The main focus of this study is the intellectual work and political career of Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din (d. 2001), a distinguished Shiâi religious figure of the twentieth century, and one of the most prominent and influential modern Shiâi intellectual figures in Lebanese history. The significance of his work lies in his linking together of several key Islamic themes relevant to the current Islamic and sectarian state of affairs in Middle Eastern countries. Shams al-Din examined various theories of Islamic government and the role of Islam in multi-confessional societies. His writings and political career centered on forging a civil role for Islam in the public space of modern states, establishing equitable citizenship and political reform in sectarian-based systems of government like Lebanonâs, the safeguarding of Shiâi minorities in multi-confessional societies, and the protection of Islam from two threats, first that of Communism and second that of radical and militant Islamist movements.
The book analyzes the political thought of Shams al-Din mainly surrounding the issue of government and governmental authority. In particular, it examines his reformist approach in conceptualizing and reformulating the notion of government in two contexts: first within the Islamic tradition and second within a multi-confessional nation-state in a way that also accommodates the needs of an Islamic society. A fundamental preoccupation in Shams al-Dinâs thought, in the later stage of his career, was to find ways for Islam to coexist and thrive within multi-confessional nation-states. Because of his experiences in Lebanon and Iraq, he was preoccupied in his consideration of legitimate governmentâand Islamâs role in itâwith trying to theorize a system of government that would be suitable for modern Muslim-majority societies living under the secular jurisdiction of contemporary nation-states, paying particular attention to Shiâi populations living as minorities or within a multi-confessional society. His intellectual concerns intersected with his political career, which culminated in holding a high official religious position as head of Lebanonâs Islamic Shiâi Supreme Council (ISSC), and thus brought him in contact and in collaboration with state officials, policy-making, and legislation. In that sense, his thought was a by-product of intellectual engagement steeped in the realities and constraints of political responsibility.
Shams al-Dinâs innovative work involved a legal critique of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiniâs political theory of wilÄyat al-faqÄ«h (the Guardianship of the Jurist), which vests absolute governmental powers in the Guardian-Jurist. In connection with this critique, Shams al-Din developed his own theory of wilÄyat al-umma âala nafsiha (the ummaâs sovereignty upon itself), which advocates for the establishment of an Islamic government, delegating limited authority to religious jurists (fuqahÄâ) and investing most powers in the hands of the umma (Muslim community) collectively. This was his response to the widespread repercussions of Khomeiniâs thesis, politically on Shiâa living outside Iran and theologically on Shiâi âulama whose authority was undermined by the Iranâs Islamic Revolution and by the absolute powers that Khomeiniâs theory vested in the Guardian-Jurist. Shams al-Dinâs theory of wilÄyat al-umma was his own elaboration on the theme of Islamic government as a concept, which he developed and debated during the 1960s and 1970s within the Shiâi scholarly and political circles of Iraq and Iran. However, his later scholarship was to develop around the prospects of political integration for Shiâi minority populations living in either multi-confessional societies or Sunni-dominated ones. These intellectual concerns led him to examine the concept of civil government (al-dawla al-madaniyya), which prepared the groundwork for a potentially viable form of governmentâaccepted by Islamic tenetsâfor multi-confessional societies. He saw this as specifically important for Lebanon, which was witnessing the rise of Shiâi political Islam and the political empowerment of the Shiâa in which the Islamic Republic of Iran played a pivotal role.
His theoretical engagements with the concept of government were conjoined with intellectual attempts to secure a public voice for civil Islam and the reinforcement of religion in society in order to protect it from two perceived threats: first, during the 1970s, from leftist secularizing forces that aimed to restrict religion to very limited private spaces such as family law, and second, from Islamism, which in its quest for power, undermined the traditional role of clerics or religious scholars (âulama). For that purpose, he was vested in the protection of the Shiâi juristic tradition and its plurality; he wanted to ensure that the âulama had a protected function within the public sphere and in collaboration with the nation-state.
The book situates Shams al-Dinâs intellectual legacy in three contexts that have impacted and shaped the evolution of Shiâi political thought in regard to government: The first being the transnational context of Shiâi religious relations across Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon; the second is the national context of Lebanonâs nation-building processes, sectarian politics, inter-confessional relations, and civil war (1975â1990); and the third is the context in which the political mobilization of Lebanese Shiâa took place and gave rise to Hezbollah since 1984.
By locating the intellectual history of Shams al-Din as a prominent theorist in the religious and political movements of Shiâi communities, both nationally in Lebanon and transnationally in Iraq and Iran, the book weaves together several themes. It first addresses Islamic reformist thought in regard to government and then links it nationally to inter-confessional relations within sectarian systems, specifically that of Lebanon, before finally linking it transnationally to critiques of Khomeiniâs theory upon which the Islamic Republic of Iran is founded. It also contextualizes Shiâi Islamic political thought within the broader political mobilization and sociopolitical transformations of the Shiâa throughout the Middle East, who moved from favoring the leftist and Communist movements of the 1970s to Islamist movements in the 1980s due mainly to the influence of the Najaf seminaries in Iraq and the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
I show the interconnectedness of these historical and political contexts and their impact on the development of reformist trends in the twentieth-century Shiâi Islamic thought, demonstrating the ways in which these trends respond, adapt, and are shaped by the political constraints raised by the jurisdictions and policies of nation-states, be they Islamic or secular. The book also shows that the development of a militant and revolutionary version of Shiâism under Khomeini did not totally obfuscate the earlier civil form of Shiâism that was open to parliamentary and constitutional forms of government, and which originally developed in Iran at the dawn of the twentieth century. This civil form of politically engaged Shiâism was first elaborated in the activism and work of two of the most illustrious and influential Shiâi Iranian scholars and religious leaders of Najafâs religious seminaries: AkhĆ«nd Muáž„ammad KÄáșim KhurasÄnÄ« (d. 1911) and Ayatollah Muáž„ammad កussein NÄâÄ«nÄ« (d. 1936). These scholars supported the Constitutional Revolution of Iran in 1906 and wrote about a constitutional and parliamentary form of government in the abs...