Scholars@Duke
Mohsen Kadivar

Mohsen Kadivar

Research Professor in the Department of Religious Studies
Religious Studies
mohsen.kadivar@duke.edu
403 Chapel Drive, 118 Gray Bldg., Box 90964, Durham, NC 27708
Room 216 Gray Building, Durham, NC 27708
Office hours By appointment  

Selected Publications

The Institution of Marriage in Islam: A Case Study of the First Pillar of the Marriage Contract

Chapter · November 17, 2023 The pillars of a legitimate marriage in Islam between two adult males and females are two: clear consent of the two parties themselves for marriage and binding an agreement so that they become husband and wife. ‘Non-verbal conventional marriage’ is a legit ... Link to item Cite

An Analysis of Shi’ite Political Thought

Chapter · November 2023 Ali Ibn Abi Talib recognized the mutual rights of the ruler and ruled, the sanctity of contracts, especially with the enemy, and freedom of speech as the cornerstones of Shite political philosophy. Understanding Shi’ite political thought is impossible with ... Link to item Cite

The Punishment of Apostasy and the Freedom of Thought: Criticism of the punishment for apostasy and blasphemy according to the standards of demonstrative jurisprudence (Hadd al-Ridda wa Hurriyya al-‘Aqida: Naqd uqubat al-irtidad wa sabb al-nabi tibqan li-mawazn al-fiqh al-istidlali)

Book · October 15, 2023 After the assassination of the Azerbaijani journalist Rafiq Taqi in 2011 under the fatwa of the Iranian jurist Muhammad Fadil Lankarani, who condemned him to death for a blasphemous news article in 2006, Mohsen Kadivar criticized this fatwa, condemned the ... Link to item Cite

Islam and the State from a Shi’ite Perspective

Chapter · January 3, 2023 Islam and the State from Shi’ite Perspective details the perspective of Shi’ite Muslims, specifically within the Ja’fari branch, which the majority of Shi’ites identify with. Kadivar’s essay delves into the history of Shi’ism, the separation of religious a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Islam and the State from a Shi'ite Perspective

Chapter · 2023 The article details the perspective of Ja’fari Shi’ite Muslims and delves into the history of Shi’ism, the separation of religious and profane affairs, the guardianship of the jurists, Shi’ism within a constitutionalist context, political Shi’ism in a secu ... Link to item Cite

The Rights of Mankind: Human Rights and Reformist Islam (Haqq al-Nas: Islam-e nowandish va hoquq-e bashar)

Book · 2023 The book contains fourteen chapters in five sections: The Bases for Discussions on Islam and Human Rights; Islam and Human Rights; Freedoms of Belief, Religion, and Politics; Women’s Rights; and Other Debates in Human Rights. Its first edition was publishe ... Link to item Cite

Rethinking Muslim Marriage Rulings through Structural Ijtihad

Chapter · November 2022 Within ‘Structural Ijtihad’, all juristic arguments on marriage and the validity of all derived rulings should be tested against four criteria: reasonability, justice, ethics, and effectiveness, all according to contemporary standards of justice and social ... Cite

Dignity (Human)/ Karamah

Chapter · 2022 According to the Qur’an, human dignity is universal, regardless of religion, sect, piety, gender, race, and color. It is an essential character of humanity, allowing humans to take on the role of stewardship. The human soul is the bearer of dignity and has ... Full text Link to item Cite

Free Speech and Critique of Religion in Contemporary Islam

Chapter · 2022 While the Qur'an and the practical tradition of the Prophet strongly support freedom of expression and critique of religion, serious obstacles to the realization of freedom of expression and critique of religion are not easily deniable in the hadiths, conv ... Cite

Merci Islam: Religious Knowledge in the Modern Era (Al-Islam al-Rahmani: al-Maarrifa al-diniyyia fi al-asr al-hadith)

Book · 2022 The book contains the Arabic translation of four of Kadivar’s articles: Merci Islam; Muhammadan Ethics: Eight Steps Towards Noble Morals; Moderate Religious Knowledge, an intellectual and doctrinal review of issues about religion, Islam, and the Qur’an; Mo ... Link to item Cite

The Era of Cooperation and Assistance

Book · October 19, 2021 KHOMEINI-MONTAZERI RELATIONS (UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1986) ... Link to item Cite

