Modern Shi’i Islam and the narrative of social power: The views of Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah

Speidl, Bianka (2015) Modern Shi’i Islam and the narrative of social power: The views of Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 60 (1). pp. 225-237. ISSN 1216-9803

Preview

Text 022.2015.60.1.20.pdf Download (223kB) | Preview

Abstract

In modern Shi’i Islam, power constitutes a major concern for thinkers and movements alike. Above all, Muham mad Husayn Fadlallah stands as the most systematic Shi’i thinker who produced an Islamic theory of power. The present article analyses Fadlallah’s concept of social power. In Islam and the Logic of Power (al-Islam wa-mantiq al-quwwa), he emphasised the importance of social solidarity, justice, and the obligation of “commanding right and forbidding wrong” as a means to create the ideal society. For him, this social model has are ciprocal relation to social power. Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah tells the tale of two societies: the weak and the strong, arguing that beliefs, unity and values determine the power of a community. He claims that the strong society is best illustrated by the first Islamic community. He confronts it with the weak society which lacks unity and solidarity — echoing to a great extent contemporary Lebanon. Fadlallah’s social theory — embedded in his theology of power — transforms spiritual power into a collective deployment of action. He draws on a wide range of elements (Sunni, Shi’i and Marxist) to create a coherent system of power in which social power is a mediator between the ideology of power and its political manifestation.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item