https://www.shiitestudies.com/ Shi'ite Studies en daily 1 Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0330 Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0330 https://www.shiitestudies.com/article_731994.html After the Islamic Revolution, with the simultaneous entry of the Shi'a clergy into the structures of power and the expansion of modernity in lifestyle, the traditional and close relationship between clerics and the public underwent fundamental transformations. Given the lack of studies that examine people’s lived experience in their encounters with the clergy, this research using a phenomenological approach explores the dimensions and meanings of this relationship from the perspectives of both the public and the clerics. The research data were collected through in depth interviews and purposeful sampling of twenty residents and ten clerics in the city of Tehran. The findings indicate that the traditional, trust based, and sacred relationship has under the influence of politics, the media, lifestyle changes, and the generational gap shifted into a multilayered and variable form of interaction. The public perception is now a mixture of traditional respect, indifference, and active distrust. This distrust often stems from the clergy’s direct involvement in politics, tendencies toward luxury, economic and cultural distance, weak communication, and their absence from everyday social spheres and the digital space-factors that have contributed to the erosion of their social and symbolic capital. Conversely, the active presence of the clergy in religious rituals and their engagement in addressing people’s real problems still provides an important potential for rebuilding this relationship. The overall analysis shows that restoring this relationship requires integrating moral capital with cultural and social capital, ensuring transparency in performance, and adapting to the rules of communication in both traditional and modern spheres. Such efforts can both revive public trust and strengthen the social standing of the clergy in contemporary conditions. https://www.shiitestudies.com/article_731993.html Among the traditions considered by Shi‘a scholars is the narration of “the Qur’an’s revelation upon a single letter.” Throughout the centuries, this narration has served as the basis for various analyses concerning the nature of the Qur’anic readings. Although up to the tenth century AH the tawātur (mass-transmission) of the seven canonical readings was accepted among Shi‘a scholars, from that time onward a mindset emerged among certain Akhbārīs and later Uṣūlīs that interpreted this narration as a denial of the multiplicity of readings revealed by God. In this way, the ground was prepared for rejecting the tawātur of the seven readings within Shia scholarly circles. If one considers that this narration is the sole textual basis for those who hold that the Qur’an was revealed with only one reading, then a precise understanding of its intended meaning becomes decisive in resolving this dispute. This article, through an analysis of internal (maqāliyya) and external (ḥāliyya) contextual indicators, demonstrates that the purpose of this narration was not to deny the revelatory nature of multiple Qur’anic readings, but rather to refute a mistaken interpretation of the Prophetic hadith “the Qur’an was revealed upon seven letters.” That interpretation had assumed that the Prophet (PBUH) permitted the use of synonyms in the wording of the Qur’an. With the gradual disappearance of this interpretation in the second and third centuries AH, the grounds for the issuance of the narration “upon a single letter” also faded from scholarly memory. Clarifying these circumstances shows that the Shi‘a, from the time of the Prophet (PBUH), acknowledged the existence of multiple readings revealed by God, and that the denial by some later scholars stemmed from a historical misunderstanding in the interpretation of that narration. https://www.shiitestudies.com/article_731992.html  The Shi‘a clergy, who assumed leadership of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, was expected, after victory of revolution, to realize its promised utopia. Yet, the clergy was a traditional institution and lacked the necessary preparedness to design and establish a new system. The present article aims to summarize the challenges faced by the clergy in confronting modern science and the contemporary world, and to evaluate its record in dealing with these challenges. The central research question is as follows: “What were these challenges, and to what extent has the clergy succeeded in addressing them?” The research method is “meta-synthesis,” a method that compiles and interprets existing sources in the field. Previous studies can be categorized into three groups: (1) qualitative studies on the structure of the clergy and the institution of religious authority; (2) studies based on quantitative indicators; and (3) studies on the diverse economic and social aspects of implementing an Islamic system. In conclusion, six major challenges have been identified: (1) the individualistic nature and lack of a social approach in Shi‘a jurisprudence; (2) the tension between the clergy’s independence and the necessity of maintaining internal unity; (3) the clergy’s distance from the progress of new scientific disciplines; (4) the conflict between bureaucracy and tradition; (5) the difficulty of balancing specialized and public discourse; and (6) the clergy’s rigidity in the face of the dynamism of social values and norms. Finally, the extent of the clergy’s success in confronting these challenges has been assessed, with the conclusion that the clergy has been relatively successful in addressing the fifth challenge, but has achieved less success in dealing with the others. https://www.shiitestudies.com/article_731995.html The theory of “Wilāyat al-Faqīh” (Guardianship of the Jurist), as