The Effect of Social Text and Context on the Political Thinking of the  Contemporary Shiite Scholars

Hosein Harsij,Hosein Masoudnia,Reza Mahmoodoghli,Seyed Javad Emamjomehzadeh

doi:10.19026/rjaset.5.5100

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of social text and context on the political thinking of the contemporary Shiite scholars. On the one hand, contemporary scholars’ political thinking exists at the heart of modernity’s recent social and political events and in the framework of their understanding of religious teachings in Quran and Sunnah on the other hand. Thus, through their interactions in social contexts and their perception of texts, we may understand their thinking. On the one hand, the struggles, interests and side takings of social and political forces inarguably influence the formation and development of the contemporary scholars’ political thinking. On the other hand, religious texts and deductions from them have been effective in understanding new concepts and problems. In this regard, this research attempts to comparatively investigate the effect of social text and context on the political thinking of contemporary Shiite scholars of Samarra, Najaf and Qom schools using discourse and cognitive-comparative methods.

Highlights

Political thinking is a general concept which points out to any coherent and structured thinking about a political subject
Thinkers’ premises in different understandings emanate from one single text which indicates that religious meaning and thought is not derived from pre-established and extra-religious fundamentals, but it is the interaction between social context and religious text which has facilitated understanding Islamic political thinking (McGuire, 2002)
The contemporary Shiite political thinking reflects the interaction between a will to modernity and the discourse of Ijtihad

Summary

Introduction

Political thinking is a general concept which points out to any coherent and structured thinking about a political subject. The general characteristic of any political thinking is a comprehensive description and definition of the social interactions human beings have in their encounter with political life. In the history of Islamic and Iranian political thinking, due to the existence of an all-inclusive whole which dominates all aspects of the society and social and individual life, namely Islam as a religion, political thinking has had a religious quality. The goal of this thinking has been to increase efficiency, regulation and better management of the society. Asking questions about the quiddity and being of man, society, justice, equality, liberty, desired government, form of government in the age of occultation, ruling system, authority and power and public interest are among political thinking questions through answering to which Shiite scholars have founded Islamic political thinking (Mirmosavi, 2008)

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