Jame’eh Menha-ye Ruhaniyat

By ILNA/Iran VNC, "Rafsanjani warns against clergy’s “isolation from society”" - Iran VNC - Washington DC, USA
Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council and Assembly of Experts, yesterday referred to the role of the clergy in Iran’s 1979 revolution and generally, to the clergy’s important role as “anchor” in society, and cautioned against the dangers of the clergy’s isolation from society.

Addressing a congress dedicated to Molla Mohsen Feyz Kashani – a prominent 16th Century Shi’i theologian and scholar – Rafsanjani warned that the country would face many problems if the clergy were to “surrender to isolation”, Iran’s Labor News Agency, ILNA, reports.

“If, God forbid, the clergy one day becomes isolated, society would face innumerable problems; it is for this reason that the clergy must not surrender to isolation and clergymen should take the country’s problems seriously,” ILNA quotes Rafsanjani as saying.

Rafsanjani also criticized those who, he said, were seeking a “society minus the clergy [Persian: jame’eh menha-ye ruhaniyat]”, accusing them of “treachery” and saying they lacked “roots” and “foundation”; by advocating such things, he warned, these people were “pulling the rug from under their own feet”.

While he did not identify the targets of his criticisms, Rafsanjani described “religious pretense, sanctimonious behaviour and messing around with Sufism and mysticism” as disasters for Islamic rule, and as factors preventing society’s progression.

Rafsanjani told the audience that the role played by clergymen was a factor behind the “victory” of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, adding that Shiite clergymen are “anchors and agents for stability and independence in society”.

Molla Mohsen Feyz Kashani was among the leading scholars and theologian of the Safavids – the first official Shiite dynasty of Iran. He was a student of the great philosopher and theologian Molla Sadra Shirazi.