THE MUSLIM WORLD, Vol. LXXXI, No.

1,1991

ISLAM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE WRITINGS OF

(ALT SHARTCATT: HIS HAJJ AS A MYSTICAL HANDBOOK
FOR I~EVOLUTIONARIES

How Muslim peoples can live authentically in the modem world is one of the
central questions which has engaged sensitive and alert Muslims through much
of the twentieth century. Related to that question are a multitude of others cor-
responding to the diversity of the modem experience: industrialization, colo-
nialism and neocolonialism, materialism, capitalism and communism,
consumerism, sexual permissiveness, space-age technology, freedom of human
thought, and on and on. Some of those who responded to such questions be-
came overwhelmed by the sense of degradation and humility brought on by
years of insulation and culminating in the colonial experience. They saw tradi-
tional culture and religion as roadblocks preventing Islamic peoples from par-
ticipating in the future, and so they turned to Western capitalism or modem
Marxist ideologies for tools to modernize their societies. Others, more tradi-
tional, saw all such modem trends as evil, and resisted any compromises with
modem ways, prefemng to remain insulated. But a third group attempted a
different path. Seeing failure in the Western experiments but recognizing a need
to be a part of the modem world, they sought to instill a new pride in Islamic
peoples of their heritage, and to find in that heritage solutions which would
allow Muslim peoples to fully participate in the modem world without merely
copying Western solutions and at the same time to remain true to Islamic faith
and culture.
Such a man was Dr. (AIi Shaficati. Thoroughly educated in both Islamic and
Western traditions and possessing a remarkable gift for oratory, he rapidly de-
veloped an ardent following among the educated youth of Iran. Drawing with
equal facility on both Western and Islamic sources and freely interpreting both
to make his points, he provided a ready answer to Irans cultural crisis. One of
the offerings that he made as part of that response was a devotional work on the
pilgrimage entitled simply, Hajj. It is the intention of this article to show that al-
though the book is devotional in form, it carries throughout a flavor and tone
that mark it as both mystical and revolutionary. Before we look directly at eaj,
however, we would do well to have a basic understanding of the man (Ali
Sharicati and his ideas. A brief biographical sketch, and an outline of his
thought as gleaned from other works will, therefore, precede the discussion of
his Hajj.
The LiJe of (AIi SharPati-1933-1977
(Ali Sharicati was born in a small village outside of Mashhad, Iran, in 1933 to
a family with a long history of religious devotion and service. His father, Mo-
hammad Taqi Sharicati, was a modernist and a Qufianic scholar in his own

(AWulazIz Sachedina, (A11 Sharfati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution, Voices of Resurgent
Islam, John L. Esposito (NewYork/Oxford: Oxford University Pres, 1983). p. 197.
9
10 THE MUSLIM WORLD

right and was convinced of the desperate need to call modern-educated youth
back to faith and Islam. According to (Ali Shm-(atis own account, his father
was a major source of inspiration that spurred the younger Sharicati on his life-
long dedication of being a witness (shdhid) to the truth of Islam for the modern
world situation.2Throughout most of his career he was simultaneously student
and teacher. While in teachers training college he also wrote and gave lectures
at the Center for the Propagation of Islamic Truth in Mashhad (which had been
founded by his father). Even before university, Sharicati showed his breadth and
depth of interest by translating into his native tongue a book in Arabic on Abu
Dharr al-Ghaffari and a book in French on prayer.
He spent five years at the University of Paris at Sorbonne, and while doing
doctoral studies in sociology and in the history of religions he familiarized him-
self with most major modernist schools of European thought. He studied
Camus and Sartre, and came into contact with the great Islamologist Louis
Massignon. Sharicati became intrigued in the dynamics of First World-
Third World relationships and became committed to the need for peoples
who had been subjugated by imperialism of all forms to regain their dignity and
independence. He was strongly influenced by the writings of the Algerian psy-
chologist Franz Fanon, and later would introduce Fanons writings to Iranian
audiences and include Fanon motifs in his own lectures and writings.
Not content to merely write and discuss, Sharicati established the Liberation
Movement of Iran Abroad in 1960, and a second such National Front in 1962.
He helped publish a journal for Persians in Europe, Free Iran. Shaficati wasnt
content to concern himself only with his home country, however. His commit-
ment was to freedom and dignity everywhere. He wrote articles for El-Moudju-
hid, the voice of the Algerian Liberation Front.
These activities of the young Shar$ati while away from home did not endear
him to the regime of the Shah, and upon his return to his homeland he was ar-
rested at the border and imprisoned for six months. When released from prison
he could not find a teaching position except at a high school, despite his Ph.D.
While teaching at high school, however, he quickly became a popular lecturer
in the evening program at the University of Mashhad, and his popularity
among the students forced the schools administration to accept him on the fac-
ulty. This position soon ended in a forced retirement, so Shari(ati moved to
Tehran and established the Husseineh Ershad center for religious studies. But
his troubles with the Shahs regime continued. He and his father were both ar-
rested and tortured. This time the younger Sharicati was in prison for eighteen
months. A flood of international protest brought about his release, but he was
kept under house arrest for two years.

