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This book offers an intellectual history of one of the leading Shi'i thinkers and religious leaders of the 20th-century in Lebanon, Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din. The author examines his role as the foremost figure of Shi'i intellectual life, a key associate of Musa al-Sadr, and president of the Islamic Shi'i Supreme Council of Lebanon, having maintained the independence of this institution until his death from the domination of Shi'i political parties. The core of the book consists of three interrelated main themes that constitute the major threads of Shams al-Din's intellectual legacy: a discussion of Islamic government involving a critique of Khomeini's theory of wilayat al-faqih, the role of Islam within civil government, and the necessity for political integration of the Shi'a in their Arab nation-states to protect them from policies that raise doubts over their political allegiance to their respective countries. The project will appeal to scholars, students, academics, and researchers in Middle Eastern politics and history.
List of contents
1. Chapter One: Introduction.- 2. Chapter Two: Shams al-Din and the Islamic Scene of Lebanon in the Turmoil of the 1970s and 1980s.- 3. Chapter Three: The Shii Imamate Doctrine: Historical and Conceptual Developments.- 4. Chapter Four: Against the Absolutist Government: Shams al-Din's Critique of Khomeini's Thesis of Wilayat al-Faqih.- 5. Chapter Five: (Im)permissibility of Cooperation with Unjust Rulers and Modern Governments in Shi'i Doctrine.- 6. Chapter Six: Shams al-Din and Sectarianism in Lebanon.- 7. Chapter Seven: Where Islam Stands in Civil Government.- 8. Chapter Eight: Conclusion
About the author
Farah W. Kawtharani has been Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a Visiting Scholar at Concordia University, USA.
