ABSTRACT
We have, so far, attempted to explain the innate difficulties of considering the role of faith in the shaping of an epistemological world order. The notion that faith is capable of playing a significant part in regulating and coordinating the way in which a world is viewed and processed is a problematic one. This is particularly true when one examines the issue using the tools developed by classical enlightenment thoughts. These were often used to counter what were considered the potential harms of unchecked faith, offering conceptions of unity and stability alternative to those originating in divine presence. This overt agenda precludes the possibility that actual faith in an actual God might serve to motivate individual visions of virtue. Social or political visions of this sort would naturally be untenable at best and dangerously fickle at worst, according to such modernist criticism. The text we begin to read in this chapter suggests a very different under-
standing of faith and its political role. The text itself takes the form of a lengthy conversation, and the editorial footnote at the bottom of the first page suggests that as the article was written in cooperation with a writer, it is also published in Q&A form. As we will see during the text, this is no scholarly interview or a crafted opportunity for Shabestari to present his views, despite its presence in a book he authored. It is an actual conversation, sometimes heated and often not fastidious about proper decorum. While the subject of the Islamic republic and its legitimacy is not directly broached, the reference to IRI buzzwords, such as struggle (mobarezeh), injustice/oppression (zolm) and others within a broad, historical review of Islamic religious revival grounds the speakers and their readers in a clear political context. My thoughts and commentary on the text will appear in italics following the text itself, which appears in regular font. All notes are mine. The non-Shi’i texts presented will serve to illustrate prominent themes in Shabestari’s text.