(Ah SharVatI: On rhe Sociology of Islam, tr. Hamid Algar (Berkeley: Mizan Ress, 1979). pp. 16-17.
The reader who wishes to sce more clearly the connection between Fanons thought and SharFatis is
r e f e d especially to two works: Les Damnes de la Terre, F. Maspero (Pans, 1968), tr. Constance Faning-
ton as The Wretched of rhe Earth (New York: Grove Ress, 1968); and Pour la Rkolution Africaine,
F. Maspcro (Paris 1969). translated by H. Chevalier as Toward rhe African Revolufion (Harnrnondsworth,
Penguin, 1970).
 WRITINGS OF (ALT SHARTcATf 11

Unable to continue his work in any meaningful way, SharPati managed to

escape his homeland in 1977 and fled to England, but three weeks later he died
under mysterious circumstances-officially listed as a heart attack. Most of his
admirers are convinced that he was killed by SAVAK and consider him a martyr
(shahid). In short, (Ali Sharicati died as he lived, a committed witness (shdhid)
for the faith.
The Message of Sharicati
Above all, Sharicati saw himself as an apostle of tawhid, and, indeed, he
might well be described as one of the most radically monotheistic Muslims. He
was not content to let monotheism be only a philosophical concept or a relig-
ious doctrine. For him tawhid is more than simply saying that there is only one
God and no other. Sharicatrs fawhrd is a world view:
. . . tauhid as a world-view in the sense I intend in my theory means re-
garding the whole universe as a unity, instead of dividing it into this world
and the hereafter, the natural and the supernatural, substance and mean-
ing, spirit and body. It means regarding the whole of existence as a single
form, a single living and conscious organism. . . . I regard shirk in a simi-
lar fashion; it is a world-view that regards the universe as a discordant as-
semblage full of disunity, contradiction, and heterogeneity, possessing a
variety of independent and clashing poles, conflicting tendencies, varie-
gated and unconnected desires, reckonings, customs purposes and wills.
Tauhid sees the world as an empire; shirk as a feudal system.
The only dualism permissible in Shari(ati3 world view of fuw&d is that of the
seen and the unseen, though there is no contradiction between them. It is only
that as human beings we are limited by how much of the unity in the universe is
readily observable to us. But we are given signs (aydt) that point us to the truth
of this unity, and when we come to accept a belief in this unified world view, it
has implications for all of life:
. . . the very structure of tauhid cannot accept contradiction or dishar-
mony in the world. According to the world-view of tauhid, therefore,
there is no contradiction in all of existence: no contradiction between
man and nature, spirit and body, this world and the hereafter, matter and
meaning. Nor can tauhid accept legal, class, social, political, racial, na-
tional, territorial, genetic or even economic contradictions, for it implies a
mode of looking upon all being as a unity.6
For Sharicati this is not just a philosophical or intellectual approach that re-
mains far remote from the day-today activity of human life.

For more detailed biographical information about the forty-four years of Ali Sharlcati, good sum-
maries are presented in the introductions to two of the collections of his lectures: On fhe Sociology of
Islam (Berkeley: M k n Press); and Man and Islam (Houston: Free Islamic Literature). These were the
two main s o u m for the brief sketch above.
On the Sociology of Islam. p. 82.
Ibid., p. 86.
12 THE MUSLIM WORLD

Talking about this as a world view, he agrees with Sartre that the way peo-
ple perceive the world determines how they live. An inadequate or misleading
world view leads human beings to less-than-adequate existence. The matenalis-
tic world view which dominates the 20th century ends in futility, but the popu-
lar religious world view, based on accumulated superstitions, portrays human
beings as spineless toys in the hands of a capricious God and leads to a dehu-
manizing acceptance of evil. So Sharicati is asking for more than mere intellec-
tual assent to tawhid; his version of tawhid demands faith:
In the world-view of fuuhid, man fears only one power, and is answer-
able before only one judge. He turns to only one giblu, and directs his
hopes and desires to only one source. And the corollary is that all else is
false and pointless-all the diverse and variegated tendencies, stnvings,
fears, desires and hopes of man are vain and fruitless.
Tauhid bestows upon man independence and dignity. Submission to
Him alone-the supreme norm of all being-impels man to revolt
against all lying powers, all the humiliating fetters of fear and of greed.
Although Sharicati urges fervent commitment to Islam as the only truly
monotheistic faith, he is far from one who views transmitted Islam as being
without fault. Neither is Sharicati one who would urge the blind following of
any religious tradition. He sees a great danger in Christianity (or even Judaism)
as projecting the appearance of monotheism while in fact being polytheistic.
But the more subtle the deception becomes, the more insidious the danger is.
A hidden polytheism in the guise of monotheism is the most treacherous of
all. But the kind of polytheism that developed in Islam, modem polytheism, is
the deepest, stealthiest, and strongest of all.
Even a religion that is as pure and complete as Islam can degenerate into
what Sharicati considers polytheism because the forces in society that hunger
after power or money are continually finding ways of co-opting religion and
enlisting religion on their side and to their ends. In this Sharicati agrees with
Marxists that religion can be and has been used as an opiate of the people. He
disagrees, however, with them when they say that religion blocks the way to
progress and must be removed. Sharicati insists that it is the modem loss of re-
ligious sentiments, values, and world vision that is the main roadblock to true
justice prevailing on the earth. When religion has been co-opted in service of
the status quo, however, then religious tradition as it is handed down becomes
the biggest obstacle to true religious understanding. What is needed is not a re-
jection of religion, but a purifying of religion. Sharicati sees a model for this in
the European renaissance. He interprets those events not as a throwing off of
religion, but as a reformation of religion by going back to its roots in order to
convert the opiate into an energy and awareness-generating force. In that
sense Sharicati says that the transformation of Catholic to Protestant meant

