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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Of Lies, Jokes, and the Shia Clergy |
| 2016-10-17 |
| Lying is always a hot topic where Iran in is concerned. Iranians have long resented the Victorian statesman Lord Curzon for (among other things) depicting Iranians as inherently dishonest in his 1892 book, Persia and the Persian Question.. When US Republican senator Lindsey Graham made an ambiguous comment about “the Iranians” being liars in the context of nuclear negotiations last May, some Iranian-Americans assumed he was talking about them. Part of the debate about lying in Iran centers on the attitudes of the country’s Shia clergy. Shiism is the minority sect in Islam, and Shia Muslims have, at various times throughout Islamic history, had to lie or “dissimulate” about their faith to avoid persecution by other Muslims. Since this dissimulation, or “taqiyya” as it is known, has become entrenched in Shia theology as an exception to the faith’s general proscription against lying, the image of the lying mullah has become a figure of fun among Iranians based on a bawdy sermon by the late Ayatollah Ahmad Mojtahedi Tehrani. Tehrani seems to suggest it is “permitted” to make one’s wife false promises in exchange for sex. Seeking further insight on the matter, IranWire approached a UK-based academic expert on Shiism. The first point he made was that Shia Islam does not endorse lying in most circumstances. “Generally,” he says, “Shia ethics follow a rationalist approach. Medieval Shia scholars were of the opinion that to discern whether something is good or evil, one can simply rely on reason. So lying and murder and so on are intrinsically wrong because human reason helps us reach this conclusion.” This, he says, is something Shia Islam has in common with all world religions. According to one statement traditionally attributed to Islam’s prophet Muhammad, he says, a person who deceives is not a Muslim. So, what about Ayatollah Ahmad Mojtahedi Tehrani, who said that, although you shouldn’t lie to anyone else, you can promise your wife a new chador or a trip to the Shia shrine city of Mashhad in exchange for sex? “This is purely comical,” IranWire’s source says. “The guy was a well-known preacher and someone who focused on ethics and morality. This was just good old banter, and he himself was laughing and chuckling. In private male gatherings, these clerics often engage in sexual banter.” Tehrani, who married in 1967 at the age of 24, and died in 2008, has some of his of his jokes posted online. More than one of them hinged on the theme of deception. Here is another example: A man went into a mill. He noticed that it was a mule, and not a man, that was turning the millstone with a rope fastened to its neck. There was also a bell hanging from the mule’s neck. When the man asked the miller about the bell, he answered, “It’s there so that I will know if he stops going around.” The man said, “Well, what if the mule just stops and just shakes his head?” The miller shouted, “Get out you bastard! Don’t teach my mule these tricks!” According to IranWire’s source, “A tradition attributed to Muhammad says that true believers are people who have humor, people who joke, people who engage in banter. It’s seen as a sign of piety.” Still, one wonders what Ayatollah Tehrani’s wife would have said if she had heard him laughing it up with his congregation. Many a true word, as the saying goes, is said in jest. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #1 Raymond Ibrahim's essay "Taqiyya about taqiyya", with numerous examples, fits here nicely. It is not specific to Shia Islam. There is also this, which lays out the four types of lying required in Islam. It does not address lying to one's wife to ensure calm inside the home, though that one goes back to the Prophet Mohammed himself as well. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-10-17 11:56 |