Abstract
This chapter, similar to Chap. 6, explores a pathway of incorporating Shiism adopted by converts. The issue of rationality and the approach to it emerges as one of the challenges within “Italian Shiʿism”. The approach to rationality is shaped by the imperatives that have led converts down this path. Shiʿism has drawn newcomers due to its perceived potential to disrupt the norms of the modern world. Consequently, the “minor Islam” is expected to embody tendencies that stand in contrast to the modern world and its derivatives, such as secularism and social equality.
As a result, converts, in their written and digital publications, revive those principles that Shiʿa rationalists or Usuli scholars have redefined, eliminated, or relegated to the realm of heterodoxy or heresy. These “problematic” elements have been adjusted over the centuries to facilitate the development of the Shiʿa legal framework and the involvement of the Shiʿa clergy in politics. Examples of these magical tenets that converts present within Shiʿism through their digital and written works include cyclical time, the divine nature of the Imams, apocalyptic eschatology, and the culture of secrecy.
Shiʿism reverts to its original state, characterized by a lack of jurisprudence and an emphasis on esotericism. This religion is valued and celebrated for its inner profundity at the expense of its exoteric and normative aspects. However, when it comes to practicing Shiʿism, newcomers grapple with the complex issue of authority responsible for establishing religious norms. Who will serve as the authority to issue legal rulings for converts? The Marajiʿ, or traditional Shiʿa authorities, are not readily accessible to Italian converts for two primary reasons. The first reason pertains to the language used in their juridical elaborations, while the second relates to the content of these elaborations. The websites of internationally renowned Marajiʿ do not yet offer an Italian version, making them inaccessible to converts who are not proficient in the available languages or who cannot directly connect with the Marajiʿ.
Efforts have been made to establish seminaries in Milan and Carpi to train indigenous Shiʿa religious authorities in Italy. Nevertheless, these seminaries have a long way to go before becoming fully established centers of Shiʿa scholarship. Another initiative, undertaken in 2013, involved the translation and publication of a compendium of 467 fatwas (legal opinions) from Ayatollahs Khamenei and Sistani, in response to various questions. Here, the second and more significant challenge related to religious authority comes to the forefront. Despite the time dedicated to this compendium, some of the rulings are not applicable in Italy. Therefore, Marajiʿ are not inaccessible to converts solely due to language barriers; the content of their elaborations also presents challenges.
The presence of Traditionalism, alongside Italy’s contemporary cultural and socio-political trends, does not facilitate converts’ relationship with traditional Shiʿa religious authority. A consequence of the absence or inadequacy of traditional Shiʿa authority is the emergence of new forms of religious reference points among converts, who tend to decentralize ijtihad (independent juridical reasoning) by resorting to personal reasoning. In this context, converts generate new interpretations of ijtihad while reinterpreting the role of religious authority.
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Notes
- 1.
In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Shi’a theologians had to deal with the constant resurgence of Mahdis that had created unrest and schisms among the lines of pro-Alid groups. The resurgence of Mahdis was aligned with the cyclical messianism transmitted by the mawālīs (Iranian converts), mostly from neo-Mazdakite millenarian milieu. The rational Shi’a theologians changed the rules of the game and stopped this overheated cycle by stipulating that the 12th Imam would be the one-time savior and ready for return only at the end of times (Kohlberg, 1976 (b)). In this manner, they established the linear time and handled a series of challenges. First, the absent Imam could not incite any revolt against the Sunni rulers, thereby absolving Shi’as from suspicion by these rulers. Second, the absence of infallible Imams eventually allowed Shi’a scholars to set norms for the Shi’a jurisprudence and establish their hierocracy (see Arjomand, 1996 (a); Kohlberg, 1976 (b); Brunner, 2022; Amanat, 2009).
- 2.
