Hawzah News Agency- In his book The Future of the Islamic Revolution of Iran (p. 71), the prominent Iranian scholar and key theoretician of the Revolution wrote that the movement succeeded in eliminating the deep-rooted sense of inferiority that had affected much of the Muslim world for centuries.
“The main point,” Motahhari stated, “is that this movement achieved a tremendous success: it removed the self-defeatism toward the West—in its broad sense, meaning both the Western and Eastern blocs—from our nation. It told our people: you possess your own school of thought and an independent ideology; you can stand on your own feet; you have your own distinct identity and character.”
Motahhari stressed that the Revolution was not merely a political shift but a profound cultural and spiritual awakening. Referring to sociological perspectives, he explained that just as an individual has a spirit, a society also possesses a collective spirit shaped by its culture and worldview.
“Sociologists have demonstrated that just as a person has a soul, a society also has a soul,” he wrote. “The culture of a society forms its true spirit. If a movement can identify and revive that collective spirit, it can mobilize the entire body of society at once.”
According to Motahhari, for two to three centuries—especially during the last hundred years when interaction between East and West intensified—many people in the Muslim world developed a sense of weakness and inferiority when comparing themselves to Western powers. This psychological condition, he argued, led to imitation, dependency, and a loss of confidence in indigenous intellectual and cultural resources.
The Islamic Revolution, however, reversed this trend by restoring belief in an independent ideological foundation. It encouraged the nation to rely on its own intellectual heritage rather than adopting models imposed by either Western capitalist systems or Eastern socialist blocs.
Motahhari viewed this revival of collective confidence as central to the Revolution’s long-term resilience. By reawakening the nation’s cultural identity and sense of dignity, the movement transformed passivity into determination and dependency into independence.
His analysis remains influential in understanding the Islamic Revolution not simply as a political event in 1979, but as a broader project aimed at reclaiming identity, self-reliance, and civilizational confidence for Iran and the wider Muslim world.
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