Ayatollah Muhammad Hassan Mirza Rida Quli, known as Shari'at-Sanglaji, was an Iranian reformer, theologian, philosopher, and scholar. He was an opponent of Ruhollah Khomeini. He was considered a Qurʾan-oriented Scholar or Qurʾanist among Iranian Shias. He was the theologian who, unlike the majority of Shia Scholars, called for Ijtihad, and rejected Taqleed. Sangalli was a preacher in the Sepahsalar Mosque. He publicly declared that Shiaism required reformation. Besides, he preached that Islam is not against modernity.
Life and Education
Ayatollah Muhammad Hassan Mirza Rida Quli Shari'at-Sanglaji was born in 1891 in Sangelaj, Tehran. His father's name was Shaykh Hasan Sangalaji. He received his early education from his father. He obtained his Islamic Education from the following scholars:
In 1917, Muhammed traveled to Najaf with his brother Muhammad Sanglaji, where he spent four years. In Najaf, he wrote his first book, which was positively received by Ayatollah Kazim Yazdi. Yazdi gave Mirza Rida Quli the surname of Shariat, or "sacred law." In 1921, he returned to Tehran. He died in January 1944 at the age of 53 due to typhus.
Teachings and Beliefs
The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology states: "Modernist tendencies were not limited to Sunni scholars: in Iran, Ayatollah Muhammad Hasan Shariat Sangalaji called for Ijtihad instead of Taqlid. And advocated a strictly rational approach to Islam, and prompted his fellow believers to return to the pure origins of their religion by combating superstitions that had distorted its strict monotheism over time. What brought him into fierce conflict with his conservative colleagues was his assessment that also some beliefs traditionally regarded as belonging to the core of Imami Shi'ism are superstitious and must do. For instance, he rated the idea that the Twelfth Imam will return before resurrection to establish justice on earth as an illegitimate addition to Islam. He condemned the belief that the prophet and the imams are closer to God than ordinary people and can hence you may ask for intercession
The Wahhabi-influenced Shia scholar
Many Twelver Iranian scholars and writers considered Sanglaji to be an admirer of Wahhabis among Iranian Shias. Even Ruhollah Khomeini refuted Sanglaji in his book Kashf al-Asrar and explicitly attacked his beliefs at least four times. Like scholars Seyed Asadullah Kharaqani and Sheikh Hadi Najm Abadi, Sanglaji adopted a Quranist approach to interpreting the Quran.
Students
The main attendants of Sanglaji's lectures and Quranic exegesis were highly educated Iranians, amongst the most famous where:
