Saja Soki
Professor Cory
REL 366
Disc #1
11 September 2020
Islam’s Multiple Voices
Since Muslims regard their matters to the Quran as the word of god, Politics in Islam starts
with the Quran and the life of the prophet. Muhammad had proclaimed all God's words by
approaching every social, moral, and political order making Muslims apprehend the words of
God and believe in Muhammad who is “the clearest and most complex position of the meaning
of the Quran” (Humphreys 149). It's substantial to note that the Quran isn’t all about law and
politics but rather understand that politics “are created out of concrete historical experiences.”
Muslims make sense of these experiences and apply them to the moral teachings of the Quran
and the prophets (Humphreys 161). Ayoob recommences Humphreys' point by stating that some
activists defy traditions, convey Quran's words out of context, and stretch their meaning to bring
their "violent actions of killing civilians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike” (24).
Shia pride themselves on the pluralism of their religious authority and institutions. They
flourished under the Safavids by constituting capital in Isfahan in central Iran and elsewhere. The
Safavids brought Shia from various locations to establish new centers of Shia's learning to
“Deepen Shiism roots” (Nasr 66). Shia approaches others with dervishes who rely more on myth
and passion rather than law and theology, producing an increase of Sunni bashing heading to
more benefits that serve Safavid’s political interests. Various scholars (ulama) and constitutional
experts who have taken the place of imams become forerunners of today's “Ayatollahs.” For that
reason, they obtain a considerable influence in ministering the communities' spiritual and
political interests. They enjoy a “privileged spiritual statue that their Sunni counterparts have
never had.” (Nasr 68). Sunni ulama represent themselves as religious functionaries while Shia
refers their ulama for knowledge and for the "link" they represent around their name. However,
Shia's ulama held less power in religion and politics because they differed over what role they
should portray in the religious life of the community.
Sunnis had regarded the caliphates as a “living link” with life and Muhammad in which
they could carry and follow God's words. Caliphates obtained a significant part of the
government, however, they became a memory with a remaining powerful message after the
“historic Sunni caliphate was brought to an end by the cataclysm of the Mongol conquest of
Baghdad” (Humphreys 158). Shia's caliphate represents the rights of Ali's lineage while Sunnis
the tights of Muhammad’s. Shia’s relationship with Ulama differs from Sunni’s. The Sunni's
formation is “hostile” towards the traditional Ulama (Ayoob 39). Contradictorily, a group of
ulama In Shia is led by Ayatollah Khomeini who's portrayed as a “primary vehicle of Islamism”
(Ayoob 30). Currently, the political empowerment of the Iranian revolution had promoted the
“usual position” and now favored in various communities such as that of Bahrain.
After various inflections between imams and the way Shia should approach politics, the
Safavid empire fell to Sunni armies. Although Nader (a king and a Sunni himself) could not
make Sunnism the religion of Iran, the victory ended the Shia political challenge to Sunni
domination.
Works Cited;
Ayoob, M. (2010). The many faces of political Islam: Religion and politics in the Muslim world.
Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
Humphreys, R. S. “Islam as a political system.” ECR
Nasr, Vali. “The Shia revival: how conflicts within Islam will shape the future.” ECR