Ibid., p. 87.
Man and Islam. p. 23.
* Ibid.
 WRITINGS OF CALI SHARTATT 13

changing a corrupt religious spirit to a social religious spirit, and in his view
that transformation can properly be termed an Islamization of Christianity
both in effect and in the channels for this rediscovery. Shm-(ati was calling
Islam to the same kind of reformation in his day.
This struggle between true religion and false religion, between monotheism
and polytheism, has been going on since Cain and Abel. Sharicati interprets the
Cain and Abel story (as he interprets most of scripture and tradition) in very
symbolic terms. Although both were children of Adam and therefore inheritors
of Adamic religion, the two went separate ways in life. According to Shm-(ati:
Abel represented a phase in the history of man in which life (the source of
production) depended on nature; fishing and domestication of animals.
On the other hand Cain represented a phase in the history of man in
which the source of production became monopolized and private prop
erty came into being.
These differences gave rise to two completely different religious expressions,
each meeting the needs of its follower@).They are at odds with each other be-
cause. the one is the religion of God, while the other serves the purpose of justi-
fying human selfishness and greed:
. . . the same religion was divided in two opposite religions in two individ-
uals. One became grounds for justifying Cains profits and personal gains,
and the other became a factor in verifying Abels truths and virtues. These
two religions have been at war with each other throughout mans his-
tory. 2
In Sharicatis creative and symbolic way of interpreting history, Cain and Abel
become metaphors for two classes of people in human history. (+in represents
people with power, wealth, authority-those who benefit from the earths
riches and who exploit other people in order to increase their benefits and pro-
tect their gains. Abel represents people who are the oppressed of the earth, those
who are used by the strong and kept in a position of helplessness and poverty so
that they cannot take advantage of the earths riches which are meant by God
for all to enjoy.
Certainly there are different subclasses within the class of the rich and
powerful. Not everyone plays the same role. Indeed, such control over the
masses would not be possible without a multi-faceted, but very united, front
which conspires to maintain control of resources. Shm-(ati calls this coalition a
social polythei~m~ and sees the shift from monotheism to polytheism in the-
ology as a natural outgrowth of and response to the social order which main-
tains its power through a polytheistic system of societal control. This should

lo Ibid., pp. 4 1-42. Whether SharVau is comct in his assessment of the Protestant Reformation is im-
material. The important thing is that he wished to see modem Islam undergo the same type of msfor-
mation which he understood to have happened in European Christianity.
I Ibid., p. 18.
I Ibid., p. 19.

I Ibid., p. 22.
14 THE MUSLIM WORLD

not be surprising, because those who enjoy the privilege and status of estab-
lished religious leadership are an integral part of this exploitative social order.
Sharicati speaks of this social order as a trinity:
In the Qur(an (as well as in the Bible) money, force, and religion appear in
three personages: Pharaoh as a symbol of power, Croesus as a symbol of
riches, and Balaam Ba-Ura, the clergy who monopolizes religion. These
three symbols comprise the Cainian system.
We tend to think of the trinity as one God who has three features. But in
reality this is the ruling class in history which appears as a single class con-
taining three features; the Clergy, Pharaoh, and Croesus fought Moses as a
single unit.
Those who are victims of this Cainian oppression are the children of Abel,
and theirs is the struggle to right such wrongs in society, not out of some selfish
desire to share in the earths resources, but because God has given to all human-
ity the responsibility to promote the will of God within all creation. As with
many modem Muslim intellectuals, Sharicati makes much of the charge given
to Adam to be the khalga (vice-regent) of God on earth. This charge is inter-
preted as being given to all people through Adam, and is indicative of the high
status of humanity in Gods eyes. [The] mission [of human beings] on earth is
to fulfill Gods creative work in the universe. This creative mission is more
than just saving peoples eternal souls; it is equally concerned with the temporal
and physical realms of earthly existence. Shaxicati understands history to be a
record of each society choosing to emphasize either worldliness or asceticism,
but Islam demands a concern for both, because God has created people to be
two-dimensional beings, being composed of both body and soul. People of
God must therefore be just, sensitive warriors, and constructive individuals
who [are] concerned with building a better society and establishing justice.6
Ironically, what keeps human beings from fulfilling the charge given them by
God is the same thing that makes it possible for them to do so. Men and women
have two aspects from the beginning of creation: on the one hand, they are
made of mud, or the basest material on earth; on the other hand, they are
made of Gods spirit, the loftiest aspect in the universe. The trust that is given
to humanity in the role of khalifa is will and choice. The only superiority of
human beings is that only humans are free to be bad or be good; to be mud-
like or Divine. It is the possession of both will and freedom which creates the
responsibility necessary for the charge of the khalifa. Thus Shaxicati, as many
modern Muslims, sees the need to temper the traditional understanding of pre-

Ibid., pp. 19-20. Especially in rabbinical literature, Balaam is regarded as one who was willing to mis-

use his religious position out of a base dcsire for gain. The name Croesus,a fabulously rich king of Lydia
in the sixth century B.C.,is sometimes applied to someone of great wealth. The fact that these two figures
were not historically linked to Moses and Pharaoh are immaterial to Shariati. They are symbols which
represent the interlinking of different offices of human power.
Ibid., p. 3.
l6 Ibid., pp. 8-9.

lbid., pp. 4-6.

