MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Iran
Index
Distinctive Beliefs
Although Shias have lived in Iran since the earliest days of
Islam, and there was one Shia dynasty in part of Iran during the
tenth and eleventh centuries, it is believed that most Iranians
were Sunnis until the seventeenth century. The Safavid dynasty made
Shia Islam the official state religion in the sixteenth century and
aggressively proselytized on its behalf. It is also believed that
by the mid-seventeenth century most people in what is now Iran had
become Shias, an affiliation that has continued.
All Shia Muslims believe there are seven pillars of faith,
which detail the acts necessary to demonstrate and reinforce faith.
The first five of these pillars are shared with Sunni Muslims. They
are shahada, or the confession of faith; namaz, or
ritualized prayer; zakat, or almsgiving; sawm,
fasting and contemplation during daylight hours during the lunar
month of Ramazan; and hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy cities of
Mecca and Medina once in a lifetime if financially feasible. The
other two pillars, which are not shared with Sunnis, are jihad--or
crusade to protect Islamic lands, beliefs, and institutions, and
the requirement to do good works and to avoid all evil thoughts,
words, and deeds.
Twelver Shia Muslims also believe in five basic principles of
faith: there is one God, who is a unitary divine being in contrast
to the trinitarian being of Christians; the Prophet Muhammad is the
last of a line of prophets beginning with Abraham and including
Moses and Jesus, and he was chosen by God to present His message to
mankind; there is a resurrection of the body and soul on the last
or judgment day; divine justice will reward or punish believers
based on actions undertaken through their own free will; and Twelve
Imams were successors to Muhammad. The first three of these beliefs
are also shared by non- Twelver Shias and Sunni Muslims.
The distinctive dogma and institution of Shia Islam is the
Imamate, which includes the idea that the successor of Muhammad be
more than merely a political leader. The Imam must also be a
spiritual leader, which means that he must have the ability to
interpret the inner mysteries of the Quran and the
shariat
(see Glossary). The Twelver Shias further believe that the Twelve
Imams who succeeded the Prophet were sinless and free from error
and had been chosen by God through Muhammad.
The Imamate began with Ali, who is also accepted by Sunni
Muslims as the fourth of the "rightly guided caliphs" to succeed
the Prophet. Shias revere Ali as the First Imam, and his
descendants, beginning with his sons Hasan and Husayn (also seen as
Hosein), continue the line of the Imams until the Twelfth, who is
believed to have ascended into a supernatural state to return to
earth on judgment day. Shias point to the close lifetime
association of Muhammad with Ali. When Ali was six years old, he
was invited by the Prophet to live with him, and Shias believe Ali
was the first person to make the declaration of faith in Islam. Ali
also slept in Muhammad's bed on the night of the hijra, or
migration from Mecca to Medina, when it was feared that the house
would be attacked by unbelievers and the Prophet stabbed to death.
He fought in all the battles Muhammad did except one, and the
Prophet chose him to be the husband of his favorite daughter,
Fatima.
In Sunni Islam an imam is the leader of congregational prayer.
Among the Shias of Iran the term imam traditionally has been
used only for Ali and his eleven descendants. None of the Twelve
Imams, with the exception of Ali, ever ruled an Islamic government.
During their lifetimes, their followers hoped that they would
assume the rulership of the Islamic community, a rule that was
believed to have been wrongfully usurped. Because the Sunni caliphs
were cognizant of this hope, the Imams generally were persecuted
during the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. Therefore, the Imams
tried to be as unobtrusive as possible and to live as far as was
reasonable from the successive capitals of the Islamic empire.
During the ninth century Caliph Al Mamun, son of Caliph Harun
ar Rashid, was favorably disposed toward the descendants of Ali and
their followers. He invited the Eighth Imam, Reza (A.D. 765-816),
to come from Medina to his court at Marv (Mary in the present-day
Soviet Union). While Reza was residing at Marv, Mamun designated
him as his successor in an apparent effort to avoid conflict among
Muslims. Reza's sister Fatima journeyed from Medina to be with her
brother but took ill and died at Qom. A shrine developed around her
tomb, and over the centuries Qom has become a major Shia pilgrimage
and theology center.
Mamun took Reza on his military campaign to retake Baghdad from
political rivals. On this trip Reza died unexpectedly in Khorasan.
Reza was the only Imam to reside or die in what is now Iran. A
major shrine, and eventually the city of Mashhad, grew up around
his tomb, which has become the most important pilgrimage center in
Iran. Several important theological schools are located in Mashhad,
associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.
Reza's sudden death was a shock to his followers, many of whom
believed that Mamun, out of jealousy for Reza's increasing
popularity, had him poisoned. Mamun's suspected treachery against
Reza and his family tended to reinforce a feeling already prevalent
among his followers that the Sunni rulers were untrustworthy.
The Twelfth Imam is believed to have been only five years old
when the Imamate descended upon him in A.D. 874 at the death of his
father. The Twelfth Imam is usually known by his titles of Imam-e
Asr (the Imam of the Age) and Sahib az Zaman (the Lord of Time).
Because his followers feared he might be assassinated, the Twelfth
Imam was hidden from public view and was seen only by a few of his
closest deputies. Sunnis claim that he never existed or that he
died while still a child. Shias believe that the Twelfth Imam
remained on earth, but hidden from the public, for about seventy
years, a period they refer to as the lesser occultation
(gheybat-e sughra). Shias also believe that the Twelfth Imam
has never died, but disappeared from earth in about A.D. 939. Since
that time the greater occultation (gheybat-e kubra) of the
Twelfth Imam has been in force and will last until God commands the
Twelfth Imam to manifest himself on earth again as the Mahdi, or
Messiah. Shias believe that during the greater occultation of the
Twelfth Imam he is spiritually present--some believe that he is
materially present as well-- and he is besought to reappear in
various invocations and prayers. His name is mentioned in wedding
invitations, and his birthday is one of the most jubilant of all
Shia religious observances.
The Shia doctrine of the Imamate was not fully elaborated until
the tenth century. Other dogmas were developed still later. A
characteristic of Shia Islam is the continual exposition and
reinterpretation of doctrine. The most recent example is Khomeini's
expounding of the doctrine of
velayat-e faqih (see Glossary),
or the political guardianship of the community of
believers by scholars trained in religious law. This has not been
a traditional idea in Shia Islam and is, in fact, an innovation.
The basic idea is that the clergy, by virtue of their superior
knowledge of the laws of God, are the best qualified to rule the
society of believers who are preparing themselves on earth to live
eternally in heaven. The concept of velayat-e faqih thus
provides the doctrinal basis for theocratic government, an
experiment that Twelver Imam Shias had not attempted prior to the
Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Data as of December 1987
|
|