repenter, on 24 May 2013 - 03:11 AM, said:
Well said. Thing is few,,very few scholars disagree with Wilayat Faghi. The only disagreement is on the execution of it, namely the mutlagh part. If you see a scholar not being active in politics or social issues, it doesn't mean he doesn't agree with it, i means either he has dedicated his time to something else or that he has realized that he might not be good at it and has decided to not involve himself for the greater good, and there is no shame in that.
The only issue I have with this approach is that it doesn't pay sufficent attention to what our Imams [as] actually said in regards to politics and power. See, we have this tendency to try and make it seem as if the scholars don't make mistakes or if we see something contradictory to what the Imams [as] are saying in the ahadith, we take recourse to the idea of "well, they're more knowledge than us." So, can we ever really criticize some of the rulings and theories that are prevalent among contemporary scholars or do we just have to accept their interpretation? We're quick to condemn people who don't agree with the majority of scholars (or let's say even all of them), yet do we even exert a fraction of that effort towards our Infallible Imams [as]? After all, is the hallmark of this school of thought about following fallibles or infallibles? I'm not saying that we should not refer to scholars that may have a better understanding of the texts and tradition. In fact, the main job of a scholar is help facilitate the knowledge of the leaders to others. But still, at the end of the day our attempt should be to follow those worthy of being followed and who have been chosen as our Guides. Even if our interpretation happens to be incorrect, at least we can say we made the effort. Sure, every one is allowed to chose their own path, but for me, I don't see this issue come up in the words and actions of the Ahl al-Bayt [as]. Actually, when they do speak of these matters, they discourage their companions from getting involved in political issues. This doesn't mean that we should have no care in what goes on in the political arena, rather our approach must be more nuanced whereby we don't transfrom tashayyu' into a distinct political ideology and force to be reckoned it.















