Religion in Iran

Not long after his birth, Mani's father, Pattikios, heard a voice commanding him to join a communitarian sect that resided in the marshes south of the city and so he abandoned his former life and took his son with him.

Over time, Mani built a following and a number of his trusted disciples were dispatched to the West to Syria, Arabia, and Egypt and added more converts to this rapidly expanding religion.

These Imams are considered the best source of knowledge about the Quran and Islam, the most trusted carriers and protectors of Muḥammad's Sunnah (habit or usual practice) and the most worthy of emulation.

In addition to the lineage of Imams, Twelvers have their preferred hadith collections – The Four Books – which are narrations regarded by Muslims as important tools for understanding the Quran and in matters of jurisprudence.

The last Imam recognized by Twelvers, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was born in 868 AD as the Alavids spread their rule in Iran while in conflict with Al-Mu'tamid, the Abbasid Caliph at the time.

[35] In particular after Ismail I captured Tabriz in 1501 and established Safavids dynasty, he proclaimed Twelver Shiʿism as the state religion, ordering conversion of the Sunnis.

[1] Although conversion was not as rapid as Ismail's forcible policies might suggest,[citation needed] the vast majority of those who lived in the territory of what is now Iran and Azerbaijan did identify with Shiism by the end of the Safavid era in 1722.

[38] While Ismail I declared Shiism as the official state religion, it was, in fact, his successor Tahmasb who consolidated the Safavid rule and spread Shiʿism in Iran.

After a period of indulgence in wine and the pleasures of the harem,[citation needed] he turned pious and parsimonious, observing all the Shiʿite rites and enforcing them as far as possible on his entourage and subjects.

There was a brief Iranian Constitutional Revolution in 1905–11 in which the progressive religious and liberal forces rebelled against theocratic rulers in government [40] who were also associated with European colonialization and their interests in the new Anglo-Persian Oil Company.The secularist efforts ultimately succeeded in the Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979 AD).

Additionally the most important scholars of almost all of the Islamic sects and schools of thought were Persian or lived in Iran including most notable and reliable Hadith collectors of Shia and Sunni like Shaikh Saduq, Shaikh Kulainy, Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj and Hakim al-Nishaburi, the greatest theologians of Shia and Sunni like Shaykh Tusi, Al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Al-Zamakhshari, the greatest Islamic physicians, astronomers, logicians, mathematicians, metaphysicians, philosophers and scientists like Al-Farabi and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, the Shaykhs of Sufism like Rumi, Abdul-Qadir Gilani – all these were in Iran or from Iran.

The most famous and celebrated of all the nizamiyyah schools was Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad (established 1065), where Nizam al-Mulk appointed the distinguished philosopher and theologian, al-Ghazali, as a professor.

About 9%[48] of the Iranian population are Sunni Muslims—mostly Larestani people (Khodmooni) from Larestan, Kurds in the northwest, Arabs and Balochs in the southwest and southeast, and a smaller number of Persians, Pashtuns and Turkmens in the northeast.

[56] It is reported that members of religious minority groups, especially Sunni Muslims who supported rebels during the Syrian Civil War, are increasingly persecuted by authorities.

[77] The small evangelical Protestant Christian minority in Iran has been subject to Islamic "government suspicion and hostility" according to Human Rights Watch at least in part because of its "readiness to accept and even seek out Muslim converts."

Iran is number nine on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.

In 2002 the US State Department granted Iranian Mandaeans protective refugee status; since then roughly 1,000 have emigrated to the US,[81] now residing in cities such as San Antonio, Texas.

[12] They are mostly ethnic Goran Kurds, and primarily found in western Iran and Iraq,[86][87][88] though there are also smaller groups of Persian, Lori, Azeri and Arab adherents.

Opposition arose quickly, and Amir Kabir, as prime-minister, regarded the Bábis as a threat and ordered the execution of the founder of the movement, the Báb and killing of as many as 2,000 to 3,000 Babis.

[110] Because irreligion and some other religions (including the Baháʼí Faith) are not recognized by the Iranian government, and because apostasy from Islam may be subject to capital punishment, governmental figures are likely to be distorted.

[12] Obtaining accurate data on religious belief in Iran presents challenges to pollsters because Iranians do not always feel "comfortable sharing their opinions with strangers".

For example, shortly after his return from exile in 1979, at a time of great unrest, the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities be treated well.

[130] On November 26, 2017, Iranian lawmakers approved the urgency of a bill that would give the right for members of the religious minorities to nominate candidates for the city and village councils elections.

[136] During 2005, several important Baháʼí cemeteries and holy places have been demolished, and there were reports of imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, discrimination, and murder based on religious beliefs.

[138] In 2004, inequality of "blood money" (diya) was eliminated, and the amount paid by a perpetrator for the death or wounding a Christian, Jew, or Zoroastrian man, was made the same as that for a Muslim.

But another article, 167, gives judges the discretion "to deliver his judgment on the basis of authoritative Islamic sources and authentic fatwa (rulings issued by qualified clerical jurists)."

[105] Beyond the Hojjatieh group, the Islamic Republic does not recognize the Baháʼís as a religious minority, and they have been officially persecuted, "some 200 of whom have been executed and the rest forced to convert or subjected to the most horrendous disabilities.

[180][181] In February 2023, senior Iranian cleric Mohammad Abolghassem Doulabi reported that 50,000 of the nation's 75,000 mosques had been closed due to a sharp drop in attendance.

Mosques in Iran are run similarly to churches in the United States they are tax-exempt and are non-profit institutions that are primarily supported through donations and trusts.

[183] Similarly, according to Pooyan Tamimi Arab and Ammar Maleki of GAMAAN detailing their survey results in the Conversation, over 60% of Iranians said they "did not perform the obligatory Muslim daily prayers", synchronous with "a 2020 state-backed poll" in Tehran in which "60% reported not observing" Ramadan fasting (the majority due to being “sick”).