 WRITINGS OF CALI SHARi(AT1 15

destination with an emphasis on human free-will in order to remove any ten-

dency toward stoic acceptance of ones fate. If society is to progress, then the
members of that society must be active and responsible, creating a new future
which is in line with the Divine will.
Since God has given human beings the capacity to choose between these
mud and spirit natures, and since the nature for which humanity was cre-
ated is the spirit nature, the fact that we are human does not mean that we are
all truly human. Shariati uses the technical terminology of refemng to all
humans as bashar (being), but not necessarily insdn (becoming). While bashar
is a quality that is possessed,
becoming Ensan [sic] is not a stationary event, rather, it is a perpetual
process of becoming and an everlasting evolution towards infinity . . . .
Ensan has three characteristics: a) he [sic] is selfconscious, b) he can
make choices, and c) he can create.
What keeps us at the basest level of our existence are different levels of
prisons that limit us in different ways. But these prisons are not inescapable.
Nafure is one prison which has set limits on human beings, but we have seen
how with the awareness and creativity which come with science many of na-
tures boundaries can be tfanscended. History itself is a prison which tends to
follow natural cycles and requires that certain stages be passed on the way to de-
velopment, but we have also seen how through awareness and selfconscious-
ness societies can leap over whole epochs into the modem age. Another prison
is sociefy,but the science of sociology has given us the knowledge and capability
to transcend and restructure the social order and make it less limiting.
But while science can be a powerful tool helping us to transcend these first
three prisons of nature, history, and society, it is of little use in helping us to
escape from the last prison, which is the most powerful and deadly because it is
an internal prison instead of an external one, and therefore it is harder even to
recognize that it exists. The last prison that one must escape is ones self: This is
where an extra dimension enters into the scheme, for, if the self is a prison from
which one can and must escape, that implies a potential linking with some kind
of transcendent power. The way Sharicati describes it, the only thing which will
help one to escape from the prison of self is an almighty force in the very
depth of ones being which is able to blow one apart and help one to rebel
against ones self. The name which Sharicati gives to this force is love: Love
consists of giving up everything for the sake of a goal and asking nothing in re-
turn.y Sharicati understands that it is only in this kind of sacrifice of ones self
that the self can be transcended. The stage of self-sacrifice is fthdr, choosing the
death of your life, profit, fame, happiness, comfort, bread, etc., for the sake of

Ibid., pp. 48-49. SharFati is here contrasting the Qudans use of bashur for the condition of being
human in 18: 1 10 with I8 1 1 w h m the human being (ul-imdn) is characterized as being hasty or im-
patient and therefore always on the move. The proper direction for this rcstlm movement is, of course,
God: T o God we belong, and to Him we return (11: 156).
Ibid., p. 61.
16 THE MUSLIM WORLD

others. Then man can free himself from the last prison. . . . It is in this stage
that a free man is born.2o
It is in such free people that the hope lies for a vital, modem Islam. The Is-
lamic world has remained enslaved not only by Western powers, but also by its
own spiritual backwardness:
It is impossible to achieve economic independence without having
achieved spiritual independence, and vice versa. These two are interde-
pendent as well as complementary conditions.. . . As long as the East-
erner feels he is independent, noble, and worthy, he will never fawn and
wag his tail for a Western morsel to be thrown to him.
Being a truly free human being means not being enslaved to or dependent on
Western culture; but it also means not being enslaved by ones own tradition
which has been enlisted in the service of the powerful in ones own country.
Shariati draws a sharp distinction between true Islam, which he traces back to
(Ah, and the Islam which he terms Safavid and which he understands to be
mere nationalism in the guise of religion, and thus one-third of the trinity
which enslaves people with the opiate of religion.
A truly free human being will be guided by faith and ideology. Such a person
will be not be enslaved by the indigenous power structure nor be seduced by
any foreign system with its empty promises. Such a person will be free to
choose from all available technologies those which will be effective in meeting
local needs in a way that will be harmonious with the goals of true religion, be-
cause such a person is enslaved only by faith and ideology:
Faith and ideology are the miracle-performers of all centuries; they
breathe Messianic spirit in the carrion of a nation and carcass of a tribe.
And just like the trumpet of Esrafeel, they resurrect the dead and start an
ins~rrection.~
But such a revolution cannot be carried out by only a few dedicated and in-
formed individuals. The reformation which Sharicati envisions is not a revolu-
tion of the elite:
Educated individuals may be good starters, but in terms of translating an
ideology into reality and pushing it to completion, the masses have always
been the practical and responsible element^.^'
The place, then, of such educated and enlightened free-thinkers is to help edu-
cate and enlighten all of society, so that a truly Islamic culture may chart an in-
dependent and free course through the 20th century.
This is a concise summary of the system of thought presented by (Ali

Ibid., p. 62.
* Ibid., pp. 33-35.
Ibid., p. 87.
I Ibid., p. 99.
* Ibid., p. 100.
 WRITINGS OF (ALT SHARTcATf 17

