Threats and Margins in Shi'i Islam
A few posts ago, I had mentioned that Grand Ayatollah Sistani expected the state to assist him in punishing some particularly threatening forms of heresy to him, the most prominent one in current Iraq being some new form of Mahdism. This version is apparently based on the idea that the Mahdi, Shi'i Islam's Twelfth Imam, a direct descendant of the Prophet, who has been in hiding for over a millenium, will reappear soon.
What I had said was that the reappearance of the Mahdi does not exactly serve the interests of Shi'i Islam's fairly strong religious institutional structure, in that it is the voice of the Mahdi during his absence and it sort of becomes irrelevant if he were to come back. Imagine the Pope and the Second Coming--who cares what the heir of Peter thinks when Jesus makes it back. So every one of their instincts would be to minimize the possibility of such a claim being possible, and again I'm not suggesting these scholars are actually telling themselves they have to stop the Mahdi's return, only that as they read the books, they're going to insist on a hell of a lot of proof and approach any claim with grave skepticism. And when that's not met, they're likely to be uncompromising in their attitude towards the heresy. Sistani had gone so far as to insist the state help root out heresy, I indicated, even though these movements are relatively small. Still, they are so threatening to the institutional structure they are being addressed with levels of paranoia that border on the hysterical. A few hundred armed people in Iraq is hardly worth this attention, but every day the Iraqi press is filled with this stuff.
Two developments since then worth mentioning on this really fascinating subject. First, the state is helping out as Sistani requests, and not just on groups that seem to be particularly violent. A particularly weird group from Diyala led by some guy called Sheikh Rabani, who thinks it seems that the Prophet is reincarnated for every age, or something like this, and he's the latest version, has been a recent target, 28 of his followers have been arrested, for reasons that are unclear, other than being awfully weird, that is. This is an odd mixture of religion and state, but a very real one, in that the state is helping ensure that marginal ideologies that terrify the clerics are kept marginal and do not grow in importance.
Second, another Ayatollah, Muhammad Ishaq Al-Fayyadh has entered the fray, with particularly harsh words for those who say the Mahdi's coming is imminent. He calls this idea "false, comical, shameful in a nation like Iraq, straying and causing others to stray, and advocated by none save liars and swindlers." my translation--here's the Arabic:
باطلة وهزيلة ومخجلة في بلد كالعراق وضالة ومضلة والمدعون لها كذابون دجالون
He calls on all of the faithful to declare this to be a lie, and to avoid such ideas, because they are heretical, inimical to the faith, and their goal is the exploitation of the simple, and to create enmity among the believers. He called on the (Iraqi) government to "bury this source of enmity upon its appearance before it spreads among the people." The Mahdi, insists, the Grand Ayatollah, will return whenever he wants, and anyone who thinks they know the time is a liar and a swindler and people should declare him as such and not befriend him. Moreover, when he reappars, it will be accompanied by such a series of miracles and earthquakes that will "overwhelm the earth in its entirety", that you won't miss it.
Some points.
1. As indicated, the possibility of the Mahdi's return is minimized, and made all but impossible save a series of very significant supernatural events. If he miraculously walked on the Tigris that's no good, there have to be miracles the world over. If he performed a miracle in every town, again no good. Earthquakes too. Everywhere.
2. This is really remarkable language. Liars! Swindlers! Bury them! Do not befriend them! Call them out as the liars they are! The marja'iyya has seen a threat to its existence, and the Grand Ayatollahs are paying serious attention. The government doesn't have to enact Shi'i religious law (heaven knows Sistani probably very wisely wants to avoid the headache of running that state), but it sure as hell has to make sure people stop following false religions that threaten Shi'ism through doctrinal challenge, whether violent or not.
But I suppose what many wonder is, why is this language reserved for people who believe that the Mahdi is coming soon, and nobody else? Osama might get some anger in the Shi'i clerical world (and this post focusses on the Shi'i clerical world), his minions are behaeading the faithful in Iraq after all. But how about describing honor killing as spreading enmity with the goal of exploiting the simple? Advocates of female genital mutilation being outed as liars, avoided and the source of this ugly enmity buried? It's not enough to say nothing and to suggest that the silence to honor killing implies some sort of opposition because after all murder is a sin, when you say so much about a group that disagrees on the date of the Mahdi's return and hasn't killed one tenth of the people who have died in honor killings in the last five years.
