Sharia

To explain Mulla Sadra’s viewpoint of the relationship of practical wisdom and Sharia, one needs to turn to the explanation of human soul and its perfection (happiness). It should be mentioned that the nature of practical wisdom and its principles are specified based on the definition that is offered of happiness. According to Mulla Sadra, true happiness lies in human soul’s acquisition of rational truths and becoming a subject to the divine forms and the highest possible state for it is understanding divine presence; this is considered to be the ultimate goal of Sharia and divine laws. In fact, Mulla Sadra introduces practical wisdom to be part of Sharia and this is why Sharia and practical wisdom are thought by him to be pursuing the same objective. Generally speaking, relationship of Sharia and practical wisdom is envisaged as an extension of the “mode of absolute generality and specificity”; because according to Mulla Sadra, practical wisdom, as the act of teaching the method of advancement of the stations and stage of God-wayfaring and path of servitude, is part of Sharia. One may seek for the cause of this in the richness of Islamic doctrines in the domain of practical wisdom and explanation of its patterns in religion and Sharia; however, richness of Islamic doctrines and Sharia does not make us needless of the explanation and presentation of effective solutions for application of practical wisdom. This is in fact exactly what Mulla Sadra has neglected in this area.     

This paper advances a framework for the evaluation of Sharia (Islamic law) with respect to the modern notion of international human rights law. The paper argues that certain universal standards of human rights and freedoms, as understood and formulated in international human rights documents, lack precise equivalents in Islamic law, and some generally-accepted principles of Sharia contradict corresponding principles of international human rights law. Sharia's response to the idea of human rights and traditional interpretation of Islamic law are hard to reconcile with international human rights norms and standards. It is also argued that the application of Sharia, public and criminal law in particular, is problematic and results in deficiencies and hardship in Muslim societies. This paper contributes to the debate on Islamic reformism and human rights in arguing that Sharia's contradiction of universal human rights norms cannot be avoided, and that traditional mechanisms of reform within the framework of Sharia are inadequate for achieving the necessary degree of reform. It is suggested that, based on a cross-cultural dialogue and intellectual debate, an essential and primary reform should define the objective foundations of human rights in reason and human dignity, not on Sharia criteria and qualifications.

The Constitutional Revolution that restricted political power for the first time in Iran can be considered as one of the turning points in the history of political developments in Iran and the growth of political thought based on Shiite religious teaching. In fact, although constitutionalism began in the West, it soon influenced Islamic states, including Iran, and challenged the authoritarian monarchies. Meanwhile, the support of religious and leading scholars of The Najaf Seminary, especially Akhund Khorasani and Allameh Naeini from this socio-political movement in Iran played an important role in the relative victory of the Constitutional Revolution, otherwise the signing of the constitutional decree and the establishment of parliament and emergence of a new form of political system in Iran didn’t seem possible. Accordingly, despite the dichotomy of muslim scholars in favoring and opposing the constitutional movement, the great influence of the top scholars of Najaf, especially Allameh Naeini in supporting and theorizing about the superiority of the constitutional government over the authoritarian monarchy, paved the way for the victory of this movement. This article, by direct reference to the important work of Allama Naini called “Tanbih al-Umma Wa Tanzih al-Milla" has been attemped to analyze the rational and narrative teachings that has caused him to the preference of the constitutional government instead of the absolute monarchy in the era of Absence.