Clergy has no greater status, says Ayatollah Sanai

By Kesava Menon

QOM (IRAN), JUNE. 18. The Islamic Republic is in serious, perhaps even terminal, decline and the theocracy can only sustain itself in the long run if it can satisfactorily answer the myriad questions posed to it by an Iranian majority that is young and impatient.

From the heavy-handed methods that dominant elements in the theocracy apparently prefer, it appears that they cannot think beyond the short-term and ultimately unworkable solutions. But there are a few clerics, the President, Hojatolesslam Syed Mohammed Khatami, among them, who are trying to distill the essence of Islamic precepts so as to make religion more relevant in a changing world.

Grand Ayatollah Hussain Ali Montazeri, the most well-known of the Islamic scholars who are trying to project an interpretation of Shia Islam that is more suitable to a democratic pluralistic world, is under house arrest. This feisty cleric, who was once the designated successor to Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, occasionally manages to smuggle out missives that thrills lay Iranians and sends twinges of rage through the clerical hierarchy. But Ayatollah Montazeri is for the most part kept out of the national debate and in his absence Grand Ayatollah Yosef Sanei has emerged as perhaps the important religious leader who espouses the liberal cause.

The Grand Ayatollah and Marja-e-Taqlid (source of emulation) the highest rank just below that of Imam which is rarely given spoke to The Hindu in his office in Qom. Ayatollah Sanei was in an exuberant mood following the victory of Mr. Khatami in the presidential election. He was of the firm opinion that with the President having won re-election with a massive margin, all his opponents should now step aside. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic, he pointed out, vested ultimate power in the President and anyone arguing or working to the contrary was acting illegally.

From what has been seen of the functioning of the Islamic system in the past four years, it is clear that the Wali Faqih (Supreme Religious Leader) Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei and not the President has actually been calling the shots in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei's supporters among the conservative clerics also claim that the religious precepts confer such powers of micro- management on the Wali Faqih.

These theories get seriously undermined when a scholar of Ayatollah Sanei's eminence asserts an alternative view. Grand Ayatollah Sanei has a higher grade in the strictly religious hierarchy than Ayatollah Khamenei and the former is also considered an accomplished scholar while the latter is not. So when Mr. Sanei says that the President does not need to consult the Leader on any matter, his opinion carries solid weight. Ayatollah Sanei also pointed out that both according to the Constitution and the law of Islamic Revolution everyone was equal, at the same level, thus demolishing the argument of the conservatives that the ordained clergy have a greater status than the people's elected representatives.

In Grand Ayatollah Sanei's opinion, the electoral results had not just demolished the antediluvian theories propagated by the conservatives but had also vindicated the view of those, whom he described as Mr. Khatami's friends, who have been jailed over the past few years. The Grand Ayatollah had spoken out against the trials and imprisonment of prominent dissidents or reformers (even those whom he did not agree fully with). But in his conversation with this newspaper he went further to suggest that the people had shown their support for these dissidents. Despite his optimism and firm belief in the necessity of the reform process, Ayatollah Sanei was not unmindful that Mr. Khatami's task was a hard one.

He knew that conservative-dominated bodies like the Council of Guardians would try to block the reform movement but here too he had his arguments ready. Bodies like the Guardians, he said, had powers and responsibilities only to verify that laws were in conformity with Islamic principles and to seek the Leader's guidance in case of doubt.

From what he had said elsewhere it also appeared to be his opinion that even the Leader was not free to block the government's initiatives of his own volition but could do so only after consultations. In short, people like Ayatollah Sanei see the Islamic Republic as an elected democracy where the clergy have the right only to be consulted and the power only to give guidance.

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Section  : International
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