Mesbah Yazdi, Mohammad Taqi
(1934–)

Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi is a prominent Iranian Shi'ite Muslim cleric.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was born in the town of Yazd in central Iran in 1934. According to his official autobiographical account he studied in Qom from 1952 to 1960 with some of the most prominent religious scholars of the time. As well as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (d. 1989), these included Allama Mohammad Hossain Tabataba'i (d. 1981), regarded by many as the most significant Shi'ite thinker and exegete of the twentieth century, and Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Bahjat, an expert on Shi'ite law. From the outset, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi was interested, similar to Khomeini himself, in the transcendental philosophic dimension of Shi'ism as an essential part of a religious curriculum. Some forty years later, he still contributes articles and essays on the history of Shi'ite thought and philosophy. He has served as a member of the powerful Majlis-i Khibrigan (Assembly of Experts) since 1990.

Mesbah Yazdi's political activities began in the 1950s. Among his most lasting contributions to the gradual formation of a structured religious opposition to the Pahlavi regime was his cooperation with the Haqqani school, a seminary founded in Qom in the early 1960s with a twofold purpose: first, to define the role and promote the implementation of religion against the increasingly powerful and aggressively hostile secular trends that appeared to threaten the fabric of Islamic society and marginalize religious institutions as far as possible; and second, to serve as a bridgehead between the range of subjects taught in the universities and the religious sciences of the traditional seminaries. In this latter function, it could be regarded as part of a wider movement spearheaded by Ayatollah Borujerdi (d. 1961), the generally acknowledged supreme religious authority at the time, to reform, standardize, and revitalize the curriculum in religious schools. The project included, for example, the instruction of English and of Sunni law and the training of religious scholars in a rigorous manner so that they would be on a par with academics in the field of Islamic studies in well-established universities and institutions of higher learning. The principal organizer and manager of the Haqqani school was Ayatollah Mohammad Hossain Beheshti (d. 1981), who was, similar to Mesbah Yazdi, committed to the active involvement of religion in all spheres of life and especially the inclusion of the doctrine of the custodianship of the jurist (velayat-e faqih) as espoused by Ayatollah Khomeini. However, Beheshti found Mesbah Yazdi an awkward colleague to work with, and consequently Mesbah Yazdi's role was limited to an advisory capacity in the two decades prior to the Iranian Revolution. The fecundity of the activities of the Haqqani school to the revolutionary project is illustrated in the prominent posts assumed by its former teachers and administrators. That circle of clerics included Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who was appointed to the Council of Guardians (Shuwra-yi negahban) by Khomeini himself and has been serving as its chairman since 1988; and Ayatollah Ali Qoddusi (d. 1981), Tabataba'i's son-in-law, who headed the Haqqani School from 1968 to 1979.

Mesbah Yazdi has written more than one hundred publications on Islamic philosophy, ethics, exegesis, and theology, several of which have been translated into German, French, Arabic, English, and other languages. Mesbah Yazdi has also embarked on several foreign trips in the past twenty years to give lectures and to visit academic centers for Islamic studies. These included a trip to the United States in 1991, Spain and Latin America in 1997, and Syria and Lebanon in 2004.

BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Name: Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi

Birth: 1934, Yazd, Iran

Nationality: Iranian

Education: Islamic education at Qom, Iran, 1952–1960

PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:

• 1952–1960: Studies at Qom with prominent religious scholars, including Ayatollah Khomeini
• 1960s: Serves on board of directors of the Haqqani school in Qom
• 1990–present: Serves on Majlis-i Khibrigan (Assembly of Experts)
• 2006: Ahmadinejad elected to presidency, allowing Mesbah Yazdi a more prominent role in politics
• 2007: Serves as head of the Imam Khomeini Institute for Teaching and Research in Qom

