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Mohammad Mohabi

The harsh treatment of the Islamic Republic towards the Na’matullahi Gonabadi dervishes in the winter of 1396 (2017), revealed the depth of animosity between the government of the Sharia-based system and the dervishes and followers of Sufism and mysticism. The writer believes that this treatment and animosity is a natural result of the Sharia-based system of the Islamic Republic. This article reflects on the aggressive treatment of dervishes and Sufis in Iran and the Islamic world, based on the essence of jurisprudence, mysticism, and Sufism.

In the late first and early second century of the Hijri era, two movements emerged in the world of Islam that were both influenced by the entry of Iranians into the world of Islam. The first movement was the rationalist movement, whose initial roots were introduced by Imam Abu Hanifa (an Iranian Muslim jurist who is now followed by more than half of the world’s Muslims in his jurisprudential approach). His brilliant fatwas, such as the permissibility of performing prayers in Persian or any other language, and other fatwas, spread the scent of rationality in the world of Islam. However, ultimately he was a jurist and could only use reason to a certain extent, as the foundation of Islam was essentially text-based. Unlike Judaism, which was ethnocentric, and Christianity, which was centered around a person (the role of Christ in Christianity).

In the second century of the Hijri era, the disciples of Hassan Basri, an Iranian jurist and theologian, established the Mu’tazilite school of thought, which was the peak of rationalism in the Islamic world. However, the Mu’tazilites were defeated by the Ahl al-Hadith and traditionalist movement (who were sometimes known as the Ash’aris). Dr. Kazem Alimadari, in the final chapter of his book “Why Iran Fell Behind and the West Moved Forward,” titled “The Mu’tazilites Were Doomed to Failure,” while enumerating the inherent contradictions of Mu’tazilite principles with the spirit of Islamic law, considers its defeat as inevitable. (1)

The second movement that also began in Iran and spread throughout the Islamic world was the movement of mysticism and Sufism. There are different opinions about the origins and main roots of mysticism and Sufism in the Islamic world. What is clear is that the first mystics and Sufis emerged in the region of Khorasan in Iran. It is likely that in the formation of the foundations of Sufism, the initial founders drew from Hindu traditions, ancient Iranian traditions, and some aspects of Islamic theology and philosophy in order to moderate the strictness and severity inherent in Islamic law.

It is interesting that in the world of Islam, Sufism and mysticism did not create any attraction in Shia. From the second century to the ninth century AH, for almost seven hundred years, the majority of mystics and Sufis in the Islamic world, from Ibrahim Adham to Sheikh Kharaqani, from Bayazid Bastami to Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani, from Ibn Arabi to Attar and Rumi and Shams Tabrizi, from Khwaja Abdullah Ansari to Sanai Ghaznavi, were all from different schools of Sunni. Until in the eighth century, with the emergence of a Sunni scholar named Ibn Taymiyyah Harrani (founder of Salafism methodology in Islamic history), the opposition to philosophy and mysticism in the Sunni world reached its peak. Although Ibn Taymiyyah spent most of his life in prison and wrote most of his works in that prison, his anti-philosophical and anti-S

In the year 1357, a revolution took place in Iran, led by a leader who had more of a mystical aspect than a legal one. He can be considered a follower of the mystical school of Ibn Arabi. Even the theory of “guardianship of the jurist” which became the basis of the Islamic Republic’s government, has more mystical aspects. Because guardianship of the jurist has more of a meaning of limited supervision, but guardianship over all of humanity is justifiable in mysticism, not in legal terms. However, even in such a government, mystics, Sufis, and dervishes were under pressure and harassment. The most prominent example of this pressure was the harassment of the dervishes of Ne’matollahi Gonabadi. For about a decade and a half, the Gonabadi dervishes have become a “security case” in the Islamic Republic. On Wednesday, February 25th, 2005, the

But the peak of friction between the Islamic Republic and the Gonabadi Dervishes was in February 2018, when several people were killed. These violent acts began after the placement of a checkpoint in front of the residence of Noor Ali Tabandeh, the leader of the Gonabadi Dervishes.

Most likely, the motivation of the Islamic Republic, in addition to all the general reasons for its opposition to mysticism and Sufism, had a specific reason as well. Perhaps the main specific motivation of the regime was the military campaign around the residence of Noor Ali Tabandeh, the spiritual leader of the Nematollahi Gonabadi order, located on Pasdaran Street in Tehran’s 7th district, and the attempt to establish a checkpoint in that area, etc., which had an impact on the process of determining the successor of the beloved Ali Shah and creating a division within this Sufi order. This tactic of the government to create divisions within traditional and modern non-governmental institutions in Iran is not unprecedented. A similar interference in determining the successor and attempts to create divisions were carried out by the Saudi Arabian government regarding the Ismailis in Najran. The Ismailis in Najran currently have three “claimants”. Although the Nematollahi order is

But the question is, what is the reason for this irrational pressure? Why do governments that are more inclined towards mysticism than jurisprudence, put pressure on mystics and Sufis?

The main reason must be sought in the authoritarianism existing in the nature of jurisprudence and sharia. Mysticism and Sufism and asceticism may have played a role in the construction and formation of a discourse, perhaps in inciting a series or group for struggle, and definitely has, but when a system is established, it needs political and legal geometry. The truth is that mysticism and Sufism and asceticism do not have the necessary raw materials here and do not have the ability to construct and design political and legal geometry. Therefore, after the struggle and victory, inevitably, it gives its place to jurisprudence and sharia, which has the ability to design a political and legal system (even in a reactionary form). This false cycle between mystics and ascetics and Sufis on one side and sharia-oriented and jurists on the other has been going on for almost 10 centuries in the Islamic world. The Taliban movement was able to reach

On the other hand, a government based on jurisprudence, a form of totalitarianism (at least in its jurisprudential, legal, and theological discourse), naturally takes shape. And considering the inherent authoritarianism of jurisprudence and sharia mentioned above, it views any rival discourse as an enemy.

Notes:

1. “Alamdari, Kazem, why did Iran fall behind while the West advanced? Publication of Development, Tehran: 1384.”

2. Ayatollah Noori Hamedani’s survey about the poems of Molavi, Iskanius, August 9, 2011.

3. Pakzad, Sina, from Qom to Golestan, 17 Bahman month 1396.