Theocratic Secularism

Naser Ghobadzadeh's reputation as one of the world's leading young scholars of Shiʼi Islam is reaffirmed by this enlightening and enlivening book. It shows with great clarity how the Iranian government's reigning doctrine of wilayat-i faqih was born of a revolutionary power grab that spurned the wisdom of ancient Shiʼi jurists—scholars such as Shaykh alMufid and al-Sharif al-Murtada who taught that people of faith who believe in the hidden Imam are obliged to shun involvement in earthly government and resist its corrupting and potentially evil effects. * John Keane, Professor of Politics, University of Sydney * This is a superb contribution to transformative scholarship in the Islamic Imami Shiʼa tradition, insightful and innovative yet authoritative, respectful, and well documented. * Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim, author of Islam and the Secular State * In Theocratic Secularism, Ghobadzadeh proposes that Twelver Shiʼism has occasioned a religious justification for political secularism. In doing so he details a history of Shiʼism from its formative period to the present, placing what he calls 'governmental Shiʼism' against 'Shiʼi orthodoxy.' One need not be convinced of his argument to see a solid scholar at work trying to question the religious foundation of tyrannical rule of a clerical class. * Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University * Ghobadzadeh has meticulously probed the history of Shiʼite tradition to underscore the idea that 'theocratic secularism' is embedded in the Twelver Shiʼi theology. The book traverses painstakingly through Iranian and Western sources to demonstrate that Islamic government is a modern construct, and it is inconceivable for it to exist legitimately during the occultation of the Twelfth Imam. * Abdulaziz Sachedina, Professor of Islamic Studies, George Mason University *