As of 2007, Ayatollah Yazdi heads the Imam Khomeini Institute for Teaching and Research in Qom. The institute is vested with a clear ideological mandate to propagate the political philosophy of Khomeini, with special emphasis on Islam as a comprehensive political ideology centered around the doctrine of the custodianship of the jurist. It publishes in addition to monographs a weekly news magazine, Partow-i Sokhan. Throughout the presidency of Hojjat al-Islam mohammad khatami (president for two terms, from 1998 to 2006), when reformists advocating a far less monolithic view of an Islamic society appeared on the ascendancy, Partow-i Sokhan regularly lambasted the government's policies, targeting particularly the social liberalization policies, the fostering of an open society, pluralism, and the primacy of popular will over the divine will as embodied in the office of the leader and its occupant, Ayatollah Sayyid ali khamenehi. The more outspoken proponents of reform outside the government itself, who benefited from the relative relaxation of political and religious censorship to expound even more radical ideas, came under even harsher treatment. For example, Mesbah Yazdi wrote several critical assessments of the political views of abdolkarim soroush, a prominent liberal religious philosopher and dissident, and these prompted equally robust replies in retaliation. In an interview in January 2006, Soroush described Mesbah Yazdi as a henchman used by radical right-wing clerics and politicians to bolster populist support for their cause. He accused Mesbah Yazdi and his followers of a smear campaign and as people who rejected democracy, human rights, women's rights, and freedom under the guise of anti-West and anti-imperialism slogans, and who maligned concepts vital for the moral welfare of the society, such as temperance, accommodation, tolerance, and pragmatism in politics as compliance, concession, laxity, and surrender.

The election of one of Mesbah Yazdi's disciples, mahmoud ahmadinejad, to the presidency in 2006 brought Mesbah Yazdi into the limelight of Iranian domestic politics where he was quickly credited with being the main intellectual force behind the new order. Discussing his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2006, Ahmadinejad made the much-publicized remark that that he had felt the presence of the twelfth imam, the revered mahdi of Shi'ite Islam, in the chamber. Political commentators and journalists quickly connected the president's invocation of the twelfth imam to Mesbah Yazdi's own messianic sentiments and his alleged membership in the past to the radical Hojjatiyeh Society, with its own fervent advocacy of the imminent return of the mahdi. That Soroush too had been allegedly a past member of the Hojjatiyeh is indicative of the often tortuously divergent paths taken by religious clerics and intellectuals in contemporary Iran.

INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Occupying the far right of the current Iranian political spectrum, Mesbah Yazdi has come to define, to a large extent, the tenor and lexicon of political debate, as well as its fault lines. Several key issues have emerged to draw the boundaries of various political platforms, among them are the status of women in society, the definition of the powerful office of velayat-e faqih and the scope of its powers, and the boundaries and divisions between religion and politics. In every instance, the forceful clarity with which Mesbah Yazdi has stated his own stance has been instrumental in polarizing the debate and encouraging those who find his notion of an Islamic state objectionable and ultimately self-destructive to iron out the differences between their own ranks to form a united front against such an unpalatable utopia. Thus, after the ascension of Ahmadinejad, a largely disparate coalition of important clerics and influential political actors and strategists has coalesced in opposition to the policies advocated by Ahmadinejad's government and theorized by Mesbah Yazdi. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who currently heads the powerful Shuwra-yi tashkhis-i maslahat-i nizam (Expediency Council), and the former president Khatami, lead this loose alliance. It is worthwhile to bear in mind that only a few years earlier, Khatami's presidency had witnessed a hugely successful campaign led by several prominent journalists and political players of Khatami's reformist camp to demonize Rafsanjani, portraying him as corrupt and ruthless. It was successful enough to land Rafsanjani a stunning defeat in the presidential elections of 2005. His more recent ballot-box popularity owes much to the austere pronouncements of Mesbah Yazdi and their negative impact on large sections of the electorate.

In his essay on the political doctrines of Islam, Mesbah Yazdi has traced the emergence of secularism in the Islamic world to the council held upon the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632 at Saqifah to determine Muhammad's successor. Those who opposed the ascension of Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, argued that Ali may succeed the Prophet, but only in his role as the main propagator of Islam and religious dogma. Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (d. 679), founder of the Umayyad dynasty (r. 661-750), is, according to Mesbah Yazdi, the first Muslim theoretician of secularism because he disputed Ali's claim to leadership and argued that Muhammad was a prophet, but not an imam in the sense of the community's political leader, the shepherd of his flock. The Qur'an, it is argued, distinguishes between prophets and imams, most clearly when it promotes Abraham to the imamate, but denies it to those of his progeny who are inclined to tyranny. Arguing that Muhammad was a messenger of God but not necessarily designated as imam or leader of the community, Mu'awiya, according to Mesbah Yazdi, laid the foundation for the separation of church and state in Islam.