To come to terms with the critics of Mu’tazilities regarding the incompatibility of the Divine justice with the absence of Imam, the Shi’a rationalist scholars defined the theodicy in the way that the absence of the Imam became a part of the Divine justice and his plan for enhancing human conduct. In this framework, guidance and grace are incumbent upon the just God and the omnipresent Hidden Imam is a guarantee of this divine grace (Arjomand, 1996 (b)).
- 3.
Nuqtavism saw history as a series of consecutive prophetic cycles each running its course before being superseded by the advent of a new one. The cycles followed an identical pattern in their commencement, duration, and termination. In this case, renewal did not mean that the cyclical time impeded the progress (Algar, 1995). Backed by rational Shi’a scholars, Safavids suppressed the Nuqtavi movement besides Qizilbash esoteric tendencies and barred them from the realm of orthodoxy (Babayan, 1994).
- 4.
Mutti (1982) elaborated these concepts on the basis of the commentary that the Persian Sufi Muhammad Lahiji (d.1560) had written on the Gulshan-e Raz (Secret Rose Garden) written by Mahmoud Shabestari (d.1340).
- 5.
The group is composed of converts and Shi’a-borns from Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran who are competent in Italian. Soon after its creation on 31 December 2020 they added me to the group. Currently this group has 36 members.
- 6.
https://islamshia.org/limam-mahdi-aj-il-salvatore-dellumanita/ (accessed on 13 January 2023).
- 7.
One of these organizations is a weekly magazine and association called Pensiero Forte (Strong Thought). Besides publication of articles, it co-organizes book launches, film broadcast, and conferences in collaboration with the DDS.
- 8.
To justify this comparison, Rada cited an inauthentic hadith, reported by Corbin, which had assimilated Ali to Jesus Christ. Although Rada was aware that Corbin had cited this hadith without any reference note, he mentioned it anyway (see in Rada, 2013, pp. 21–22).
- 9.
Sadr ad-Din Muhammad Shirazi (d.1635), known as Mulla Sadra, was a Persian Twelver Shi’a scholar and mystic. Here Rada referred to Sadra’s most important work, namely Al-Hikmat Al-Muta’aliya fil Asfar al-Aqliyya al-Araba’a (The Transcendent Philosophy of the Four Journey of the Intellect), commonly known as Four Journeys.
- 10.
Lipton (2017, 2018) has shown how Euro-American Perennialists have portrayed Ibn ʿArabi as a universalist who embraced all religions as simultaneously valid. This portrayal served to mask his exclusivist beliefs and make the Andalusian philosopher more attractive to contemporary European sensitivities.
- 11.
Chakra is a notion used in various meditation practices and represents circular vortexes of energy found at seven points on the spinal column. Whenever a chakra is disrupted or blocked the circulation of energy in the human body is also blocked, causing the onset of mental and physical health problems.
- 12.
T.me/theawaitedsaviour
- 13.
https://bakshi786islam.altervista.org/ (accessed on 25 January 2023).
- 14.
Lit., “the five”, also called Ahl al Kisa (lit., “people of the cloak”), are the Prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, his cousin and son-in-law Ali, and his two grandsons Hasan and Husain.
- 15.
Among contemporary Twelvers, the determination of orthopractice norms falls within the competence of a marja‘ al-taqlid (lit., source of emulation, pl., maraji‘ al-taqlid), who is considered an indirect representative of the Hidden Imam and the only legitimate legislator in the period of Occultation (the absence of Imam Mahdi since 941CE). Becoming a marja‘ al-taqlid, which is a position reserved to male jurists, requires a long hawza (Shiʿa seminary) training process and strong scholarly and teaching credentials. During Occultation, ordinary Shiʿas are supposed to choose and emulate a marja‘ among available jurists. These jurists mainly guide their followers through their manuals of instruction, but in the case of issues that the manuals do not address, followers may send queries to maraji‘ through their websites or their clerical representatives, who are present in various parts of the world.
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Mirshahvalad, M. (2024). Coming to Grips with Rationality. In: Crises and Conversions. Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55877-1_7
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