Reasons seem simple enough, if discouraging. The focus of clerical enmity, bile, antagonism is directed at those who threaten the structure, and when you say the Mahdi is coming back, you're seriously threatening that. But female genital mutilation and honor killing, that protects the marginalized, the weak, the insignificant. And so if large numbers of believers want to do these sorts of things, and they want to do follow the marja'iyya as well, a more politic approach is used and care is taken not to offend. A sad reality the world over, I suppose
HAH
What I had said was that the reappearance of the Mahdi does not exactly serve the interests of Shi'i Islam's fairly strong religious institutional structure, in that it is the voice of the Mahdi during his absence and it sort of becomes irrelevant if he were to come back. Imagine the Pope and the Second Coming--who cares what the heir of Peter thinks when Jesus makes it back. So every one of their instincts would be to minimize the possibility of such a claim being possible, and again I'm not suggesting these scholars are actually telling themselves they have to stop the Mahdi's return, only that as they read the books, they're going to insist on a hell of a lot of proof and approach any claim with grave skepticism. And when that's not met, they're likely to be uncompromising in their attitude towards the heresy. Sistani had gone so far as to insist the state help root out heresy, I indicated, even though these movements are relatively small. Still, they are so threatening to the institutional structure they are being addressed with levels of paranoia that border on the hysterical. A few hundred armed people in Iraq is hardly worth this attention, but every day the Iraqi press is filled with this stuff.
Two developments since then worth mentioning on this really fascinating subject. First, the state is helping out as Sistani requests, and not just on groups that seem to be particularly violent. A particularly weird group from Diyala led by some guy called Sheikh Rabani, who thinks it seems that the Prophet is reincarnated for every age, or something like this, and he's the latest version, has been a recent target, 28 of his followers have been arrested, for reasons that are unclear, other than being awfully weird, that is. This is an odd mixture of religion and state, but a very real one, in that the state is helping ensure that marginal ideologies that terrify the clerics are kept marginal and do not grow in importance.
Second, another Ayatollah, Muhammad Ishaq Al-Fayyadh has entered the fray, with particularly harsh words for those who say the Mahdi's coming is imminent. He calls this idea "false, comical, shameful in a nation like Iraq, straying and causing others to stray, and advocated by none save liars and swindlers." my translation--here's the Arabic:
باطلة وهزيلة ومخجلة في بلد كالعراق وضالة ومضلة والمدعون لها كذابون دجالون
He calls on all of the faithful to declare this to be a lie, and to avoid such ideas, because they are heretical, inimical to the faith, and their goal is the exploitation of the simple, and to create enmity among the believers. He called on the (Iraqi) government to "bury this source of enmity upon its appearance before it spreads among the people." The Mahdi, insists, the Grand Ayatollah, will return whenever he wants, and anyone who thinks they know the time is a liar and a swindler and people should declare him as such and not befriend him. Moreover, when he reappars, it will be accompanied by such a series of miracles and earthquakes that will "overwhelm the earth in its entirety", that you won't miss it.
Some points.
1. As indicated, the possibility of the Mahdi's return is minimized, and made all but impossible save a series of very significant supernatural events. If he miraculously walked on the Tigris that's no good, there have to be miracles the world over. If he performed a miracle in every town, again no good. Earthquakes too. Everywhere.
2. This is really remarkable language. Liars! Swindlers! Bury them! Do not befriend them! Call them out as the liars they are! The marja'iyya has seen a threat to its existence, and the Grand Ayatollahs are paying serious attention. The government doesn't have to enact Shi'i religious law (heaven knows Sistani probably very wisely wants to avoid the headache of running that state), but it sure as hell has to make sure people stop following false religions that threaten Shi'ism through doctrinal challenge, whether violent or not.
But I suppose what many wonder is, why is this language reserved for people who believe that the Mahdi is coming soon, and nobody else? Osama might get some anger in the Shi'i clerical world (and this post focusses on the Shi'i clerical world), his minions are behaeading the faithful in Iraq after all. But how about describing honor killing as spreading enmity with the goal of exploiting the simple? Advocates of female genital mutilation being outed as liars, avoided and the source of this ugly enmity buried? It's not enough to say nothing and to suggest that the silence to honor killing implies some sort of opposition because after all murder is a sin, when you say so much about a group that disagrees on the date of the Mahdi's return and hasn't killed one tenth of the people who have died in honor killings in the last five years.
Reasons seem simple enough, if discouraging. The focus of clerical enmity, bile, antagonism is directed at those who threaten the structure, and when you say the Mahdi is coming back, you're seriously threatening that. But female genital mutilation and honor killing, that protects the marginalized, the weak, the insignificant. And so if large numbers of believers want to do these sorts of things, and they want to do follow the marja'iyya as well, a more politic approach is used and care is taken not to offend. A sad reality the world over, I suppose
HAH
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