The role of divination in Iranian governance

Istikharah or divination, in line with Islamic definitions, means to hunt goodness and to seek the advice of God in numerous affairs. Istikharah is quite common amongst Shiites, together with bibliomancy, which includes randomly opening the Qur’an and studying the primary verse on the web page, or rosary divination. The usage of istikharah has an extended historical past in Iran, not solely among the many widespread individuals, but additionally amongst its rulers, who’ve used it to make choices on the governance of the nation, and this continues to the current day. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s istikharah upon first getting into the presidential palace, his recruitment of individuals with robust spiritual backgrounds, and the recommendation of Iranian officers to “pray” with a view to remedy issues all point out that faith is enjoying a stronger position in decision-making among the many circles of energy in Iran. In each historic and modern histories of Iran, many narratives describe governmental choices being made based mostly on istikharah. Within the years because the Iranian Revolution of 1979, nonetheless, this apply has grow to be extra severe and widespread, particularly beneath the present administration.

A quick historical past of istikharah

All through historical past, Persian kings have resorted to istikharah on various events, together with Abbas I (the fifth Safavid king of Iran) for touring on foot, Nasser al-Din Shah (the fourth Qajar king) for Iranian rule over Herat and journey to Britain, and Mohammad Ali Shah (the sixth Qajar king) for points such because the bombardment of the Majlis or the dismissal of a minister. After the Iranian Revolution, with the rise of the clergy and the spiritual class, istikharah as soon as once more turned a part of governmental decision-making. In the course of the Iran-Iraq battle, some Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and armed forces commanders sometimes relied on the apply. For example, on one event IRGC Cdr. Mohsen Rezaei flew to Tehran on an F-5 fighter jet to request an istikharah from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, the previous chairman of the parliament, quotes Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying that his spouse firmly believes in istikharah and used divination twice for the wedding of their son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to Haddad-Adel’s daughter. Earlier than this, Ayatollah Khamenei had turned to istikharah for the broadcasting of a proclamation on tv. There are additionally many experiences about different Iranian political figures who’ve turned to istikharah earlier than operating for workplace.

Unfold over a interval of centuries, these circumstances present the longstanding political position of istikharah in Iran. No matter whether or not it’s superstitious or not, Iranian rulers have turned to divination for a wide range of causes, together with hesitancy about decision-making, abdication of accountability, and a need to offer choices an air of the divine. 

Hesitancy about decision-making

Hesitation about making a choice decreases as one’s info, data, and consciousness of the components at play improve. Due to this fact, the outstanding position of istikharah in choices implies self-doubt that’s rooted in inadequate info, data, and expertise. This has been exacerbated over the previous 4 a long time because the emigration of elites and recruitment of presidency officers based mostly on spiritual slightly than scientific competence has led to an absence of mental and scientific pondering within the governance of Iran.

Abdication of accountability for choices 

The results of any istikharah-induced motion, if optimistic, encourage the additional use of this instrument. If the result is unfavourable, nonetheless, the result’s attributed to God’s knowledge and preordination. Due to this fact, irrespective of the result, istikharah is seen as infallible. Due to this fact, people won’t reassess the circumstances that led to the unfavourable final result or attempt to stop it from occurring once more.

Giving choices an air of the divine

To offer choices a preordained and divine air, one can construct on istikharah and the looks of session with God as a technique to attain a binding resolution. In truth, some electoral candidates hyperlink their candidacy to istikharah to suggest that God is their first voter and even to counsel that they’ve divine assist. After his election as the top of presidency and upon getting into the presidential palace and his workplace, Raisi first made a bibliomancy, as if to counsel that his presidency was dictated by divine decree.

The prevalence of istikharah within the Iranian political sphere is indicative of the low ranges of scientific data amongst officers. Furthermore, as mentioned above, it permits them to flee accountability for any unfavourable penalties stemming from their choices — if every little thing is predestined by God, nothing will be their fault.

Sunnis additionally imagine in istikharah, however they view the Shiite practices of bibliomancy or rosary divination as religiously illegal — a superstitious act that’s on par with fortune-telling. Sunnis pray for istikharah and watch for inspiration from the center, an implicit, slightly than specific, strategy.

