Journal of National Studies
Year:2004 | Volume:5 | Issue:2 (18)|Papers Count:8

The standard-bearer of the illumination school of thought, Sohravardi, through his approach to light which is a peaceful sanctuary for man's soul, tried to reform and revive a school of thought that offers a wayfaring mode through which human beings can achieve true knowledge and illumination, that is, their true identity through reasoning, inner contemplation and care. This theosophy - in which verve and witness accompany reason and go beyond it - becomes the manifestation of knowledge in man's soul, dissociating him from himself and connecting him to God. In this approach, the true sage and theosophist is the one who is competent to lead the society and can lead human beings towards true felicity by establishing a utopia. The essence of this theosophy was created by the Persian theosophists and sages, while Plato and others followed it. Hence, this theosophy that was revived by Sohravardi is first and foremost Persian (Iranian) in nature, but it is compatible with the Quranic revelation and Mohammaden thought, for it is in the search of establishment of justice, felicity and virtue. The division offered by Sohravardi, that is, East (the heavenly and illuminated world) and West (the dark realm of this world) is not a geographical division, rather it is based on right and wrong, light and darkness and justice and injustice, which has been manifested in the East more than in any other place.    

Quest for identity is an attempt to find what our conscience aspires and the nature of this aspiration depends on the coordination between four elements: soul, self, mind and body. Hence we may distinguish two kinds of aspirations for identity: one, this-worldly aspirations, like utilitarianism, national independence, and territorial integrity; and second, the otherworldly aspirations, like transition from the nature to the super-nature and acquiring a sacred and celestial form and percept. It seems that the pressures of modernity have pushed the sacred aspirations to the second seat and those of this-worldly to the front seat. Hence, human beings more than being concerned about divinization and their responsibilities are worried about progress. Man's shift from sublimation to progress is to some extent an effect of the performance of the systems that normally claim to be connected to the celestial world. This background caused the elimination of divine symbols from the world and sacrilege became an index of progress. Many writers including Seyed Hossein Nasr who are labeled as traditionalists have tried to rescue man from intricate chains modernity has created for him. The present article is an attempt to analyze and critically study this approach.    

National identity is a collection of positive approaches and inclinations towards identifying, integrating factors, elements and samples at state level as a political unit. National identity has some constructive elements such as national, religious, cultural, societal, humane values as well as cultural, social, historical, geographical, political and lingual elements. The Iranian national identity too enjoys the above-mentioned aspects and elements. But the most important factors in this regard are Islamism, Iranism and the influences of the Western culture. Hence, in Iran s contemporary history, the main challenges have always surfaced between these two elements and their relations with the Western culture. Morteza Motahari, a religious intellectual, who identified various problems of the society from different religious angles, has some viewpoints about Iranian identity, giving priority to the element of religion as the main constituent element of identity, considering other elements such as geography, race, language, tradition, and culture as secondary elements.In his viewpoint Islam is the main element of the Iranian identity. The present article is an attempt to discuss his viewpoints on this very issue.    

The present article is an attempt to shed light on the concept of identity in the epistemological viewpoints of Abdul Karim Sorosh, a contemporary Iranian religious intellectual. The assumption of this paper is that identity is often the brainchild of the concepts and interpretations of the intellectuals and thinkers in the forms they forge and create. Attempts have been made in this article to find the meaning of identity and its theoretical bases in the ideas of Sorosh and also to identify the factors of Iranian identity in his viewpoint. Therefore, Sorosh's answer to the whyness of crisis of identity and his answer to settle the crisis has been discussed which help us in elaborating on the critical study of his intellectual project and epistemological frameworks. This criticism mainly aims to discuss the inherent contractions in his project, but due significance is attached to his cognition of the factors of Iranian identity and his theoretical approach.    

National identity became an issue for the contemporary Iranian society and intellectual discourse at least since the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. This issue had two aspects individual and national for Sadiq Hedayat, with his multifaceted personality who was himself a son of the era of Constitutional Revolution and seriously entangled in the multidimensional cultural skirmishes between modernity and tradition. Self-actualization and quest for national identity through art and creation of artistic legends was among the main concerns of this Iranian writer and intellectual. Efforts in this regard and elaborate on the reasons for his failure. The main reason for his incomplete effort was his failure to find an answer to the following philosophical question: What is the ultimate goal of life?    

The acceleration of the pace of international migration during the second half of the 20th century, the upsurge in the number of migrants in various countries and the emergence of the phenomenon of Diaspora and its political, social consequences, particularly from the viewpoint of attraction or interaction between ethic and cultural minorities in the dominant culture or nationality, have been the new subjects of sociological studies. The two-to three-million population of Iranian migrants in various parts of the world, particularly in Europe and the United States, will face the positive and negative aspects of migration. The present article is an attempt to study the cultural, social and identity characteristics of the Iranian migrants and also tries to analyze the cultural and identity interaction between the Iranian migrants residing in Germany with the host nationals.