of Allamah (such as Allameh Tabatabaei, Allameh Majlesi, Allameh Hilli) and Imam (such as Imam Khomeini, Sayyid Sadeq Rohani, Imam Rohani, Mohammad al-Husayni al-Shirazi, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ja'fari Jurisprudence
Jaʿfarī jurisprudence ( ar, الفقه الجعفري; also called Jafarite in English), Jaʿfarī school or Jaʿfarī fiqh, is the school of jurisprudence (''fiqh'') in Twelver and Ismaili (including Nizari) Shia Islam, named after the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq. In Iran, Jaʽfari jurisprudence is enshrined in the constitution. It differs from the predominant madhhabs of Sunni jurisprudence in its reliance on ''ijtihad'', as well as on matters of inheritance, religious taxes, commerce, personal status, and the allowing of temporary marriage or '' mutʿa''. Since 1959, Jaʿfari jurisprudence has been afforded the status of "fifth school" along with the four Sunni schools by Azhar University. In addition, it is one of the eight recognized ''madhhabs'' listed in the Amman Message of 2004 by the Jordanian monarch, and since endorsed by Sadiq al-Mahdi, former Prime Minister of Sudan. Branches Usuli This school of thought utilizes ijtihad by adopting reasoned argumentation in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ahmad Ghabel
Ahmad Ghabel ( fa, احمد قابل) was an Iranian Hojjatoleslam Shia Muslim cleric, theologian, seminary lecturer, researcher, and author. He was a follower of the dissident cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri and was detained several times by the Iranian government. He died on 22 October 2012 while on hospital arrest. Biography While working as a journalist for ''Hayat-é-No'' he was arrested on 31 December 2001, upon orders of the Special Court for the Clergy. This earned the protest of the international press watchdog group Reporters Without Borders After his release he went into exile in Tajikistan. Ghabel has issued a fatwa about hijab or head and neck covering for Muslim women. He argues that only covering the body of Muslim women is obligatory, and covering other parts of the body like hair and neck are recommended. In December 2009, he was arrested on his way to Qom to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. Before this, he was working on a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mohsen Kadivar
Mohsen Kadivar ( fa, محسن کدیور; born June 8, 1959) is a mujtahid, Islamic theologian, philosopher, writer, leading intellectual reformist, and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. A political Iranian dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal critic of the doctrine of clerical rule, also known as Velayat-e Faqih (''Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist''), and a strong advocate of democratic and liberal reforms in Iran as well as constructional reform in understanding of shari'a and Shi'a theology. Kadivar has served time in prison in Iran for his political activism and beliefs. Education and career Born in Fasa ( Fars Province) to a politically active family, Mohsen Kadivar completed his primary and secondary education in Shiraz before being admitted into electronics engineering at Shiraz University in 1977. He became politically active as a student and was arrested by the shah's police in May 1978 for his political activities. In 1980 he switched his focus ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Emadeddin Baghi
Emadeddin Baghi (born 25 April 1962) is an Iranian Journalist, human rights activist, prisoners' rights advocate, investigative journalist, theologian and writer. He is the founder and head of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights and the Society of Right to Life Guardians in Iran, and the author of twenty books, six of which have been banned in Iran. Baghi was imprisoned in connection with his writings on the Chain Murders of Iran, which occurred in Autumn 1998, and imprisoned again in late 2007 for another year on charges of "acting against national security." According to his family and lawyers, Baghi has been summoned to court 23 times since his release in 2003. He has also had his passport confiscated, his newspaper closed, and suspended prison sentences passed against his wife and daughter. Baghi was rearrested on 28 December 2009 on charges related to an interview with Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri. Baghi was released and then again rearrested on 5 Dec ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abdolkarim Soroush
Abdolkarim Soroush ( ; born Hossein Haj Faraj Dabbagh (born 1945; fa, حسين حاج فرج دباغ), is an Iranian Islamic thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar, public intellectual, and a former professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran and Imam Khomeini International University. He is arguably the most influential figure in the religious intellectual movement of Iran. Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. He was also affiliated with other institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, the Leiden-based International Institute as a visiting professor for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. He was named by ''Time'' magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2005, and by '' Prospect'' magazine as one of the most influential intellectuals in the world in 2008. Soroush's ideas, founded on relativism, prom ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Feyziyeh School