Blasphemy and Apostasy in Islam

Book · 2021 Debates in Shi'a Jurisprudence ... Link to item Cite

The Guardianship of the Jurist: The Criticism of Governance Theory in Shi’ite Political Thought, the selected articles of Mohsen Kadivar (Wilayat al-Faqih: Naqd nazaariyya al-hukm fi al-fikr al-siyasi al-Shi’i, Maqalat mukhtara li-Mohsen Kadivar)

Book · 2021 This book is the collection of Arabic translations of ten research articles by Mohsen Kadivar on the theory of guardianship of the jurist and the issue of governance in the light of Shi’ite jurisprudence and the Islamic doctrine: jurisprudence and politics ... Link to item Cite

Democracy and ethical values from Islamic perspective

Journal Article Philosophy and Social Criticism · May 1, 2020 Inefficiency or inadequateness of Western liberal democracy at home is not the problematic of the rest because they have not experienced it yet! ‘Minimal democracy’ is the problematic of the residents of authoritarian countries. Most of Muslim majority cou ... Full text Cite

ANIMOSITY TOWARDS WISDOM AND MORALITY

Book · 2020 A Critique of The Collected Works of Āqā ‘Ali Modarres-e Zonouzi: The Philosopher of Tehran [1818-1889], (edited by Majma’-e ‘Āli-e Hekmat-e Eslami, Qom: Entesharat-e Hekmat-e Eslami, 2018) ... Link to item Cite

Shedding Light on the Covert Assembly of Experts

Book · 2020 The Abortive Supervision of the Assembly of Experts upon the Leader and the Catastrophe of Separating the Religious Authority from Political Leadership! (1982-1989) ... Link to item Cite

Ijtihad in Usul al-Fiqh: Reforming Islamic Thought through Structural Ijtihad

Journal Article Iran Nameh · November 2015 Ijtihad, or independent reasoning, has been the first cause of the dynamism of Islam from within for several centuries, and it has worked well. According to this method, Muslim scholars—mostly jurists (fuqaha)—referred to the Qur’an and the tradition of th ... Link to item Cite

A Tribute to the Virtuous Theologian Ayatollah Montazeri

Book · August 2015 A collection of the author's papers, speeches, and interviews in the first four years after death of Ayatollah Montazeri ... Link to item Cite

In the Presence of a Noble Theologian Ayatollah Montazeri

Book · July 2015 A Collection of Exchanges between the Mentor and the Disciple ... Link to item Cite

La naissance du «souverain juriste». Généalogie de la théorie de l’État shi’ite

Journal Article Les Temps Modernes · June 2015 The Birth of Guardianship Jurist: The Genealogy of Shi’ite Theory of Governance ... Cite

Impeaching Iran’s Supreme Leader’s Claim to Religious Authority

Book · May 2015 The Trivialization of Shi’i Marja’iyyat ... Open Access Link to item Cite

Examining the last years of Ayatollah S. Kazim Shari’atmadari’s life

Book · May 2015 Evidence of Dishonoring the Revolution ... Link to item Cite

Testing the Revolution and Regime with Ethical Criticism

Book · 2015 Ayatollah S. Muhammad Rouhan, Slander and Authority ... Link to item Cite

Al-Hukumat al-Wila’iyyah

Book · 2015 Shi'i Theocracy ... Link to item Cite

The Green Call

Book · November 2014 A Narrative of the Iranian Green Movement ... Link to item Cite

Apostasy, Blasphemy, & Religious Freedom in Islam

Book · July 2014 A Critique Based on Demonstrative Jurisprudence ... Open Access Cite

The Rise and Fall of Azari Qomi

Book · February 2014 The Evolution of Ayatollah Ahmad Azari Qomi's Thought ... Link to item Cite

Revisiting Women's Rights in Islam: 'Egalitarian Justice' in lie of 'Meritocratic Justice'

Chapter · May 2013 There are two types of verses and hadiths regarding women’s rights in the Qurʾan and Sunna. The first type designates full human rights for women, and recognises equal rights for men and women as humans, despite bodily differences between them. The second ... Cite

Routinizing the Iranian Revolution

Chapter · January 1, 2013 Republic of Iran. Constitutional values undermined by a context of political threats to Iran. Expedient secular values adopted by charismatic religious leadership erodes values of constitution and religion. ... Full text Cite