The above debate is closely connected to one of the perennial arguments that have been reverberating in the Islamic republic since its early days: the nature and definition of sovereignty as spelled out in the Iranian constitution. Although ambivalence and allusive prose are hallmarks of political theology as a discourse, politicians of all stripes have exploited the unresolved ambiguities in the Iranian constitution on the source of sovereignty, popular or divine, as catchall phrases and political slogans. In that regard, Mesbah Yazdi's radical and emphatic position, which saw no room for popular sovereignty in an Islamic republic, had variegated implications for political discourse in Iran. In the volatile situation of the 2007 elections for the Majlis-i Khibrigan, the declaration provided much-needed fodder for the reformist camp, which used it well to ensure the triumph of Rafsanjani at the expense of Mesbah Yazdi.

Considered conservative and a puritan and on social issues and a hard-liner in matters of foreign policy, Mesbah Yazdi has issued numerous statements that condemn efforts to modify state laws to guarantee more equality to women and strengthen their position in Iranian society. Efforts to change the habits and customs of Islamic nations, he has often noted, are part of the strategies of cultural imperialism aimed at undermining belief and autonomy in Islamic lands. Against secularism, Mesbah Yazdi has described concepts such as tolerance or pluralism as a Trojan horse for the introduction of secularism and individualism, the main enemies of Islamic government and society. He finds the formation of religious movements for fighting enemies necessary. But in the meantime, he scorns this-worldly affairs and instead encourages the spirit of jihad, fearlessness in the face of death and the seeking of martyrdom, asserting they are the first steps toward fighting the enemies of Islam and the revolution of Iran. In several public lectures, Friday sermons, and published works, Mesbah Yazdi has reiterated his belief in the necessity of violence in the promotion of religio-political objectives.

On certain issues, the publicly stated views of Mesbah Yazdi are curiously resonant of those espoused by Pope Benedict XVI, who is committed to redefining Christianity as submission to canon law and loyalty to its spiritual hierarchy. In his declarations against individualism, secularism, the separation of church and state, and women's rights, Mesbah Yazdi advocates a more literal application of religious dogma and a concomitant effort to expand it to all aspects of public life. On gender equality, for instance, he dismisses the mere questioning of evident disparities in the shari'a as heretical and threatening to public peace. Religion, Mesbah Yazdi declares, is a matter of unquestioning love as well as firm belief, which is why reason, science, and philosophy cannot undermine it. Belief is not an intellectual matter alone, but rather one that demands devotion and unflinching obedience: The practice of religion without tinkering with its foundations is essential to piety and the ultimate salvation of the Islamic community.

THE WORLD'S PERSPECTIVE

Mesbah Yazdi's work has been translated into various languages, including German, French, Arabic, and English, and he has made several trips abroad to visit foreign centers for Islamic studies. The Western view of Mesbah Yazdi is generally unfavorable because of his approval of violence in the name of religion. The British Daily Telegraph called him "a hardliner to terrify hardliners" and expressed alarm at his powerful position as a major spiritual adviser to Iranian president Ahmadinejad.

LEGACY

Mesbah Yazdi will be remembered particularly for his highly conservative religious views, his advocacy of violence and seeking martyrdom, and his political power, especially under the presidency of Ahmadinejad.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abdolkarim Soroush's Official Web site. Available from http://www.drsoroush.com.

Biouki, Kay, and Colin Freeman, "Ayatollah Who Backs Suicide Bombs Aims to Be Iran's Next Spiritual Leader." Sunday Telegraph (London) (19 November 2006). Available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk.

Freeman, Colin. "The Rise of Prof. 'Crocodile'—A Hardline to Terrify Hardliners." Daily Telegraph (London) (19 November 2005). Available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk.

Mesbah Yazdi, Mohammad Taqi. Tahajumi-i farhangi [Culture war]. Edited by 'Abd al-Javad Ebrahimi, pp. 131-141. Qom, Mu'assissa-yi Amuzishi va Pazhuhishi-yi Imam Khomeini, 2002. Available from http://www.mesbahyazdi.org/english/index.htm.

――――――. "Two Critical Issues in Sadrian Philosophy: Substantive Motion and Its Relation to the Problem of Time, and the Principality of Existence." Transcendent Philosophy: An International Journal for Comparative Philosophy and Mysticism 2, no. 2 (2001).

Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi's Official Web site. Available from http://www.mesbahyazdi.org.

                                              Neguin Yavari