The book Return to Islam by Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani is a groundbreaking and insightful work in the field of Islamic studies that addresses fundamental issues in Muslims’ beliefs and actions and presents a new approach to better understanding Islam and establishing it in society. Written in a scholarly and reasoned style, the book critiques common understanding of Islam based on well-established and certain principles shared by all Muslims from different sects, and provides a distinct perspective on Islam that transcends sectarian divisions, referred to as “the pure and perfect Islam.”
In this book, the author begins by explaining the foundation of understanding by identifying the criterion of cognition. He considers three key characteristics for this criterion: necessity, unity, and self-evidence. Through extensive studies, he introduces intellect as the criterion of cognition and emphasizes that all knowledge must ultimately lead back to it. However, he distinguishes between the rational intellect and philosophical reasoning and believes that the criterion of cognition is the rational intellect, not the philosophical reasoning. In addition, he addresses the thousand-year-old dispute between the Ash‘arites and the Adliyyah over the basis of goodness and badness. He considers it as a verbal dispute arising from their inattention to the creational and legislative nature of Allah’s commands and prohibitions. He believes that both the intellect and Sharia are the actions of Allah and that there is an inherent unity among the actions of Allah, without any contradiction or conflict between them.
He then goes on to explain the impediments to cognition and mentions ignorance, imitation, passions, worldliness, fanaticism, arrogance, and superstitionism as their most important examples. Under each of these, he discusses the historical critical evaluation of Muslims’ beliefs and deeds, critiques their intellectual foundations since the demise of the Prophet 
, explains prevalent innovations and deviations, and explores the roots of problems in the Islamic world.
In part of his book, he sees Muslims’ lack of correct and complete knowledge of Islam as the most important cause of their disagreements and deviations and mentions various factors and origins for it. He also considers Muslims not knowing each other and their enemies correctly and completely as additional causes.
One of the important issues challenged in this book is imitation. The author considers imitating the predecessors and oppressive rulers—in the sense of following them—as a cause of the decline of Islamic culture and declares the legitimacy of Muslims’ uprising against tyrannical and subservient governments, even if those governments claim to be Islamic. Additionally, he not only believes that imitating disbelievers—in the sense of following non-Islamic ideas and models—does not lead to material and worldly progress for Muslims, but he also sees it as a cause of the downfall of their culture and civilization. In addition, he considers imitating the majority of people to be a wrong action, and after rejecting the validity of consensus and fame as religious proofs due to their conjectural nature, he critiques democracy theoretically and considers it ineffective, especially in societies where most people’s intellects have not developed sufficiently.
He also rejects imitating scholars, arguing that it leads to conjecture, which lacks authority in Islam. He believes this is one of the causes of disagreements among Muslims from the past until now. He then considers ijtihad, in common terms—meaning deriving rulings from conjectural evidence—to be inadequate and sees it as necessary to find another way to achieve certainty.
Next, the author fundamentally critiques the theory of absolute guardianship of the Islamic jurist, sees it as an exaggeration regarding scholars, and rejects its possibility from a rational perspective; because, in the author’s view, unconditional obedience to someone who may intentionally or unintentionally command something unjust goes against the ruling of the intellect and Sharia. Also, considering the consequences of believing in absolute guardianship of the Islamic jurist, he points out that unquestioning obedience to fallible people and giving them the authority of the infallible is often a source of various conflicts and serious corruption, such as political tyranny, and this is another reason to avoid this belief. Of course, it is clear that the author’s critical opinion, although it has provoked strong political and security reactions in some Shia countries, especially Iran, is a completely scholarly point of view. It is similar to the opinions of some great Shia scholars, such as Shaikh al-Ansari, Akhund al-Khorasani, and Abu al-Qasim al-Khu’i, and it has absolutely no political or anti-security agenda.
After that, the author considers superstitionism to be an influential factor in Muslims’ beliefs and deeds. He critiques some Sufis for promoting it and believes that their role is significant in spreading irrationality and an emotional, poetic practice of religion among Muslims. He also condemns many poets for composing beautiful but incorrect poetry that contradicts the teachings of the Prophets. He sees them—like sorcerers—as rivals and opponents of the Prophets, who turn people away from the path of Allah with «زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ»; “flowery statements” and «لَهْوَ الْحَدِيثِ»; “idle talks.”
