Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I POLITICIZING OCCULT ISLAM
- Part II POPULAR SHIʿISM
- 4 Milieu, Childhood, Sanctity and Fame
- 5 From Conceptualization to Officialization of a Religio-political Ideology
- 6 Deficiency and Defectiveness of the Human Mind
- 7 Society Needs the Leadership of Jurists and/or Kings
- 8 Superstitious Education
- 9 Reconfigurating the Necessities of Belief
- 10 Majlesism as an Ideology
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Books in the Series
7 - Society Needs the Leadership of Jurists and/or Kings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I POLITICIZING OCCULT ISLAM
- Part II POPULAR SHIʿISM
- 4 Milieu, Childhood, Sanctity and Fame
- 5 From Conceptualization to Officialization of a Religio-political Ideology
- 6 Deficiency and Defectiveness of the Human Mind
- 7 Society Needs the Leadership of Jurists and/or Kings
- 8 Superstitious Education
- 9 Reconfigurating the Necessities of Belief
- 10 Majlesism as an Ideology
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Books in the Series
Summary
Having argued that people should not rely on their own reasoning, as it is deficient and likely to lead them astray, Majlesi extends the logic of the argument from the private to the public sphere. If, due to the disfunctionality of reasoning, people cannot think and reason properly for their own individual good, then naturally those same people would be equally unequipped to either choose a leader or govern a society. For Majlesi, societies were in need of a guardian or a leader capable of properly guiding them and resolving their disagreements and conflicts.
Majlesi wrote that God would never leave humans to their own doings and ways, since, in the absence of guidance, people would become perplexed and bewildered, walking like four-legged animals in the land of deception. Majlesi is convinced that the Muslim community is incapable of proper decision making especially in the sensitive domain of politics. He rhetorically inquires: “Can the worldly and the spiritual leadership of masses be left to the reasoning of people?” And he readily responds that human beings are incapable of electing leaders who are able and qualified to guarantee their felicity in this world and their salvation in the next. Having claimed the people unfit to choose their own leaders, Majlesi turns to the hidden world as the ultimate source of appointing a leader.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Superstition as Ideology in Iranian PoliticsFrom Majlesi to Ahmadinejad, pp. 219 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011