Imamate and intellectual dimensions in dealing with religious extremism and intellectual radicalism

Abstract

The phenomenon of extremism and fanaticism is one of the phenomena that have been and still are present in human societies due to the danger it poses to the individual and society, as extremism represents fanaticism for the opinion of its owner in a way that denies and excommunicates the opinions of others without considering their logic or moderation, and thus the person deviates intellectually from the right path, and extremism represents exceeding the limit and going beyond the intention, as the Holy Quran has shown this danger in many verses, including the Almighty’s saying: “O People of the Book, do not commit excess in your religion or say about God except the truth.”

Leaving this phenomenon without confronting it at the required level leads the nation to loss and stirs up sedition and destabilizes the members of society in many matters, including religious intellectual isolation and not taking into account the conditions of time and place. This is what Imam Ali (peace be upon him) explained when he said: “Two men from this world cut my back: a man with a smooth tongue and a wicked  And an ignorant man of heart is an ascetic, this one prevents his immorality with his tongue and this one with his asceticism from his ignorance, so beware of the immoral among the scholars, and the ignorant among the worshippers, those are the temptation of every tempted one, for I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's prayers be upon him and his family) say: "O Ali, the destruction of my nation is at the hands of every hypocrite who is eloquent in tongue." Therefore, the research requires clarifying the first concepts such as extremism and fanaticism and what is synonymous with them or opposite to them from other meanings, then clarifying the intellectual dimension of the Household of the Prophet (peace be upon them) in confronting and treating the deviant thought that carries this phenomenon, as the Household of the Prophet (peace be upon them) strove to the extent that the circumstances surrounding them allowed to preserve Islam and spread the teachings of the Islamic religion and clarify the facts to the people with a firm confrontation towards those deviant groups and movements by disavowing them, cursing them and declaring them infidels until Imam Ali (peace be upon him) killed and burned them during his rule, and likewise Imam al-Baqir (peace be upon him) responded to all the deviant movements and trends that spread in his time with the presence of some personalities  The deviant and thus the work of the rest of the family of the Prophet, peace be upon them, in addition to clarifying the opinions of the jurists in the ruling on the extremists and fanatics