ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that for Faḍlallāh, the theological, the spiritual, and the social aspects of power are indispensable prerequisites to political power. He therefore found it necessary to refute the objections of ShīꜤī quietism to the use force as a means of change. To understand his concept of revolutionary ShīꜤism, two aspects of the issue are examined in this chapter: his response to the socio-political context, and his reinterpretation of ShīꜤism as a doctrine of power. It is argued here that Faḍlallāh’s thought on political power articulates an inherently ShīꜤī theory, but he communicates it to the wider Islamic public. He reinterpreted the notions of waiting for the return of the Mahdī (intiẓār), the passivity of Imāms, the necessity of the presence of an infallible leader (Ꜥiṣma), and dissimulation (taqiyya) as exceptions. In his view, the Imāms and the trusted traditions call for responsibility, action, and confrontation.
