Mohammad Modschtahed Shabestari

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Mohammad Modschtahed Shabestari

Mohammad Modschtahed Shabestari ( Persian محمد مجتهد شبستری; * 1936 in Tabriz , Iran ) is an Iranian reformer and philosopher , Shiite theologian , author and professor at the University of Tehran .

Live and act

Schabestari, who comes from a clerical family, studied in Qom with Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989), the later Iranian revolutionary leader from 1979, and with Allameh Tabatabai (1892 / 1903-1981), an Iranian philosopher and cleric. He completed his studies after 17 years in idschtihād and with a doctorate in philosophy.

In the spirit of the political Shia of the 1960s and 1970s in Iran, Shabestari was the thinkers Jalāl Āl-e Ahmad (1923–1969) and Ali Schariati (1933–1977) and Morteza Motahhari (1920–1979), the politically motivated, Shiite clergy, very close.

From 1970 to 1978 Schabestari worked as director of the Islamic Center Hamburg in the Imam Ali Mosque. He succeeded Mohammad Beheschti (1928-1981), the Iranian politician, later revolutionary, chief chairman of the Revolutionary Council and chief judge. He was succeeded as director of the Hamburg Center by Mohammad Chātami (* 1943), who later became President of Iran.

During his time in Germany, the Iranian promoted the Islamic-Christian dialogue and expanded the mosque's sphere of influence by opening it up to all Muslims. Schabestari learned the German language, with which he was able to pursue his interest in Christian - especially Protestant - theology, as he did in Qom. He dealt with the works of Paul Tillich , Karl Barth and Karl Rahner , and his philosophical influence includes great intellectuals such as Immanuel Kant , Wilhelm Dilthey and Hans-Georg Gadamer .

Upon his return to Iran, Shabestari was elected to the first term of the Iranian parliament ( Majles ) after the 1979 revolution; but he distanced himself from the political aftermath. From 1985 to 2006 he worked as a professor of Islamic philosophy, comparative religion and theology at the University of Tehran. He also organized international conferences, which often had the Muslim-Christian dialogue as their content. Shabestari is one of the co-editors of the Great Encyclopedia of Islam , which is published in Tehran.

Views

Shabestari took the view that political and religious institutions should be separated from each other. Although he admitted that there can be well-founded cooperation between the institutions, the two institutions would have independent and different tasks. Shabestari said many times that Islam is a religion and not a political program. One can expect ethical principles from religion, which should nevertheless be taken into account in politics, but politics is solely a program to achieve social goals and that cannot be expected from religion. He was also of the opinion that Islam can be interpreted as a religion with different interpretations, so Muslims who openly profess democracy could also find interpretations that are compatible with a democracy. He saw religion as a way that leads to a god. In his view, religion is the understanding of the relationship between man and God. In his view, democracy in many countries has not developed further, but this is not due to religion, but rather to political obstacles and the existing systems of government in some countries. He often referred to the situation as a regressive cultural reality. According to Shabestari, Sharia law in Europe is viewed as a solid building, but it is dependent on Fiqh . In his opinion, there is no turning away from religion in Iran, rather a change in understanding is taking place, which changes the meaning and meaning of religiosity.

Works

  • Hermeneutical reflections on Islamic theology and law . In: Austrian Archives for Law & Religion 47/2 (2000), 227–237.
  • Prophetic reading of the world . In: Austrian Archives for Law & Religion 56/1 (2009), 27–60.
  • Islam and Democracy . Mohammad M. Shabestari in dispute with Wolfgang Bergsdorf, Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2003. (= Christoph-Martin-Wieland-Vorlesungen 4)
  • Naqdī bar qirāʼat-i rasmī az dīn [A Critique of the Official Reading of Religion], Tarḥ-i Nau, Tehran 2005.
  • Hirminūtīk, kitāb wa sunnat [hermeneutics, book and sunna], Ṭarḥ-i Nau, Tehran 2005.
  • Taʾammulātī dar qirāʾat-i insānī az dīn [reflections on human reading of religion], Ṭarḥ-i Nau, Tehran 2nd ed. 2005.
  • Īmān va Āzādī [Faith and Freedom], Ṭarḥ-i Nau, Tehran 1997.

literature

  • Mahmoud Sadri: Sacral Defense of Secularism: The Political Theologies of Soroush, Shabestari, and Kadivar , in: International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 15/2 (2001), 257-270.
  • Farzin Vahdat: Post-revolutionary islamic modernity in Iran: The intersubjective hermeneutics of Mohamad Mojtahed Shabestari , in: Suha Taji-Farouki (ed.): Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur'an , OUP, Oxford 2004, 193–224.
  • Farzin Vahdat: Post-revolutionary discourses of Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari and Mohsen Kadivar: Reconciling the terms of mediated subjectivity , in: Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 9 / 16-16 (2000), 31-54.135-157.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari: Champion of the New "Kalam" ( Memento from February 26, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. ↑ Jan Kuhlmann: Why Islam and democracy go together. Qantara, July 6, 2012, accessed November 28, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Shabestari, Mohammad Modschtahed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beyzai, Mohammed Modschtahid
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian reformer and philosopher, Shiite theologian, author and professor at Tehran University
DATE OF BIRTH 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Tabriz , Iran