Superstition in Iranian well-liked tradition

Ads about divination, fortune-telling, astronomy, particular prayers, and talismans are widespread in Iran and geared toward most of the people. Individuals resort to those measures for issues involving marriage, enterprise transactions, well being care, and reduction from poverty. Given the size of the demand, one Shiite cleric in Qom, Majid Jafari Tabar, arrange a phone divination service with greater than 132 cellphone strains for divinators to reply. 

The usage of talismans can be widespread in Iran, to the purpose that even some soccer groups depend on them to win. For example, in a single match within the Iranian Premier League, the host group poured an toddler’s urine on the objective line to maintain the opposing group from scoring!

In Might 2009, an operative in then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s marketing campaign headquarters in Tehran informed me, “With the assistance of an Indian sufi, we ready a potion and poured it into Tehran’s consuming water sources to influence individuals to vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” He claimed that it had value 230 million tomans ($170,000). In 2011, throughout Ahmadinejad’s second time period as president, experiences had been printed about his kinfolk’ connections with astronomers and fortune-tellers.

In the same vein, an astronomer associated to figures in Ayatollah Khamenei’s workplace informed me that the streets throughout the safety zone of the management and presidential establishments in Tehran are given astrological names based mostly on Islamic astronomy (e.g. solar, star, Mercury, Uranus, and Mars) to create a protecting talisman for the regime. (It isn’t identified when precisely these names had been chosen.) He claimed that the Iranian supreme chief benefited from the recommendation of three Islamic astronomers, though it was not clear whether or not they influenced a few of his predictions, equivalent to “Israel gained’t exist in 25 years.”

Future prospects

The extra a society faces distress and poverty, the extra steadily and broadly individuals will depend on faith and superstition. The position of the sacred and ideological in Iranian politics and governance has led to the inclusion of many non secular and superstitious customs when deciding issues of state. Faith and superstition have taken priority over science and data in choosing and recruiting officers for the manager and political spheres. Individuals are introduced into authorities whose spiritual competency exceeds their scientific proficiency. That is why graduates of Imam Sadegh College (ISU) account for the most important share of cupboard and govt members in President Raisi’s authorities. A former department of Harvard College in Iran, ISU was restructured after the Iranian Revolution to carry collectively the seminary (seminary sciences) and the college (trendy sciences).

The mix of faith and politics in Iran has been detrimental to each spheres. The extent of religiosity among the many public has dropped so sharply that attendance at Friday prayers has grow to be a rising concern. Furthermore, the reliance on faith and the idea in predestination have led to a decline in using scientific and empirical analysis in macro choices and insurance policies in Iran. Strategic home and worldwide policy-making is predicated on ideology slightly than economics and science. For example, the authorities have requested that individuals pray for rain to take care of the drought disaster, whereas the environmental safety company requested individuals to wish for robust winds to take care of the issue of air air pollution in Tehran. This philosophy is encapsulated in an assertion by Hojatoleslam Kazim Seddiqi, the Friday prayer imam in Tehran, who introduced: “If individuals thought-about God in affairs, they might not have any dwelling issues.”

The decline in religiosity in Iranian society, particularly among the many youth; the rising normal mistrust within the authorities and non secular students; and the federal government’s rising strictness in spiritual issues haven’t solely led to tensions between the individuals and the federal government, they’ve additionally strengthened secularism. As an alternative of constructing adjustments to deal with these points, nonetheless, the present Iranian administration is transferring in the other way, towards a extra spiritual, militaristic, and nepotistic authorities, one staffed by graduates of non secular establishments like ISU, members of the IRGC, and kinfolk of present officers, the place scientific experience is devalued and istikharah and different spiritual practices play a rising position in issues of state. One doesn’t must depend on divination to know that such a path hardly augurs properly for Iran’s future. 

Mohammad Hossein Ziya is a strategic marketing consultant and researcher concerned in political and social analysis, election evaluation, and social media campaigns. He has been the chief editor of Saham Information since 2010 and is a Non-Resident Scholar with MEI’s Iran Program. The views expressed on this piece are his personal. 

Picture by Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Company through Getty Photographs