one of the fundamental pillars of Imami Shi‘a political jurisprudence, was prior to the Safavid era largely confined to limited frameworks such as ḥisbah (public duties), judiciary, and the administration of endowments. Its presence in the sphere of macro-level policymaking and governance appeared quite restricted, due to the absence of institutional structures and the lack of organized political support. This study, adopting a “historical institutionalism” approach and employing a “historical-functional” analysis, examines the role of the Safavid state in transferring this theory from a limited jurisprudential level to an executive and institutional position within the governmental structure. The findings, based on the analysis of historical documents, jurisprudential texts, and empirical evidence, indicate that the strategic linkage between the Safavid monarchy and the institution of jurisprudence paved the way for the transition of Wilāyat al-Faqīh from “restricted guardianship” to “general guardianship.” Through the establishment and strengthening of a network of religious institutions from the judiciary and the office of Sheikh al-Islām to the organization of endowments and the formalization of Shi‘a rituals the Safavids were able to consolidate their religious legitimacy and political authority within the framework of a dual system of legitimacy. Figures such as al-Muḥaqqiq al-Karakī, relying on royal support, brought the theory of “general deputyship” (niyābat ‘āmma) into the sphere of practice and institutionalized the jurist’s position as ḥākim al-shar‘ (religious ruler) with extensive powers. This process not only produced a fundamental transformation in the structure of Imami Shiite political thought, but also created a model of reciprocal interaction and mutual legitimation between the monarch and the jurist, the effects of which can be traced through the Constitutional Movement and the Islamic Revolution. https://www.shiitestudies.com/article_731997.html Among the influential educational and formative institutions in Iran are the seminaries (ḥawzah). As agents of socialization for both students and the wider community, these institutions prepare individuals to assume specialized roles, to learn communicative and pedagogical norms within a new lifestyle while preserving clerical decorum, to engage in scholarly exchange, and to adhere to seminary and academic conventions. Hence, the question arises: “What is the sociological model through which this process is realized, and what implications do sociological theories of socialization hold for understanding the phenomenon of “becoming seminary-trained” (ḥawzahization)”? This study employs the method of “semantic analysis of signification” (dalālat-pazhūhī). First, signifiers were extracted from sociological texts. Then, in order to identify the signified ones, textual data, field observations, and the lived experiences of seminary students were collected. Finally, through in-depth analysis of the data, the research question was addressed. The findings indicate that seminary socialization is a process in which the clerical lifestyle become institutionalized. The prevailing form of socialization in seminaries is a combination of organizational socialization and religious training. The dimensions of intra-organizational socialization in the seminary encompass three axes cognitive, affective, and normative which include components such as formal instruction, informal learning, organizational expectations, and educational and research activities. The principal finding of the study is that the model of seminary socialization can be formulated in two forms: linear and interactive. The informal and fluid linear model is more common in traditional seminaries, whereas the interactive model, which involves stages of cognitive, affective, and normative socialization, corresponds more closely with modern communicative and pedagogical structures. https://www.shiitestudies.com/article_731996.html Social supplications (du‘ā‘) in Shi‘ism constitute a branch of Shi‘i social theology, which also encompasses social hadith, social exegesis, social jurisprudence, social theology, social ethics, and social supplications. Unlike individual supplications, which merely express the relationship between the supplicant and the Almighty God, social supplications reflect the relationship between the supplicant, God, and people (nās), including companions, relatives, and members of society. They introduce us to the full range of positive and negative social values virtues, merits, and moral excellences on the one hand, and vices, defects, and transgressions on the other as articulated in the supplications of Shia leaders. The scope of Shi‘a social supplications is remarkably broad, encompassing all domains of social life, collective relations, and the public sphere of human existence including family, relatives, kin, and associates; livelihood, trade, business, bribery, and fairness; poverty and wealth; education and training, teachers and mentors, students and educators; leadership, subordination, management, justice, fairness, oppression, coercion, tyranny, discrimination, corruption, rebellion, and transgression; as well as collective acts of worship and spiritual practices such as congregational prayer, Friday prayer, and pilgrimage (ḥajj). These supplications seek to diminish the spirit of rivalry, hostility, obstruction, and pessimism in collective relations, while promoting and expanding constructive values of altruism, benevolence, optimism, and empathy among members of society. Such values correspond to the common good, enhance social bonds, solidarity, and cohesion, and sustain the vital functions of different sectors of society. This article focuses on the social dimensions contained in the Makārim al-Akhlāq supplication, which is regarded as one of the distinctive supplicatory texts of the Shiite tradition.