Shiʿism () or Read and judge () is a book written by

Ahmad Kasravi Ahmad Hokmabadi Tabrizi (; 29 September 1890 – 11 March 1946), later known as Ahmad Kasravi, was a pre-eminent Iranian historian, jurist, linguist, theologian, a staunch secularist and intellectual. He was a professor of law at the University ...

that deals with criticisms of

Shia Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

. Shiʿism is one of Kasravi's three books criticizing what he calls a bad religion. The book caused a great deal of controversy during Kasravi's lifetime, and even led him to court; But before the legal process could be completed and the verdict was issued, several members of the Fadaiyan-e-Islam, with the

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

and support of

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

and led by

Navvab Safavi Mojtaba Mir-Lohi (, 9 October 1924 – 18 January 1956), better known as Navvab Safavi (), was a Shia cleric of Pahlavi Iran and founder of the Fada'iyan-e Islam group. He played a role in assassinations of Abdolhossein Hazhir, Haj Ali Razma ...

, stabbed Kasravi to death in court. Shiʿism in his time was one of the first books to deal with the critique of

, and following this book, many authors criticized religion in Iran. Kasravi was one of the first thinkers and writers to express views on Shiʿism that are still debated.

Kasravi has written his views based on sources from the period when first

Alids The Alids are those who claim descent from Ali ibn Abi Talib (; 600–661 CE), the fourth Rashidun caliph () and the first imam in Shia Islam. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The main branches are th ...

movement was formed. Kasravi considered the emergence of Shiʿism during the time of the Umayyad caliphs and considered the first contamination of the Shiite faith as their extremist slander of

Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...

, Omar and

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan (17 June 656) was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and notable companion of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, played a major role ...

due to superiority over Ali in the caliphate. According to him,

Ja'far al-Sadiq Ja'far al-Sadiq (; –765) was a Muslim hadith transmitter and the last agreed-upon Shia Imam between the Twelvers and Isma'ilis. Known by the title al-Sadiq ("The Truthful"), Ja'far was the eponymous founder of the Ja'fari school of Isla ...

, the sixth Imam of Shias, was the first to coin the word

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

, and in order to obtain "

khums In Islam, khums ( ) is a tax on Muslims which obligates them to pay one-fifth (20%) of their acquired wealth from the spoils of war and, according to most Muslim jurists, other specified types of income, towards various designated beneficiarie ...

" and "property of the Imam". Karvi considers the statement of the Shiite Imams that "no one knows the meaning of the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

except us and whoever does not know should ask us" and "whoever does not know the Imam of his time has died without knowing it" as "extra and ridiculous words"; and he considers narrator (Imams) as abusive. He challenged the belief in the Twelve Imams and believed that the branch had done nothing but "spread blackmail and laziness and sponging." Kasravi also considers the system of

Imamate The term imamate or ''imamah'' (, ''imāmah'') means "leadership" and refers to the office of an ''imam'' or a Muslim theocratic state ruled by an ''imam''. Theology *Imamate in Shia doctrine, the doctrine of the leadership of the Muslim commu ...

to be a rotten dictatorship "which is not mentioned anywhere in the Qur'an." Kasravi also criticizes Shiite prejudice, saying that "mullahs who have learned Islamic science, for example, are not as prejudiced against this religion as these fanatics."

Publication

Kasravi published Shiʿism in February 1944. Following this, the clerics and fanatics of the Muslim people, as well as the religious leaders of the country, protested against its contents and filed a lawsuit against him in court, banning the distribution of the book. Kasravi did not give up and four months later, in order to justify his views in front of the people, he published the above book with more explanations and left it to the people to judge. The audio book Shiʿism was recorded with the voice of Qasim Qaradaghi, and was published in 2015 by Avae Bof Publications, which lasts 5 hours and 40 minutes.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

PDF link
Books critical of Islam Iranian books Books by Ahmad Kasravi

Contents

Publication

References

External links