PART
IV. SEMINARS
MOVLANA
ARAKAN
IN
QUEST FOR TRUTH
M. V .Arsanis still stores in his archives a copy of the program at the Moscow
Radio (broadcasting branch for Iran) made in memory of a well-known theologies
Muhammad Sadik (Movlana Arakan). This copy was kindly handed over to our
Bulletin. The material that was compiled by A. Goryanski and edited by A. Pechko
was put on the air on 16th of April, 1988.
In our opinion, the life of Movlana Arakan is very typical of the time of
Assyrian national growth. In this background the most radical advances in
ideology were in religion that have been giving a shape to the political and
social status of the ethnos.
The revival of the ethnos usually is characterized by the tendency to boost the
activity )of some people though small in number, but very radical and
persistent. This tendency may cause a change in the society, but on the other
hand, the people who contribute much to it May as well perish in the end. This
deviation from the species normal conduct runs counter to the instinct of
self-preservation and breaks the inertia of traditions, this "passion ,1
gives the
Shape to a
"passionate" leader, who makes the world go round. The powerful
e Passionate impulse will lead to a change in it relations inside human
societies or ethnos s giving a shape to new social structures. The .r excessive
driving "passion" down in the c y history as a rule bring about
a struggle in t s ideological and religious fields.
Doubtless to say that the outbursts of a "passion" in the history of
_the Assyrian f ethnos were obvious in the early middle s ages at the birth of
the "Syrian" super ethnos [1 and with its furthermore disintegration
into [1 smaller ethnic confessions, and besides, in J the 19th century with the
introduction of
new ethno-confessional groups (Orthodox s believers, Baptists, Presbyters,
etc.). It was e just the time for Movlana Arakan to ascend to the heights of the
Islamic theology. But ..as the authors of the radio program e suggested,' his
quest for truth did not give e any fruit for he deviated from his roots in .1
his zeal so radically that he almost lost the e social ground which had urged
him to look e for truth.
Dr
.S .Ossipov
ISLAM
AND THE WORLD TODAY
This year we celebrate the 150 anniversary of the famous Shiite theologies
Muhammad Sadik Fahir Al-Islam. Fahir Al- Islam was Assyrian born. Assyrians,
descendants of the people survived after the collapse of Assyria, in 19th
century lived in Iran, Osman Turkey and in the Caucasus. In 1898 over 30000
Assyro Nestorians from the Iranian Azerbaijan adopted orthodox belief and came
to Russia under its protection. III the follow-up a special Russian Church
mission was assigned to station in Urmia in 1898.
In the 19th century Assyrians of the Iranian Azerbaijan produced a lot of
prominent scientists, such as theologizes who worked on the history of
Christianity and , Islam, philosophy and astronomy.
Movlana Arakan,
later on he took up the name of Muhammad Sadik, was born in Urmia in around
1833. Finishing Nestorian higher school he became one of the most prominent
religious leaders of ( the Nestorian Church and at the same time the head of the
man Nestorian cathedral in Urmia. While preaching the Nestorian belief
Movlana
Arakan was studying the orthodox beliefs. In a while he became one of the most
outstanding orthodox preachers amongst Assyro-Nestorians in Iran and Turkey,
however sermons given by Movlana Arakan in 1869 to 1873 could not find social
ground amongst Nestorians. Therefore he had to break with the orthodox Church
and go along with Islam.
By the end of the 19th century. Muhammad Sadik Fahir Al-Islam had gained quite a
big name not only in Iran, but also in the whole Near and Middle East. At the
time he won in a very big talk show so to say put on by highest representatives
of Christianity and Islam. His speech later was issued in Iran and Iraq .
In his major works Muhammad Sadik focused on the history and the fundamentals of
Islam giving the fullest range of its progression and spreading. The most
important work in his legacy is "Revelation of the Truth" which makes
up 10 volumes or books. Four books were published in Teheran. The rest of ten
were never issued. Two more major works by Muhammad Sadik on legal system of
Islam entitled as "Some questions asked to show the best value of Islam
over Christianity".
Commenting the fundamentals of civil and criminal law, Fahir Al-Islam points out
that Muslim law banned torture while Christians did it in many European
countries.
In one of his works Fahir Al- Islam focused on the religious policy of Nadir-
Shakh who in a very short while managed to do a great political, moral and
material damage to shiit clergy. In 1736 Nadir who gathered all prominent sunit
and shiite ethnologists from subjected regions called them all to accept
jafaritian Islam to be the fifth Mazkhab alongside four "righteous"
Mazkhabs of sunits. Nadir confiscated the major part of Vakhf and paid his army.
Fahir Al-Islam was the first explorer who discovered that along with bringing
discredit upon shiit clergy Nadir-Shakh tried to take up both shiits and sunits
altogether . The dispute between both branches of Islam held in Nadir's
headquarters in Nejef in 1743 was actually designed to bring both parties to
consensus at least in the countries subjected to him, but this attempt fell
flat.
In his last treatise Fahir Al-Islam took on critics of Khadis in which on more
than one instance the legal and ritual instructions of Muhammad were twisted and
distorted. Therefore Fahir Al-Islam demanded a critical approach to a multitude
of Khadis which were one of the main historical refer- ences to the early Islam,
he suggested this source should be compared with others.
This work is definitely different than any other Fahir Al-Islam composed before.
It is here being the highest shiit representative, critic of Nestorians and
Christians and Islamic worker, he reveals his hesitation and doubt in Islamic
foundations. In his narrow circle of friends Fahir Al-Islam confessed, ".1
have been preaching truth which seems doubtful for its preacher."
In "Commentaries of Tafsir and Khadis" Fahir Al- Islam elaborated,
"I was not a murshid, and my listeners were not murids. I was just a
mentor, and they were just my students who understood me and argued with me all
the same. "
Fahir Al-Islam died in Teheran in 1910. His legacy is his scientific, historical
and theological books and speeches that only await a closer explorer. His works
are full of facts on source and history of nestorian origin, on orthodox belief
and Islam and their spreading in the east and in the west.
Fahir Al-Islam was a bright personality amongst the Iranian clergy of the 19th
cen- tury .He searched for truth in three religions, but he failed anyway.
