Here is the English abstract of Masoud Shavarani (Assistant Professor, Department of Religions and Denominations, International University of Islamic Denominations, Iran)'s presentation at the 7^nd pre-con meeting of the conference “Imam Reza (PBUH) and Interreligious Dialogue" which was held in International University of Islamic Denominations Tehran, Iran on  December 4, 2023.

Types of Religiosity, Fanatical or Faithful

The understanding and acceptance of a religious person towards religious concepts and teachings can be either deep or superficial. Superficial belief leads to fanatical religiosity, but deep belief leads to faithful religiosity. In connection with bigoted and sentimental belief in the Holy Quran, the word "Ḥamīyyah" (bigotry) with the addition of "Jāhilīyyah" (pagan ignorance) is mentioned in verse 26 of Surah Fath as a heart characteristic in the disbelievers. In contrast, in the same verse, the of "Sakīnah" (peace) and emphasis on “” (the word of Godwariness) is used for the Prophet and the believers. Considering the emphasis of the Quran in some other verses on words and concepts such as: "forbearance (Ḥilm)", "patience (Ṣabr)", "deep-rootedness (Rosūkh)" and "steadfastness(ʾIstiqāmah/ Thabāt al-Qadam)", it can be inferred that the Holy Quran guides Muslims to understand and accept a kind of faithful religiosity. Among Muslims, Sufis have been aware of the difference between these two types of religiosity and have spoken about it. Also, in the modern age, some sociologists, psychologists and Western philosophers have spoken about the types of religiosity in some of their works. Philosophers such as Kierkegaard, sociologists such as Theodor Adorno, and psychologists such as William James and Gordon Allport have discussed this issue in their research. In this article, an attempt has been made to examine and analyze the mentioned topics.

Translator: Mahdi Qasemi