Customer Reviews

Iranian Islam: The Concept of the Individual

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This is a well researched and stimulating book that very thoroughly explains why there is no concept of the individual in Iran and the impact this has on society, politics,and the law. This is very important because as the West dialogues with Iran, people need to understand the Iranian way of seeing things.

But the book is not wholly convincing. It was especially frustrating that there was no historial record regarding the origins of Sufism. For a general reader like myself I wanted to know who the first Sufis were, I wanted some statistics, I wanted to know when they were recognised as being a separate group. I also wanted to know what their relationship to the Dervishes is. The writers explained the teaching of Sufism very well: but I didn't undersand how it operated at street level.

At times to the generalisations stretched too far. So the writers argue that because everyone in the East generally believes in the unity of existence they are more tolerant of other religions. So what about all the Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims who hacked each other to death during the partition of India? What about the Muslim law of apostasy? Again the theory was logical, but the street evidence wasn't so convincing.

And finally it was little long winded. There are some really illuminating points in this book, but the authors take their time to get to them.