Who was Ali Shariati?
Ali Shariati was born in 1933 in Mazinan, in eastern Iran, to a family of religious teachers. He studied at Mashhad and then at the Sorbonne from 1960, where he met the work of Massignon, Sartre, Camus and Frantz Fanon. He was jailed after returning to Iran in 1964. From 1965 his lectures at the Hosseiniyeh Ershad institute in Tehran drew large student crowds. The government closed it in 1973 and arrested him, and he was freed in 1975 under watch. He left for England in 1977 and was found dead in England in June.
Political views
- Held that tawhid, the unity of God, is the central principle, and that injustice arises from a lack of unity in the individual and in society.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Opposed taqlid, the blind imitation of tradition, and favored ijtihad, independent reasoning, citing the Quranic idea that people must change themselves.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Argued that intellectuals, not the traditional clergy, should lead a return to Islam's original social message.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Criticized clerics for treating Islam as general principles rather than applying it to concrete social problems, which led to open conflict with some of them.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Argued that religious cultural identity could help poorer nations resist Western imperialism, while criticizing the existentialists for rejecting religion.Source: encyclopedia.com
- Described himself as neither a reactionary against all change nor a Westernized intellectual who copied the West.Source: al-islam.org
- Hoped committed young people would become fighters willing to give everything, including their lives, for their ideals.Source: al-islam.org
Legacy
Shariati is remembered by many Iranians as the thinker who made religion a language of protest and gave educated youth a way to be both modern and Muslim. Admirers credit him with inspiring the revolution of 1979. Critics note that the clergy who took power rejected his anticlericalism. His death in England at 43 is widely attributed to the secret police SAVAK, but no proof has been established. His ideas stayed influential long after the clergy took power.