Fazlollah Nuri

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Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri
Execution of Fazlollah Nuris

Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri ( Persian فضل‌الله نوری, DMG Fażl-Allāh Nūrī ; * 1843 ; † July 31, 1909 ) was a Shiite clergyman in Iran . He is considered a pioneer of the Islamic Revolution that took place long after his life . Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri was one of the clergymen who played an important role in the victory of the constitutional movement, but after seeing the deviation of this movement, he laid the foundations for the opposition to movement and was executed by the same group.

His Islamic theses are still considered topical and have already been partially implemented in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Imam Khomeini explicitly referred to Fazlollah Nuri as a role model who offered resistance and was connected to the values ​​of Islam. He opposed the constitutional monarchy.

Nuri's statements included: "What I want is an Islamic parliament that does not pass a law whose content does not match the laws of the Koran." That vision was later implemented in the deliberative assembly [madschlis-al-shura]. Sheikh Nuri is also considered a pioneer of the principle of governorship of the legal scholar [wilayat-ul-faqih].

After the victory of the Young Persians in establishing the constitutional monarchy, Fazlollah Nuri was publicly executed in Tehran on July 31, 1909.

His radical Islamic theses have lost none of their topicality and are of enormous importance for the Islamic Republic of Iran today . Ayatollah Khomeini explicitly referred to Fazlollah Nuri and described him as a role model who resisted the constitutional movement and demanded that the state be subordinate to the faith.

Life

Fazlollah Nuri was born in Mazandaran Province in northern Iran in 1843 . After attending a Koran school in his home country, he went to Najaf to study with Mohammad Hasan Shirazi . After finishing his studies he went to Tehran and worked there as a clergyman. During the Constitutional Revolution in Iran, he was the staunch opponent of the constitutional movement. After the victory of the constitutional forces, Nuri was sentenced to death by a special tribunal for participating in the murder of several constitutionalists and hanged on July 31, 1909 in Tehran .

Nuri's objections to constitutionalism

Nuri summarized five objections to constitutionalism and saw it as his religious duty to oppose the introduction of a constitution and the constitutional monarchy in Iran.

  • The sovereign is not the people, but Allah. All violence comes from Allah. Allah has given them to the Prophet and then on to the Imams and the learned clergy.
  • The rule of the monarch is the executive power of Islamic law. A weakening of the monarch by a parliament leads to a weakening of Islam. Limiting the power of the monarch by creating a constitutional state means weakening Islam.
  • The Sharia is a collection of commandments and prohibitions against which a Muslim has no freedom of choice. Since man is not free in his decision, there can be no civil liberties such as freedom of expression or freedom of choice, as is demanded by the constitutionalists. Freedom of expression leads to the publication of atheistic books and thus violates divine laws. The choice of ruler is reserved to God. People have no rights in this regard. Only the religious scholars are those "who, as representatives of the twelfth Imam, exercised divine rights in society."
  • The equality before the law, which the constitutionalists demand, violates Sharia law, as Sharia law distinguishes between Muslims and non-Muslims and assigns a different legal status to both groups. The constitutionalists only use equality before the law to prevent the enforcement of Islamic laws. It is therefore completely impossible in an Islamic state.
  • Parliamentary legislation is established by the constitutionalists on the basis of the alleged incompleteness of Islamic laws. However, the laws of Islam are complete, since Islam is God's final revelation.
  • The constitutional movement is based on the ideas of European naturalism and materialism and is thus in complete contradiction to Islam.

Quotes from Fazlollah Nuri

  • The constitutional movement has written the words freedom and equality on the flags. These two demands contradict Islam. Islam demands obedience and not freedom, inequality and not equality.
  • What I want is an Islamic parliament that does not pass a law whose content is inconsistent with the laws of the Koran.

Political Impact

Nuri himself drafted an amendment to the constitution, in which he spoke of an expert committee consisting of at least five clergymen, which was supposed to review all legislative bills of parliament to determine whether they are compatible with Islamic legal principles. This panel of experts should have a right of veto in order to be able to prevent any law that does not conform to Islamic legal principles. This constitutional amendment was also intended to stipulate that the official religion of Persia was Shiite Islam and that the Shah must be a Shiite Muslim. On October 7, 1907, this constitutional amendment was adopted by Parliament after Nuri had declared that the adoption of this constitutional amendment fulfilled all of his demands.

However, Nuri did not keep his promise. Shortly after the amendment to the constitution was passed by parliament, Nuri organized another protest march and a three-month strike by over 2,000 clergy in which he called for the abolition of parliament. According to Nuri, laws cannot be passed by an elected parliament, only by clergy. In 1909 Nuri was arrested and executed.

The constitutional amendment was part of the Iranian constitution until 1979 in the reform passed in 1907. This amendment stipulated that the right to select the clergy for the panel of experts lay with Parliament. This ensured that only clergymen who were acceptable to Parliament came to the panel of experts. The selection process later led to many disputes both within the clergy and between the clergy and Parliament. Since the elected clergy repeatedly found ways to legitimize bills that were rejected by the fundamentalists, the claim was made that "the constitutional amendment would not be observed".

Although it was expressly confirmed in the constitutional amendment of 1907 that this amendment could neither be amended nor repealed, the clergy did not adhere to it. After the Islamic Revolution , Khomeini changed both the composition and the selection process. The panel of experts was expanded from five to twelve members and renamed the Guardian Council . Six members are clergy who are directly appointed by him or his successors. The remaining six members are lawyers who are elected by parliament on the proposal of Khomeini or his successors. With this selection process it is now ensured that only laws can be passed that are in the interests of Khomeini and his successors. Today's Iranian parliament ultimately has only one right of proposal in the legislative process. Legislative power rests with the Guardian Council.

In today's Iran, the assessment of the constitutional movement is accordingly critical. Clergymen like Mirza Hosein Na'ini, who support the constitutional movement, are criticized as being “influenced by the West”, while Nuri is recognized as a fighter for Islam. "The conflict between traditional and modern ways of thinking, which are seemingly incompatible, runs through all of Iran's recent history.

See also

literature

swell

  1. ↑ Ahmad Ali Heydari: Reception of Western Philosophy by Iranian Thinkers in the Qajar Period. Dissertation. Bonn 2003, p. 190.
  2. ↑ Homa Rezwani: The Sheikh Fazlollah's Tracts. Tehran 1983. Page 32 ff.
  3. ↑ Ahmad Ali Heydari: Reception of Western Philosophy by Iranian Thinkers in the Qajar Period. Dissertation. Bonn 2003, p. 193
personal data
SURNAME Fazlollah Nuri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Islamic clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH 1843
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1909