“Uprising” in the thoughts of Zaidiyyah and Imam Khomeini: a comparative study

The Shi’a sect has always considered activism and uprising as means to better reach the ideals and improve both worldly and otherworldly lives, from the inner strengths of the man to the entire universe. In this vein, it has always been fighting with the barriers of the vicious. With regard to the Islamic teachings, this issue has become a stable trend in the Shi’a thought. In the Shi’a thought, the concept of “uprising” is something deeper and wider than “insurgency” and “armed rebellion”. In the historical period after the Karbala event and among the Shi’as, Imam Khomeini Uprising has been the most effective uprising in terms of creating social changes. Among the Islamic sects and factions, the Zaidiyyah thought has many things in common with Imamiya School. Thus, in studying the concept of uprising, a comparative study of these two currents of thought would be useful. Studying the theological, doctrinal and jurisprudential principles of uprising (Imamate, jihad, enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong, governance) and its content (the concept, motivation, means to achieve, goals and prospects, intellectual and theoretical rules) would help exploring the relationship between the uprising discourse in the thoughts of Imam Khomeini and Zaidiyyah. Building upon historical, jurisprudential and theological literature and using a descriptive-analytical method, this article tries to conduct such a study.