He is considered to be among the philosophical ideologues of the Islamic government of Iran which came to power in 1979, following therevolution. Fardid was under the influence ofMartin Heidegger, the influentialGerman philosopher, whom he considered "the only Western philosopher who understood the world and the only philosopher whose insights were congruent with the principles of the Islamic Republic. These two figures,Khomeini and Heidegger, helped Fardid argue his position."[3]
Ahmad Fardid was born in 1910, in the city of Yazd. His father, Seyyed Ali Marvi, was a small scale farmer. In 1922, at the age of 12, he began to attend Islamic and secular schools in Yazd, where he started to learnArabic, as well asphilosophy andmathematics. At the same time, his father employed a private tutor to teach himFrench.
In 1926, Fardid moved to Tehran to start middle-school at Soltani High School, where he began to attend study meetings with scholars of Islamic studies.
Two years later, in 1928, he commenced classes atDar ul-Funun, notably the first modernuniversity and modern institution of higher learning in Iran.
The sparsity of Fardid’s written work has led to his recognition as an "oral philosopher". This was, to be sure, a puzzling attribute. Although Fardid tried to justify his expository reluctance to the poverty and contamination of the language, (in theHeideggerian sense) some suspect his reticence stemmed from his paralyzing perfectionism.
Fardid's turbulent intellect was absorbed in the enterprise of synthesizing (promisingly or otherwise) the results of his studies of Eastern civilizations with the Western philosophy, as interpreted byHeidegger. Fardid's project remains unfinished and fraught with shortcomings and errors. Nevertheless, it remains an enormously intriguing and valuable endeavor. Heidegger himself on several occasions (including in his encounters withD.T. Suzuki concerning "transmetaphysical thinking" and in his valedictory interview withDer Spiegel) optimistically alluded to the possibility of a convergence of Eastern and Western thought but he never explored the subject matter himself, citing a lack of knowledge and insight about the non-Western universe of discourse. Ahmad Fardid, from his corner, hoped to produce a blueprint for the endeavor, but he succeeded only in vaguely adumbrating certain contours of it. His influence is evident in the work of many philosophers in modern Iran, even if that is left concealed in their biographies and writings due to the criticism that is generally directed at his thinking by intellectuals with liberal and leftist politics.
Fardid coined the concept of "Westoxication" which was then popularized byJalal Al-e-Ahmad on his then widely known bookGharbzadegi, and after theIranian Revolution of 1979, became among the core ideological teachings of the new Islamic government of Iran. Among those influenced by his thought are also included "the theoretician of Islamic cinema",Morteza Avini,[5] and the former conservative president,Ahmadinejad.[6]
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My wish is to be free from the modern cave, which is filled with self-founded nihilism, enchantment by earthly gods (taghutzadegi), and historicism. This is my ideal, and wherever I see a lack of angered fists and the prevalence of compromise, I will be disappointed... because to possess and insist on a position is the right move.[7]
Weststruckness has dominated us for a hundred years... The youth are looking for the God of the yesteryears and that of the future. They are looking for the God of the Qur᾽an, while the nihilistic and self-founded history of the contemporary world has put down deep roots among us.[8]
There is no way to find democracy in the Qur’an. The Islamic Government is achieving the truth of the ”day before yesterday” and the “day after tomorrow.” Democracy belongs to Greece, and they embody idolatry.[9]
Humanism has nothing to do with the human. In theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights, there is no trace of the human... It is all about liberty, equality, and fraternity of the ego (nafsi ammarah) and the satanic self.[10]
In accordance withHeidegger, I put forward a historical position [mowghef]. Mankind is in a historical age when God is absent, the true God... Now, human is the Truth which is apparent, that, human is god, and the Greektaghut [idolatry] embodies the human. This is the humanism that I previously mentioned: humanism and humantaghut [idolatry].[11]
Mysticism's one eye has been blinded bywahdat al-vojud ("Unity of Being'), and the other one has been blinded byBergson. According to Bergson, there is turbulence in the world. Where is presence? Where is God? I hope the human dies of the unrest. This intrinsic (natural) wisdom [esnokherad], which is like darkness, appears like lightness for Bergson. Bergson's gnosis is one of the examples ofWestoxification. In fact, there is nognosis in the West. During the last four hundred years, philosophy in the West has focused on the actually existing reality (mowjud). In fact, you can not find any question about "existence" [vojud] in the nineteenth century, and all discussion were centered on mowjud.[12]
^Farhang Rajaee,Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 182
^Farhang Rajaee,Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 183.
^Farhang Rajaee,Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 182
^Farhang Rajaee,Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 181.
^Avideh Mayville, "The Religious Ideology of Reform in Iran" inJ. Harold Ellens (ed.),Winning Revolutions: The Psychosocial Dynamics of Revolts for Freedom, Fairness, and Rights [3 volumes], ABC-CLIO (2013), p. 311.
^Farhang Rajaee,Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 182.
^Farhang Rajaee,Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press (2010), p. 184.
^Ahmad Fardid,Didar e Farahi va Fotuhate Aakhare Zamaan[The Divine Encounter and Apocalystic Revelations,” 2nd edition, Tehran: Moassesseye Farhangi va Pajoheshi Chap va Nashr Vaza, 2008, p. 77.
^Ahmad Fardid,Didar e Farahi va Fotuhate Aakhare Zamaan[The Divine Encounter and Apocalystic Revelations,” 2nd edition, Tehran: Moassesseye Farhangi va Pajoheshi Chap va Nashr Vaza, 2008, pp. 76-77.
^Ali Mirsepassi,Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Times of Ahmad Fardid, Cambridge University Press (2017), p. 242.
^Ali Mirsepassi,Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Times of Ahmad Fardid, Cambridge University Press (2017), p. 249.
