The Causes Responsible for Materialist tendencies in the West (4 of 4)

point

Translated from the Persian by Mujahid Husayn

Martyr Murtadha Mutahhari

The Inadequacy of the Social and Political Concepts

The third cause of the growth of materialist tendencies was the inadequacy of certain social and political concepts. In the history of political philosophy we find that when certain social and political ideas were propounded in the West and the issue of natural rights, especially the people's right to sovereignty, was raised, a group advocated despotism. It did not recognize any right for the masses vis-à-vis the rulers, and the only thing it recognized for the people was their duty and obligation to the latter.

In order to lend justification to their arguments in favor of despotic rule, they took recourse in theology, claiming that the rulers were not answerable to the people but only to God, while the people were answerable to the rulers and owed a duty to them. The people had no right to question the ruler's actions or to assign him a duty. Only God was entitled to question him and call him to account. Thus the people had no right over the ruler, although he had rights over them which it was their duty to fulfill.

As a natural consequence, there arose in the minds a kind of artificial

p: 1