Translating Islam : a history of religious reformism in Iran

Abstract

Over the past two centuries, the advent of modernity in Europe and its subsequent global spread and influence, has sparked the rise of a fundamental question in the Islamic world: “What is Islam?” This question marks not only the end of the classical era of Islamic scholarship, which revolved around the question of “Who is a Muslim?” but also signifies the dawn of a new era in which Islam underwent a distinct transformation, assuming the form of a “religion.” The emergence of this relatively novel notion of “the religious” has had significant consequences, including the loss of its dynamic and worldly spirit and its emergence as an otherworldly and divinely-given phenomenon.

At this critical juncture, Islamic intellectualism or reformism emerged to dismantle the barriers imposed by “the religious,” which had transformed Islam into a sacred object, estranged from its dynamic and worldly spirit. Recognizing that classical scholarship alone could not address the question of Islam within the modern epistemic landscape, reformists sought to develop alternative methods to rethink and reinterpret Islam. Due to their worldview and concerns, they have followed different methodologies and embraced diverse perspectives, all aimed at making Islam worldly again.

In Iran, Islamic reformism has followed a relatively different path from the rest of the Arab-Islamic countries. To the Iranian reformists, the classical Persian poets, mystics, and philosophers are great sources of inspiration. They have once translated Islam into the cultural language of the Persian world, and have offered a space for its expansion in and for the Persian world. The translational method (ta’wil), originally developed by the classical Persian poets, mystics, and philosophers, has helped the Iranian Islamic reformists to rationalize translation as a method that can also be utilized for rethinking Islam in and for the modern world.

This study focuses on the works and thoughts of three influential contemporary Iranian-Islamic political and liberation theologists: Ayatollah Khomeini, Abdolkarim Soroush, and Ali Shariati. Each of these thinkers, under the influence of the history of Persian-Islamic philosophy and literature, offers a distinct definition of translation (ta’wil), providing unique answers to the question of Islam. Specifically, they aim to “translate” Islam into the language of the modern world through their own unique worldviews. By highlighting these methodological differences, the thesis primarily aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Islamic reformist movement’s diverse approaches, especially, within the context of modern Iran.

Eventually, the concluding section revisits the question of literature and the emergence of the religious within the realm of literary studies. This situation closely resembles the challenges faced by Islam during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Islamic reformists tackled this challenge from various angles, and I believe their experiences can offer valuable insights into reimagining “the literary.” Considering how Islamic reformists in Iran re-theorized translation (or ta’wil) to confront the challenge of “the religious,” I assume that rethinking translation as a method, this time in the context of literature, could provide answers to some of the major questions in the theories of comparative and world literature.