Rereading and interpreting the ideas of leading Muslim thinkers
Tahereh Sharif; Ebrahim Barzegar; MohammadBagher Khorramshad,; Nafisesadat Ghaderi
Abstract
Civil friendship among human beings is a noble virtue, a prerequisite for human flourishing, and a defining characteristic present since the dawn of history. As Carl Schmitt asserts, the essence of politics lies in the friend-enemy distinction, inherently inciting conflict. In recent centuries, discourses ...
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Civil friendship among human beings is a noble virtue, a prerequisite for human flourishing, and a defining characteristic present since the dawn of history. As Carl Schmitt asserts, the essence of politics lies in the friend-enemy distinction, inherently inciting conflict. In recent centuries, discourses of hostility have expanded within the Islamic world, with movements such as Wahhabism and jihadist-takfiri factions exemplifying this tendency. Given that conflict appears foundational and that one of the main responsibilities of politics is conflict resolution through friendship, this study aims to conceptualize and advance the idea of a "politics of friendship" in Iran and across Muslim societies. To this end, the thought of Khwaja Nasir al-Din Tusi—an influential thinker from the Islamic Golden Age—is revisited. Tusi emphasized love in political thought, considering it superior to justice, and offering great potential for grounding a politics of friendship. The findings suggest that Tusi's political philosophy can be adapted to contemporary contexts through a theoretical model of political and civil friendship. This model incorporates insights from Western thinkers such as Hannah Arendt and Jacques Derrida, as well as elements from the thought of Imam Khomeini.