Sharicati as a solution to the questions facing Islam in his own Iran and for
other Islamic peoples suffering under oppression from home or abroad. It is
clear that his concerns are revolutionary in nature (if we take the term in its
broadei sense and not merely to mean armed rebellion). But there is one more
issue which needs to be raised before taking up his Ijujj, namely, Sharicatis
evaluation of mysticism.
Scattered throughout his lectures and books are many references to Sufism,
in nearly all of which Sharicati speaks of Sufism in negative terms, sometimes
extremely negative. Yet we have already seen him use concepts and terms to de-
scribe true religion which have a distinctively mystical flavor. Phrases such as
an everlasting evolution towards infinity, regarding the whole of existence
as a single form, a single living and conscious organism, the almighty force in
the depth of my being, are highly suggestive of mysticism. The key to this a p
parent contradiction would seem to lie in the distinction which we noted earlier
between Safavid Islam and (Ali Islam. While both have the recognizable char-
acteristics of religion, one has retained the original quality of the religion of
Adam, while the other has been distorted and enlisted in the service of Cain.
It is not hard to see how Sharicati could be attracted to some aspects of a mys-
tical approach to religion, yet have a negative appraisal of the powerful Sufi
brotherhoods in the Iran of his day. He saw the Sufi approach to religion as an
other-worldly expression which too easily numbed its adherents with mystic
ecstasies and took away any real need for concern with the affairs of bodily
existence. Such a division is an offense to the holism of Sharicatis religious
world view.
Yet Sharicati viewed mysticism as being innate to human nature.2s He
ranked it with equality and freedom as one of three powerful drives in human
nature that had both positive and negative effects, and each needed to be bal-
anced by the other two in order for any of them to reach its highest potential.
The powerful emotion of love which was regarded so highly by Sharicati as that
which is necessary to purify the human psyche has its most profound roots in
mysticism. The quality of human being that has been produced by mystical
schools is unmatched anywhere else in the world:
To deny the selfish urges, weaknesses, and private daydreams that dwell in
each of us, to combat virtually all the powers that go to make up our na-
ture, and to bring to fruition the root of love and mysticism, the fire in
mans existence and essence: these are no trifling accomplishments.26
The weakness, of course, is exactly that which was mentioned above: mystical
accomplishment tends to insulate a person from evil so much that it creates
people who never stick their noses into other peoples business.
The reason that Islam is the religion for the problems of the 20th century is
not that it is anti-mystical. According to Sharicati, Islams origin, spirit, and es-

a Ali SharFai: Marxism and Other Western Fallacies-An Islamic Critique. tr. R. Campbell (Berkeley:
Mizan Press, 1980). p. 97.
Ibid., p. 116.
18 THE MUSLIM WORLD

sence are mystical, but this mysticism is also balanced by an emphasis on jus-
tice/equality and individual freedom.* The balance that is thus achieved is the
recipe/prescription for curing the worlds ills and building a healthy society and
world:
If we draw from all three of the streams issuing from the one spring in
order to satisfy the needs of todays man, and if we regard Islam from
these three points of view, we will readily act according to our social
responsibility.**
Shariatis HAJJ
Hajj is a brief but stunning book. The reader is dazzled at nearly every turn of
page, sometimes by Sharicatis depth of insight, sometimes by his profound
sense of devotion, sometimes by the utterly sweeping nature of his symbolic in-
terpretation of history or religious tradition, sometimes merely by the complex-
ity with which he weaves his themes in and out of each other, having left one
image in order to develop others, only to return to the first in new guise which
lends it another facet of meaning.
In the very opening paragraph of the book, Sharicati reveals his indebtedness
to mystical traditions by his use of an illustration of the black and white rodents
who chew the strings of our life until we die.29The black rodent represents
night and the white represents day. They take turns gnawing at the cord from
which our life is suspended until finally it breaks and we fall. The story is told to
emphasize lifes brevity and uncertainty, and the necessity for using the oppor-
tunity of each moment to make life meaningful and significant.
At several points, Sharicati takes care to note the differences between the
Islam which he is advocating and Sufism. But the book has the quality of mys-
tical literature throughout. The life of the Muslim should be one long search for
God,who is never very far away, but cannot be seen without disciplining ones
self to see in the right manner:
You do not search for Allah in the sky nor through metaphysics, but
rather, the search is conducted on this earth. He can be seen in the depth
of matter and even in stones. Always remember that to see Him you must
be on the right path. Therefore you must train yourself to see the right
way!M
Such a striking image of God permeating the universe is common in mystical
literature and is the source of the complaint that mysticism tends towards
pantheism, but Sharicatis view of God is far from pantheistic, as will be shown
later. Rather, such talk is a reflection of Sharicatis profound sense of fuwhrd, so

* Ibid., p. 119.
Ibid.. p. 122.
( A h SharPari: Hajj. tr. (A11 A. Behzadnia and Najla Denny (Houston: F m Islamic Literatures, Inc.,
1974). p. I .
x, Ibid.. p. 19.
 WRITINGS OF (ALf SHAM(AT1 19

