Return to the self and return to any self - Ali Shariati

This book contains within its pages a significant essence of Ali Shariati's diverse ideas and a qualitative summary of his revivalist intellectual project, which perhaps can be called "Return to the Self," where he emphasizes the necessity of drawing inspiration from the authentic Islamic model and its beginnings as a spiritual renaissance and a revolutionary movement that changed the simple reality of the early Muslims into a giant civilization thanks to the heroic spirit they possessed, and the feelings of sacrifice and devotion that granted them extraordinary strength, and the deep faith that ignited their leadership and scientific energies, elevating their lives to magnificent levels in a short period. Shariati, amidst the pulls of Eastern and Western schools that swept the Iranian cultural and political scene before the 1979 revolution, sees that returning to the authentic religious self with its revolutionary and transformative character is the effective recipe for liberation from the state of decline, weakness, and subjugation to colonialism that the Islamic countries live through. In this work, he addresses various aspects of this process, so the topics vary and may sometimes diverge, leading to each other as is often his way in speech and writing, as he frequently deviates from the main subject to its sides and branches in a manner similar to free association of ideas. It is confidently said that he fought with his intellectual and rhetorical talents on several fronts, some more dangerous than others, but the most prominent and fierce were the leftist and rightist fronts, where he succeeded to a credible extent in convincing revolutionary youth currents to abstain from the Marxist experiment, and he attacked Westernization currents that believed they found their salvation in the trappings of modern Western civilization, guiding wide sectors towards what he saw as the elixir capable of creating miracles and the fuel capable of moving the self to creativity. Cover type: Regular paper Size: 21×14