Observations about the Idea of the Rigidity and Deadlock of Islamic Tradition in the Experience of Iranian Thought

The Islamic Revolution is a revolution founded on Islamic tradition. Unlike the notion of tradition prevailing in the West which is taken as part of the western world, traditionin the view of Islamincludes the Muslim world and is not reduced to part of the Muslim world. Dr. Seyyed Jawad Tabātabā’i, one of the contemporary writers, who has analysed all the changes in the Iranian thoughts for the period between the early Islam and today on the basis of Islamic tradition, thinks that, due to the distance between tradition and reason _ in its Greek sense _ and falling into the trap of the exterior aspect of Islamic law along with the historical changes which occurred after the Mongol attacks on Iran, etc., Islamic tradition suffered from decay, decline, rigidity and deadlock, and problems of this kind reoccurred and what has been inherited from it was too little for one to understand the relations of modern time. Although he rarely talks about the Islamic Revolution explicitly and directly, the same pessimistic description of Islamic tradition which exists has to be considered true of the Islamic Revolution. In an attempt to criticize Dr. Tabatabā’i’s theory, the article delves into the topic of Islamic tradition as the foundation of the Islamic Revolution.