that all creation acts in harmony with God.Elements of creation participate in

worship of God and even in pilgrimage: . . .The sun enters the Strait of Mina.
Therefore the sun is also performing Hajj; it rises in Arafat, passes from Mashar
and enters M ~ I I ~ . ~
Though Sharicati is careful not to follow mysticism into excess, he echoes the
call of the greatest mystics in his insistence that we must go beyond the limita-
tions of ordinary religious language, for any words, even any concepts which
we have of God are limited by their very nature, and such thoughts are unwor-
thy of God who is unlimited. As with the mystics, the greatest experience of
God for Sharicati is not talk about God, but simply being in the presence of God
and feeling Gods loving power and presence:
In the midst of this holy atmosphere, there is nothing to preoccupy your
mind-not even thoughts of Allah because Allah is everywhere! You can
smell Him as simply as a rose can be smelled; you can feel His presence in
your ears, eyes, heart and deep in your bones; . . . you can feel Him on
your skin as a caress, as love!
The whole purpose of hajj is not simply to perform it, but to participate in it in
this profoundly mystical way so that it expands the participant beyond the
boundaries of previous experience:
Hajj is like nature; it is a genuine portrait of Islam-Islam not in words
but in action! It is a symbol. The deeper you dive in this sea, the far-
ther you are from the end; it is endless! It means as much as you under-
stand. Only one can claim that he understands it all, he who understands
none!33
That is because what is understood is outside the realm of ordinary knowl-
edge, but belongs more to the realm of unfathomable feeling or emotion. It is
this feeling, this awareness of Godspresence that instructs the hajji in
forms of knowledge which are higher and deeper than that which can be at-
tained by either science or theology. This develops in the devout Muslim the
consciousness which will be needed if one is to be truly free of the boundaries
which keep humanity enslaved:
Hikrna is the type of knowledge or acute insight that was brought to man-
kind by prophets and not by scientists or philosophers. This is the type of
knowledge and self-consciousness that Islam talks about. It not only trains
scientists, but conscious and responsible intellectuals.u
Whether the enslavement is internal or external, the first obstacle to overcome
is ignorance, and unless that ignorance is defeated by a corresponding enlight-
enment, no real progress or freedom will be achieved:

Ibid., p. 75.
I Ibid., p. 68.
Ibid., p. 76.
Ibid., p. 62.
20 THE MUSLIM WORLD

[The system of tyranny] succeeds as the result of ignorance. The people

should know that what the messengers brought to them was not arms but
the message, the knowledge, the awareness, and the light.35
But Sharicatis emphasis on the primacy of knowledge, awareness, and en-
lightenment does not mean that he in any way rejects the path of action. He in-
sists that wherever these lessons have been learned the students who learned
this knowledge fight for the freedom of mankind and for the sake of Allah.M
The spiritual way of life envisioned by SharFati includes using all of ones re-
sources for the benefit of all Gods creation, even the resource of ones own life:
To achieve righteousness, you should genuinely become involved in the
problems of the people. . . . This includes practicing generosity, devotion
and self-denial, suffering in captivity and exile, enduring torture pains
and facing various types of danger. . . . The prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
said: Every religion has its monastic way of life. In Islam, it is Jihad.
Personal righteousness cannot be attained in isolation from the rest of society
or apart from creation because of the distinct role which God h p given to hu-
manity, that of being Gods khalifa, on earth. As stated earlier, Shariati joins
most Muslim modernists in taking it as an established truth that the trust given
to Adam applies to all human beings. He takes pains at the very outset of his
work3*to establish firmly in his readers mind the understanding that ones suc-
cess or failure as a human being (whether one can be characterized as spirit
or mud) is determined by how well one cames out this trust. The hajji bears a
special responsibility to be and bear a sign of Gods presence in a world which
lives as if there were no God.Upon return from the hajj, the hajji is to make
the earth the Safe-Mosque . . . because the earth is the mosque of Allah how-
ever you see that in reality it is not! But if the whole earth is to be a Safe-
Mosque, it will take more than just a few persons who have assumed
responsibility for their own actions. The struggle will have to also include an ef-
fort to encourage or compel others to act more in harmony with Gods will.
This is only proper in a system which claims a unified and integral quality for
all existence, for according to monotheism . . . everyone is responsible not
only for his own deeds, but also the deeds of others.
So although the greatest jihad, or holy war, is fighting ones self, war must
also be waged against the powers in the world that keep Gods people from ful-
filling this sacred responsibility, for everything is interconnected. When one

Ibid., p. 136.
Ibid.. p. 62.
Ibid., p. 28.
Ibid.. pp. 2-3.
Ibid., p. 38.
a Ibid.. p. 102.
Ibid., p. 86. Cf: John Renard, Al-Jihad A l - A k W : Nota on a Theme in ldamic Spirituality, MW,
78. 3 4 (1988). 2 2 5 4 2 .
 WRITINGS OF (ALi SHARi(AT1 21

lacks the unified world view of monotheism, then one feels separated from or
alienated from other people and the rest of creation. This separation becomes
the basis for structures which encourage separation of one group of people from
another which, in turn, intensifies the feeling of alienation, and the downward
spiral continues:
The most dreadful tragedy threatening the world population is the alien-
ation of mankind . . . becoming inhuman! . . .Humanity [is] sacrificed
wherever humanitarian rights are disrespected.
While each of us is in reality a khalifa of God,the hajji who is self-consciously
fulfillingthat trust has a special responsibility to do everything possible to break
the disastrous cycle. Sharicati sees the hajj as a time when more than a million
Muslim representatives could come to learn the purpose of pilgrimage, the
meaning of prophecy, the importance of unity and the fate of the Muslim na-
tion, then return to their homelands and individual communities to teach
others, becoming glittering beacons in the
Obviously this has revolutionary implications when understood within
Sharicatis view of the interdependence of religion and societal structures. As
Sharicati interprets the various elements of the hajj, therefore, it is not surpris-
ing to see him attach political as well as spiritual meanings to the symbols.
All Muslims see the change of clothing at Miqat as being a symbol of human
equality before God,but the implications are drawn out one step farther by
Sharicati:
Clothes symbolize pattern, preference, status, and distinction. They create
superficial borders which cause separation between people. In most
cases, separation between people gives birth to discrimination. . . .
What [results are] the following relationships: master and servant, oppres-
sor and oppressed, colonialist and colonialized, exploiter and exploited,
strong and weak, rich and poor. . . .44
It is characteristic of Sharicati to freely interpret ancient symbols in terms of
modern history. We can see him applying the three symbols of power, money,
and corrupt religious leadership to analyze why the French Revolution wasnt
able to deliver its expected results:
The French Revolution eradicated feudalism but, Croesus who was de-
feated in his village rushed to the city and established a bank! Although
Pharaoh was beheaded by the blade of a guillotine and buried in Warsa
Palace, by democratic vote he was resurrected and supported by Croesus
money and Balams magic! DeGaulle came to power!45

