Mehdi Haeri Yazdi ( fa, مهدی حائری یزدی ; ar, المهدي الحائري اليزدي; ; b. 1923, Qom, Sublime State of Persia – 9 July 1999,

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

) was an Iranian philosopher and

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

cleric. He was the first son of Abdul Karim Haeri Yazdi, the founder of

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 ...

and teacher of Ayatollah

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

, who became the leader of the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Family

Mahdi Ha'iri yazdi was son of the late Ayatollah Ha'iri, a Shiite authority and disciple of Ayatollah Boroujerdi. He was a teacher of theology and Islamic philosophy.

Academic career

Ha'iri received his Ph.D in philosophy from

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. He taught Islamic philosophy at the University of Toronto and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Background

Mehdi Haeri Yazdi was "one of Khomeini's prominent pupils" but parted ways with Khomeini on several issues. He opposed Khomeini's

theory A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

velayat-e faqih 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 re ...

as justification for rule of the Islamic state by Islamic jurists, Khomeini's unwillingness to end the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

, and believed Khomeini's

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

against

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...

was "inconsistent with the principles of Islamic law, or

Shari'a Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

" and "against the interests of Muslim society." Haeri-Yazdi published his objection to the

in his 1994 book ''Hekmat va Hokumat''. The book was published in London, but nevertheless has been widely distributed in Iran. In 1992 he published ''The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy : Knowledge by Presence''. The book aimed to present Western scholars and philosophers a theme that he considered most important :

knowledge by presence Knowledge by presence (Persian: علم حضوری) or consciousness is a degree and kind of primordial knowledge in the Illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy. This knowledge is also called the illuminative doctrine of knowledge by presence ...

- knowledge that arises from immediate and intuitive awareness. With his knowledge of Islamic philosophy and other Islamic fields, as well as his formal training in contemporary Western philosophical traditions, Mehdi Haeri Yazdi sought to study the core concerns of modernity and Islam. Farzin Vahdat discusses Yazdi's ideas in his book ''Islamic Ethos and the Specter of Modernity'' (2015).

Works

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: *''Hekmat va Hokumat'' (London 1994) *''Kavushha-ye Aql-e Nazari'' *''Hiram-e Hasti'' *''Kavushha-ye Aql-e Amali'' * ''safare Nafs''( the journey of soul) *''Analytical philosophy'' *''Memoirs of Hairi-Yazdi'', 2004 (Harvard Iranian Oral History) (English and Old Persian Edition) In

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: *''The Principles of Epistemology in Islamic Philosophy: Knowledge by Presence.'' SUNY Press 1992

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haeri Yazdi, Mehdi 1923 births 1999 deaths Muslim reformers Iranian reformists Iranian writers Iranian ayatollahs People from Qom

Family

Academic career

Background

Works

See also

References