Wilayat al-faqih and Democracy

Chapter · December 2011 The concept of wilayat al-faqih as a type of Shi`ite Islamic government gained currency after the Islamic revolution in Iran, and it has now been experienced for more than a quarter of a century. A key question in contemporary Iranian politics is the compa ... Cite

From traditional Islam to Islam as an end in itself

Journal Article Welt Des Islams · December 1, 2011 Full text Cite

Human Rights and Intellectual Islam

Chapter · February 2011 It surveys six areas of conflict between sharia and human rights norms: (1) inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims, (2) inequality between men and women, (3) inequality between slaves and free human beings, (4) inequality between commoners and jurists ... Cite

Avicenna & The classification of Philosophy

Journal Article The Journal of Sapiential Wisdom and Philosophy (SOPHIA PERENNIS) · February 2009 Analytical introduction and critical edition of Avicenna's treatise called "Risalat-o Aqsam-e al-Hikmat/ Aqsamo al-Ulume al-‘Aqlieh” (The Divisions of Philosophies), Sophia Perennis (Javidan Kherad) ... Link to item Cite

The State of the Guardian Jurist

Book · 2008 Hukumat-i Wila'i ... Cite

Shari’a and Politics: Religion in Public Sphere

Book · 2008 A Case Study of Contemporary Iran ... Cite

The Rights of Mankind in Islam

Book · 2008 Haqq al-nas ... Cite

Khurasani's Political Philosophy

Book · 2008 Political Statements in Works of Akhound Mulla Mohammad Kazim Khurasani, The Author of Kifayat al-Usul ... Cite

The Book of Intellect

Book · 2008 Daftar-i Aql ... Cite

The Forgotten Interpretation

Journal Article Madrese (Quarterly) · May 2006 Re-Construction of Theory of Virtuous Scholars, First Approach to Shi’ite Islam on Divine Guide ... Cite

Political Innovative Ideas and Influences of Mulla Muhammad Kazim Khorasani

Journal Article Annals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies (AJAMES) · September 2005 Mullā Muhammad Kāzim Khurāsānī (1839-1911) has proposed a number of new and innovative opinions and initiatives on principles of jurisprudence. In this article, the most important innovations and modern political opinions are introduced and critically anal ... Link to item Cite

Freedom of thought and religion

Journal Article Current History · January 1, 2005 Full text Cite

Nazariat al-Dawlah fi al-Fiqh al-Shi’i (The Theories of State in Shi’ite Law)

Book · 2004 It is the second Arabic translation of this Persian book. It classified the theories of the governance in Shi’ite Islam, and argued that the official theory of Ayatollah Khomeini on Shi’ite theocracy, “the absolute appointive guardianship of the jurist,” i ... Cite

God and his guardians

Journal Article Index on Censorship · January 1, 2004 Full text Cite

An Introduction to the Public and Private Debate in Islam

Journal Article Social Research · 2003 Cite

The Ontological Initiations of the Inventive Philosopher Agha Ali Mudarres Tehrani: A Case Study of the Principality of Existence

Chapter · 2002 The Principality of Existence is one of the most important principles of the transcendence philosophy of Mulla Sadra. This article is a critical analysis of the view point of Agha Ali Mudarres Tehrani (1818-89) on this issue. ... Cite

The Concerns of a Religious State

Book · 2000 Daghdagheh-haye Hokumat-e Dini ... Cite

The Theories of State in Shi’ite Law

Book · 2000 Nazariyyat al-Hukm fi al-Fiqh al-Shi’i, Buhuth fi Wilayat al-Faqih ... Cite

The Price of Freedom

Book · 1999 Kadivar’s Defense in the Special Clerical Court ... Cite

The Compilation of the Works of the Sage & Originator Agha Ali Mudarris Tehrani, volume 1

Book · 1999 Commentaries on the Asfaar of Mullah Sadra, ... Cite

The Compilation of the Works of the Sage & Originator Agha Ali Mudarris Tehrani, volume 2

Book · 1999 Arabic philosophical Treaties and Commentaries ... Cite

The Compilation of the Works of the Sage & Originator Agha Ali Muddaris Tehrani, volume 3

Book · 1999 Persian Treaties, Forewords, Pieces, Narratives, Commentaries, Discourses, and Debates ... Cite

Governance by Guardianship

Book Rule and Government in the Islamic Republic of Iran ... Cite