Ibid., p. 141.
a Ibid., p. viii.
Ibid., p. 8.
Ibid., pp. I3 1-32.
22 THE MUSLIM WORLD

Such a modernistic/symbolic interpretation extends beyond a critique of Euro-

pean society and looks critically at leaders in Islamic nations whom Sharicati
sees as guiding in un-Islamic ways. Once again Shm-(ati uses data from the
QurQn and Islamic history:
In order to prevent polytheism from disguising itself in monotheism, you
have to struggle for twenty-three years, defeat the misbelievers, destroy
the idols of aristocracy and overcome the ignorance of Quraish. You must
destroy the three bases of colonialism, capitalism and hypocrisy that were
defeated in Badr, Uhud, and the Trench and eradicate the last idol
through two hundred years of Imamat. Finally, you must prevent the
whisperer who was defeated on the other side of the Trench from turning
to the victorious side and seizing Islamic leadership.46
Understandably, the Shah attempted to keep people from going on pilgrim-
age. If the people of Iran experienced hajj in the way that Sharicati wished, then
that religious duty would have provided grist for people to reflect critically on
the Shahs regime and its part in neo-colonialism as well as its status as the gov-
ernment of an Islamic nation. Even more dangerous, Sharicatis experience of
hajj, if shared by thousands of others, could create an army of people who
didnt feel constrained by either fear or fidelity to lend any support to a regime
that they despised:
You will be free from all previous allegiances; no longer will you be an ally
of the powers, the hypocrites, the tribal chiefs, the rulers of this earth, the
aristocrats of Quraish, the landlords, the money. You are free!
Far from speaking about a metaphorical kind of freedom, Sharicati repeat-
edly deals very specifically with the implications of the freedom which he advo-
cates-it is freedom for the poor and helpless of the earth from oppression and
exploitation by the rich and powerful. He repeatedly invokes Abel as the sym-
bol of the innocent victim of capitalism (Cains ownership) and says that:
The desire to revenge [Abel] has always remained in our hearts as a hope
and wish. . . . Monotheism is the torch of this hope . . . transferred from
hand to hand and from generation to generation. . . . It went to the world-
wide revolution of justice, the leadership of the victims of oppression and
the heirs of the poorest on earth!*8
This revenge is not only in harmony with Gods will, but God has promised
that such a revolution will indeed succeed and thus holds out a definite hope to
which the oppressed can cling:

a Ibid.. p. 119.
Ibid., p. 30.
Ibid.. p. 133.
 WRITINGS OF (ALT SHARTATT 23

Allah promises that he will rescue and liberate the victims of oppres-
sion. . . . The class of people who were always and everywhere deprived of
their human right will inherit the palaces of power.
Such a revolutionary stance presupposes that the oppressed are not really
helpless-not victims of a fate that they simply must accept as being either un-
avoidable or a result of Godswill. For Sharicati, strict predestination is incom-
patible with the divine trust of khalifa and inconsistent with the call to jihad.
How can one struggle against evil if the outcome is already predetermined? Yet
he cannot deny that God has ultimate control over human destiny. He quotes
Imam Sadiq as saying it is neither free-will nor predestination but in between
the two or a combination of both, and adds, it is aJreedom to choose the
Jute. SO It would seem that Sharicati sees predestination at work in the way
that God has set up the universe and continues to operate it according to a di-
vine pattern. Human beings have the freedom to choose between their mud
or spirit tendencies and by the choices that they make are predestined to a
path which leads toward unity or one which leads toward disintegration and
alienation. One of the central purposes of the hajj is to counteract the feeling of
blind helplessness which keeps humans trapped in destructive situations and
patterns, and create the kind of purposeful and directed life that will actively
struggle in Gods way:
Hajj is the antithesis of aimlessness. It is the rebellion against a damned
fate guided by evil forces. . . . This revolutionary act will reveal to you the
clear horizon and free way to migration to eternity toward the Almighty
Allah.5
But as was indicated earlier, the way to this kind of freedom is more than just
political struggle toward a political freedom. Sharicati points out that countless
revolutions have failed to bring any real change because the revolutionaries
themselves had not freed themselves from the final prison, the prison of their
selves. Hajj is a revolutionary act that not only frees one from the tyranny of
this worlds temporal powers; it frees one from the tyranny of ones self. If this

Ibid., p. 77. That SharVatl is not here advocating a simple exchange of role between the powerful and
the powerless should be clear from the discussion on page 8 and on page 20 above. It does not matter
which group of people is being oppressed by which other group. Any such division between people is the
result of false religion. (See also note 5 1 below.)
y, Ibid., p. 80.