Another fundamental and important issue that Mansoor Hashemi Khorasani has addressed in his distinct and controversial book, Return to Islam, is the issue of Islamic government. In his view, the rule over people belongs to Allah alone, and no one else has the right to rule over them, and He exercises His rule through appointing a deputy called a “caliph.” Therefore, the basis for forming an Islamic government and its political legitimacy is Allah’s specific and definite permission, which does not exist for any of the current rulers in the Islamic world. Consequently, the government of none of them is currently considered an Islamic government. He believes that the need for an Islamic government to have a ruler appointed specifically and definitively by Allah is one of the obvious and essential matters in Islam and other Abrahamic religions, leaving no room for doubt or debate. Of course, unlike all Muslim scholars from all Islamic sects, the author believes that people can access such a ruler; because the reason they cannot access such a ruler, contrary to their perception, is not due to Allah’s wisdom, but rather due to their failure to provide the necessary conditions for accessing him, and whenever they fulfill these conditions in a completely normal and natural process, they will be able to access him. For this reason, their lack of access to him is not considered a valid excuse for them to choose a ruler other than him; because, on the one hand, since it is possible for them to access a ruler appointed by Allah, there is no need to choose another ruler, and on the other hand, their lack of access to this ruler is due to their own shortcomings; therefore, this cannot be considered a valid excuse for them to choose another ruler, even if it appears that they have no alternative. Based on this, an Islamic government is possible only with the government of Allah’s caliph on Earth, and the government of Allah’s caliph on Earth is possible only through people’s will and action.
In another part of the book Return to Islam, Khorasani considers the establishment of Islam to be useful and effective only in its pure and perfect form. He believes that establishing a part of it alone or mixed with something else is not only unhelpful and ineffective but can also be harmful and dangerous. This is contrary to the perception of most Muslims, who think that establishing a part of Islam is still desirable. He compares Islam to a system with interconnected parts; if one part does not work, the other parts lose their effectiveness, and the entire system fails. Therefore, Muslims have no choice but to establish the entire Islam in its pure form, and this is possible only if Allah’s caliph on Earth teaches it.
Another fundamental and important issue in this book is that the author considers the implementation of Islamic hudud and punishments to be contingent upon the implementation of all the general and political rulings of Islam. He believes that legislating these hudud and punishments has been done with consideration of the government of Allah’s caliph on Earth and is proportional to the time and place where all other rulings of Islam are implemented as deterrent factors. Therefore, the implementation of these hudud and punishments in another time and place is unfair and inappropriate; especially considering that, from the author’s point of view, the rulings of Islam are interdependent and interconnected; they influence and are influenced by each other. It is clear that this point of view, although it poses a great challenge to jurisprudence and the basis of criminal law application, is purely scholarly and originates from the author’s particular intellectual foundations.
In another part of the book Return to Islam, Mansoor Hashemi considers disagreements among Muslims, sovereignty of other than God, association with non-Islamic nations and cultures, emergence of madhhabs and their competition with each other, moral decadence, and hindrance of the enemies of Islam as the most important obstacles to the establishment of the perfect and pure Islam since the demise of the Prophet . He discusses each of these in detail with a perspective that is historical, based on critical evaluation, and free from sects.
Furthermore, he identifies the tendency to rely on hadith as a barrier to understanding and establishing the pure and perfect Islam; because, in his view, hadith—meaning a conjectural report about the Sunnah of the Prophet —is not considered valid due to the lack of authority of conjecture in Islam, and it is not sufficient to use it as evidence for deducing a belief or a ruling. He believes that there is no justification for excluding the conjecture arising from hadith from other forms of conjecture; because the lack of authority of conjecture is a ruling dictated by intellect and such rulings do not allow for exceptions. Therefore, only a mutawatir hadith, which has many narrators and leads to certainty, is valid, whereas such hadiths are very few and not sufficiently available. However, from the author’s point of view, the solution to this predicament is not to refer to non-mutawatir hadiths, but rather to go to Allah’s caliph on Earth; because his words and actions have authority in Islam and lead to certainty. If it is not possible to go to him at present, it is because people have failed to create the conditions for that. Therefore, there is no justifiable excuse for them to refer to non-mutawatir hadiths. Hashemi Khorasani believes that people’s failure to create the conditions for accessing Allah’s caliph on Earth has put them in a desperate situation that they seem they have no other choice but to rely on non-mutawatir hadiths for deriving the beliefs and rulings of Islam. But this situation is totally due to their negligence and is not forced upon them from Allah to contradict His grace. However, he believes that it is possible for people to get out of this situation; because accessing Allah’s caliph on Earth is possible for them when they guarantee his security; just as his sovereignty over them is possible when they guarantee his support and obedience.
