Shiʿism () or Read and judge () is a book written by
Ahmad Kasravi that deals with criticisms of
Shia Islam. Shiʿism is one of Kasravi's three books criticizing what he calls a bad religion. The book caused a great deal of controversy during Kasravi's lifetime, and even led him to court; But before the legal process could be completed and the verdict was issued, several members of the
Fadaiyan-e-Islam, with the
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 ...
and support of
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 ...
and led by
Navvab Safavi, stabbed Kasravi to death in court. Shiʿism in his time was one of the first books to deal with the critique of
Shia Islam, and following this book, many authors criticized religion in Iran. Kasravi was one of the first thinkers and writers to express views on Shiʿism that are still debated.
contents
Kasravi has written his views based on sources from the period when first
Alids
The Alids are those who claim descent from the '' rāshidūn'' caliph and Imam ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (656–661)—cousin, son-in-law, and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad—through all his wives. The main branches are the (inclu ...
movement
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
was formed.
Kasravi considered the emergence of Shiʿism during the time of the
Umayyad caliphs and considered the first contamination of the Shiite faith as their extremist slander of
Abu Bakr,
Omar and
Uthman due to superiority over Ali in the caliphate. According to him,
Ja'far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam of Shias, was the first to coin the word
Imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
, and in order to obtain "
khums
In Islam, khums ( ar, خُمْس , literally 'one fifth') refers to the required religious obligation of any Muslims to pay 20% of their acquired wealth from certain sources toward specified causes. It is treated differently in Shia and Sun ...
" and "property of the Imam". Karvi considers the statement of the Shiite Imams that "no one knows the meaning of the
Qur'an except us and whoever does not know should ask us" and "whoever does not know the Imam of his time has died without knowing it" as "extra and ridiculous words". ; And he considers narrator (Imams) as abusive. He challenged the belief in the Twelve Imams and believed that the branch had done nothing but "spread blackmail and laziness and sponging."
Kasravi also considers the system of
Imamate
{{expand Arabic, date=April 2021
The term imamate or ''imamah'' ( ar, إمامة, ''imāmah'') means "leadership" and refers to the office of an ''imam'' or a state ruled by an ''imam''.
Theology
*Imamate, in Sunni doctrine the caliphate
:* Naqshb ...
to be a rotten dictatorship "which is not mentioned anywhere in the Qur'an." Kasravi also criticizes Shiite prejudice, saying that "mullahs who have learned Islamic science, for example, are not as prejudiced against this religion as these fanatics."
Publication
Kasravi published Shiʿism in February 1944. Following this, the clerics and fanatics of the Muslim people, as well as the religious leaders of the country, protested against its contents and filed a lawsuit against him in court, banning the distribution of the book. Kasravi did not give up and four months later, in order to justify his views in front of the people, he published the above book with more explanations and left it to the people to judge.
The audio book Shiʿism was recorded with the voice of Qasim Qaradaghi, and was published in 2015 by Avae Bof Publications, which lasts 5 hours and 40 minutes.
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
PDF link
Books critical of Islam
Iranian books
Books by Ahmad Kasravi