Ibid., p. 1. Here SharVatI is following in a distinguished line of Muslim modernists who have rejected
any undemanding of qadr (destiny) which might lead to passive acceptance of ones situation. See, for ex-
ample, Muhammad (AWu--Faith in the Divine Unity requires of the believer only that his powers are
from Gods hand . . . that the power of God transcends all human compctence and has alone the supreme
authority over all the desires of men [sic] and their realization. . .. [human] actions are throughout the
consequence of acquisition and choice. Nothing in [Divine] knowledge disposes man of his option-
taking in acquisition. The Theology oJUnnify,tr. lshaq Musa(ad and Kenneth Cmgg (London: George
Allen and Unwin, 1966). p. 39.
24 THE MUSLIM WORLD

does not happen, then the tyranny will continue, only in another form, so the
hajji must constantly be on guard against Satans traps and lures:
. . . do not think that you are innocent. Do not feel so secure and pro-
tected from Satans temptations. You are not always immune from those
invisible powers that surround mankind. There are so many beams of ar-
tificial glories that may make you blind. He (Allah) knows you better than
yourself.*
Such beams of artificial glories take a myriad of shapes and forms. It can
be the alluring power of respect and position. It can be friendship or family or
ideology or religious tradition. In this modem age of science, rationalism lures
people away from simple faith in and obedience to God,and:
If none of these approaches work, they turn you into a crazy consumer
whereby you spend all your earnings in order to live luxuriously. As a re-
sult, you are constantly in debt and working all day for nothing.53
Whatever the artificial glory, the things most dangerous are the things which
are most dear. Whatever holds the greatest attraction, that to which one is most
attached, that is the thing in the hajjis life that has the most power to keep the
hajji from God.Using the image of Ibrahim throughout the [lajj, Sharicati
refers to this most precious attachment as the hajjis Ismail. This is what the
forces of evil will use to keep the hajji enslaved. This is what has to be sacri-
ficed, given up, for the sake of God if the hajji is to be truly free and truly the
khalifa of God:
Polytheism explains these three positions [of Pharaoh, Croesus, and
Balam] i n a three-dimensional system (trinity) as the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost! They are calling you to worship them instead of Almighty
God. . . . They want you to love your ismail so that they can cheat you,
rob you, confuse you, change your values and lead you astray!
So all the ceremonies of the hajj are to enable the participant to move away
from self-service toward the service of others. Hajj begins with the merging of
the individual consciousness into a group consciousness at Miqat:
In this desert all nations and groups merge into one tribe. They face one
Kaaba. The group becomes a people or an Umma. All the 1s have
died at Miqat; what has evolved is

5* Ibid., p. 87. It is tempting to speculate on how SharVati would have evaluated the changes that took

place in his native Iran after his death, whether the new regime has exapad from or succumbed to such
temptations of Satan. Such musings arc outside the proper scope of this investigation. Appropriate
clues might be seen, however, in Shariaffs view of Europes Protestant Reformation (see page 7 above).
Ibid., p. 132.
Ibid., p. 101.
Ibid., p. I I .
 WRITINGS OF CALI SHARI(AT1 25

Haij climaxes with the sacrifice of IsmaGI, which is the biggest obstacle to over-
come in the struggle to leave self behind and serve God and others in order to
defeat the forces of evil:
Ibrahim, sacrifice your son Ismail! Cut his throat with your own hands to
save the peoples neck from being cut. Which people? Those who have
been sacrificed at the steps of the palaces of power or near the plunderers
treasurers or inside the temples of hypocrisy and misery! . . . You do not
kill your son nor lose him! This gesture is a lesson for the sake of your
faith. You must reach the point of your willingness to sacrifice your most
beloved (Ismail) with your own hands.%
The goal of hajj has been reached when the pilgrim has been able to make
this supreme sacrifice in the confidence that God will take care of the haiji just
as God did not allow Tbrahim to be burned by the fire. Yet this goal is never
completely attained. Hajj is not a destination that one may reach, but a goal
that one tries to approach! If those attending hajj, however, could return
home as people who have set themselves on the path which leads toward this
goal, then they would return to their countries and villages and be like a flow-
ing river irrigating the earth, each helping to germinate a thousand seeds. This
is the goal of hajj; it is not simply a religious duty, but a means by which God
renews society. That is why:
After defeating Satan and returning from the place of sacrifice, Allah re-
quests everyone to . . . renew their promise . . . to do their best to
strengthen the faith of monotheism, to destroy all existing idols in the
world and to establish an exemplary society based on monotheism and
to support the cause of knowledge, leadership, and justice in human life.
Sharicatis Z j u j is more than a devotional book on the pilgrimage; it contains
explicit political exhortations. Yet it is not simply one of the many religio/polit-
ical booklets that are familiar to every religious community and every political
culture. It is a book with a third dimension, the mystical. Sharicati is interested
in more than making religious converts or in creating a political following. He
knows that either of those ideologies can all too easily be diverted and enlisted
in the service of evil. So he turns to the only discipline that he knows to be capa-
ble of purifying the human soul-mysticism. Though he is disdainful of mysti-
cism for its own sake, he is convinced that when mysticism is combined with
social consciousness and individual freedom it has the power to motivate
human beings to levels of selfless service which would be impossible with any
other recipe. It is only to individuals who have combined the cunning aware-
ness of the political analyst with the self-sacrificing dedication of the mystic
that one could dare to say:

Ibid., p. 36.
Ibid., p. 52.
Ibid., p. 112.
26 THE MUSLIM WORLD

You are like Ibrahim! Fight the fire of oppression and ignorance so that
you may save your people. The fire is in the fate of every responsible indi-
vidual . . . but Allah makes the fireplace of Nimrod and his followers a
rose garden for Ibrahim and his followers. You will not burn or turn into
ashes. This teaches you to be ready to jump into the fire for Jihad!S9

Hartjord. Connecticul STEVENR. BENSON

lhid., p. 149.