In another part of his book, Mansoor defines Islam as submission to Allah, which is manifested through believing in His last Prophet. He believes that the followers of each Prophet are considered Muslims until the next Prophet comes to them; when the next Prophet comes to them, if they believe in him, they stay true to their Islam, and if they deny him, they turn away from Islam. In this part of his book, after introducing the last Prophet and proving his Prophethood, the author clarifies the position of the Quran and the Sunnah and highlights very important and fundamental points in this regard. One of these points is the impossibility of abrogating, specifying, and generalizing the Quran by the Sunnah; considering that the role of the Sunnah is only to explain the Quran, and it cannot contradict it in any way. Furthermore, the Sunnah is conjectural in most cases and lacks the ability to contradict the Quran, which is certain. Even in cases where it is considered mutawatir, it is still not as mutawatir as the Quran; therefore, it does not reach the same level as the Quran to abrogate, specify, or generalize it.
In another part of the book Return to Islam, the author considers the Sunnah of the Prophet to be proof and eternally followable. However, he believes that accessing it with certainty was mostly possible for the people of his time, but not for later generations. Therefore, later generations need another reference to achieve certainty about the Sunnah of the Prophet . This reference is Allah’s caliph on Earth, who is considered the Prophet’s successor in carrying out Allah’s commands and is naturally always accessible to people, just like the Quran. After examining definitive Islamic texts that include verses of the Quran and mutawatir hadiths from the Prophet , the author masterfully proves, in a manner acceptable to all Muslims and free from any sectarian orientation, that the caliphs after the Prophet are twelve men from his Ahl al-Bayt, the first three of whom are Ali, Hasan, and Husain, and the last of whom is the Mahdi. He then studies the issue of the Mahdi and his role in achieving the ideal of Islam, which is global justice. In this regard, he presents precise and deep details that are completely novel and unprecedented. For example, unlike others who believe that the Mahdi’s appearance depends primarily on Allah’s will and action and is subject to His wisdom, he believes that it depends primarily on people’s will and action and is subject to their readiness. He explicitly and decisively emphasizes that their access to the Mahdi is possible; therefore, they must focus only on protecting, supporting, and obeying him and must not engage in protecting, supporting, or obeying anyone else, whoever that person may be.
In the rest of his book, Hashemi explains the most important principle in Islam, which is monotheism. He considers three dimensions for it and explains each one in detail: monotheism in creation, monotheism in legislation, and monotheism in sovereignty. Next, he clarifies the other principles of the beliefs and rulings of Islam and redefines each of them in a unique way. He also opens new doors to scholars of jurisprudence regarding Zakat, Hajj, and Jihad, and from each of these doors, new doors are opened.
In this way, by applying clear rational rules and citing definitive religious texts —verses from the Quran and mutawatir hadiths from the Prophet — the author redefines the beliefs and rulings of Islam and presents a new and distinct understanding of it that can be seen as an Islamic school of thought and ideology, capable of revolutionizing the attitudes and approaches of Muslims worldwide, paving the way for their unity and closeness in the near future, and making significant and fundamental changes to their political and cultural structures.
We encourage all Muslims around the world, especially scholars, to read this important and influential book. We urge all readers, including Islamic leaders, to approach this work with patience and forbearance, respect freedom of thought and expression, and adhere to Islamic ethics and the proper manners of scholarly discussion. We also advise them to avoid hasty and irrational confrontations with thoughts and thinkers.