Feyziyya School ( fa, مدرسه فیضیه) is an old school in Iran that was founded in the Safavid era. The school has been listed as one of Iran's national monuments as of January 29, 2008. The school served as a focal point for clerical opposition to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's White Revolution. In 1963 on Ashura, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini delivered a speech at the school denouncing the Shah, and was arrested as a result. Background The Feyziyya School was founded in Qom during the Safavid era. An epigraph on the south veranda dates its construction to the reign of Shah Tahmasp. A school by the name of ''Astana'' existed at the site, from the 6th century until the 11th. Reconstruction was carried out under the Safavids and the school was renamed Feyziyya. The school was rebuilt and extended under Fath-Ali Shah in 1792. The school has 40 rooms on the first floor, 4 long veranda, 12 stalls and a square pool. History Opposition to the White Revolution In 1963 Moham ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Qom Seminary
The Qom Seminary () is the largest Islamic seminary (''hawza'') in Iran, established in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi in Qom. It trains Usuli scholars. History Although big Shi'a academies existed in Qom dating back as early as 10th century CE, the hawza of the city became prominent at the time of the Safavids when Shi'a Islam became the official religion of Iran. The famous teachers of that era included Mulla Sadra and Shaykh Bahai. The modern Qom hawza was revitalized by Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi and Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi and is barely a century old. There are nearly three hundred thousand clerics in Iran’s seminaries. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani currently heads the Qom Seminary. Law school Because Sharia is legally binding in Iran, the Qom seminary also functions as a law school in Iran. Ebrahim Raisi, the former Chief Justice of the Islamic republic of Iran, is one of the more prominent alumni of the Qom seminary. All judges in the Is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Islamic Democracy
There exist a number of perspectives on the relationship of Islam and democracy among Islamic political theorists, the general Muslim public, and Western authors. In 2021, a number of Muslim majority countries are Islamic and secular democracies. Many Muslim scholars have argued that traditional Islamic notions such as ''shura'' (consultation), ''maslaha'' (public interest), and '' ʿadl'' (justice) justify representative government institutions which are similar to Western democracy, but reflect Islamic rather than Western liberal values. Still others have advanced liberal democratic models of Islamic politics based on pluralism and freedom of thought. Some Muslim thinkers have advocated secularist views of Islam. A number of different attitudes regarding democracy are also represented among the general Muslim public, with polls indicating that majorities in the Muslim world desire a political model where democratic institutions and values can coexist with the values and p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guardianship Of The Islamic Jurist
The Guardianship or Governance/''Wilāyat'' of/by an Islamic Jurist/''Faqīh'' ( fa, , Velâyat-e Faqih; ar, وِلاَيَةُ ٱلْفَقِيهِ, Wilāyat al-Faqīh), is a concept in Twelver Shia Islamic law which holds that until the reappearance of the "infallible Imam" (sometime before Judgement Day), at least some of the "religious and social affairs" of the Muslim world should be administered by righteous Shi'i jurists. Shia disagree over whose "religious and social affairs" are to be administered and what those affairs are. Wilāyat al-Faqīh is associated in particular with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a series of lectures in 1970, Khomeini advanced the idea of guardianship in its "absolute" form as rule of the state and society. This version of guardianship now forms the basis of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which calls for a ''Vali-ye faqih'' (Guardian Jurist), to serve as the Supreme Leader of that c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Islamic prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators. In other words, the ḥadīth are transmitted reports attributed to what Muhammad said and did. Hadith have been called by some as "the backbone" of Islamic civilization, J.A.C. Brown, ''Misquoting Muhammad'', 2014: p.6 and for many the authority of hadith as a source for religious law and moral guidance ranks second only to that of the Quran (which Muslims hold to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad). Most Muslims believe that scriptural authority for hadith comes from the Quran, which enjoins Muslims to emulate Muhammad and obey his judgements (in verses such as , ). While the number of verses pertaining to law in the Quran is relatively few, hadith are co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Islamic Ethics
Islamic ethics (أخلاق إسلامية) is the "philosophical reflection upon moral conduct" with a view to defining "good character" and attaining the "pleasure of God" (''raza-e Ilahi''). It is distinguished from "Islamic morality", which pertains to "specific norms or codes of behavior". It took shape as a field of study or an "Islamic science" (''ʿIlm al-Akhlaq''), gradually from the 7th century and was finally established by the 11th century. Although it was considered less important than sharia and ''fiqh'' "in the eyes of the ulama" (Islamic scholars) "moral philosophy" was an important subject for Muslim intellectuals. Campo, ''Encyclopedia of Islam'', "Ethics and morality" 2009: p.217 Many scholars consider it shaped as a successful amalgamation of the Qur'anic teachings, the teachings of Muhammad, the precedents of Islamic jurists (see Sharia and Fiqh), the pre-Islamic Arabian tradition, and non-Arabic elements (including Persian and Greek ideas) embedded in or in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |