نشریه معرفت سیاسی
سال چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 8، پاییز و زمستان 1391)

The guardianship is a central concept in the political thought of Islam. However, it does not mean that it is epistemologically clear when it comes to cognition. So, it is difficult for many analysts to elucidate its components and parameters. This difficulty is mostly related to the definition and analysis of the components and parameters which demonstrate the various aspects of Guardianship-centeredness in practice. Expounding the nature, components and parameters of guardianship-centeredness, the present paper tries to provide efficient parameters. These parameters are grouped in four main headings: leadership, structure, theory of legitimacy, and people. Each of these components has some parameters to which the author points out in this article.

The realization of a steady and inexorable march of progress entails providing a full-scale model based on religious principles. Religious sources consider the question of "justice" as a most important principle. Being one of the most important Islamic principles, the justice, which consists in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of the intellectual system of Islam, is regarded as a general principle. The political system of Islam regards it as a central principle which must has to play a central role in the constituents of this system. Accordingly, a developed political system cannot be set up unless justice plays a central role in its all constituents. Therefore, the parameters of justice-orientation are those parameters which point out the scale of justice in these structures, and they are evaluated according to the scale of justice and practical commitment to justice in the areas of insight, behavioral action and structural action.

In Islam, political participation is considered one of the features of a developed Islamic society. Its parameters can be detected in the model for Islamic progress in terms of insight, structure and behavior. With respect to insight, religion has an instrumental view of power and government is regarded as a divine trust. Furthermore, obedience to ruler and participation in political affairs are considered among religious duties. The political system of Islam is organized in such as way to encourage participation and such things like allegiance, consultation and jihad are observed in organizing political affairs. With respect to behavior, the citizens of Islamic society give allegiance to the legitimate ruler and obey him. In such a society, people and state strive to safeguard the good government through good will and unity.

Nowadays, ensuring that human rights are recognized and observed is one of the most important aims of international rights in regard with regulating international relations. The question that arises here is: how the recognition and observance of human rights in human societies and international environment can be ensured? Preventive methods which provide objective grounds for protecting human rights are, perhaps, the most tactful mechanism for attaining this aim. In terms of the system of sanction, Islam has provided preventive strategies to confront the violation of human rights in international environment. Some of these strategies are: supporting permanent peace, paying attention to comprehensive security, institutionalizing justice-seeking discourse, knowledge-centeredness and promoting science, struggling against hegemonic-arrogant culture and capitalist thought, providing a model for an agreeable life which serves as a model for regulating social relations, recommending the expansion of spirituality as the greatest support for human rights, commitment to keeping promise, confronting anti-human thoughts and schools like nationalism and racism, sincerity and spiritualism, and struggle against polytheism.

The question of terrestrial utopia in which there is no sign of concern about natural life is man's longstanding aspiration which has been the special concern of great philosophers. Such great philosophers as Socrates and Plato have delved into the ideas related to this issue and Aristotle logically organized them. Such Muslim philosophers as Farabi and Mulla Sadra have also sought to expound it. From among all kind of utopia and clearly compares them to show the difference between each of them in the light of the conception of utopia. In Mahdist city, all things move towards absolute perfection, there is no room for avarice and extravagance, and all people consider themselves to be responsible. Shedding light on the Greek utopia, this paper highlights the similarities between Plato's utopia and Mahdist utopia and pinpoints the defects of Plato's utopia, and then defines Mahdist city as a worldly utopia which eliminates man's worldly concerns and moves towards a high horizon which cannot be explained through a mere worldly view.

The Islamic Republic of Iran was formed on the basis of doctrines of Islam emphasizing on such components as culture and political values, an event which distinguished the nature of Islamic Revolution and the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran from that of other systems. Such components as culture, political values and ideals of foreign policy are mentioned in the early conceptualization of soft power. Accordingly, the components of soft power introduced by Islam are different from the ones proposed by Joseph Nye in the early conceptualization of this power. This difference lies in the way power, man, ethics, and God are perceived. The sources of Islamic soft power are based on such values as self-sacrifice, martyrdom-seeking, spiritualism, justice- orientation, guardianship-centeredness, truth-orientation, and independence-seeking in such a way that this power has not only caused internal cultural change but also have influenced the external process of religious self-confidence and Islamic awakening.

Every revolution, before its victory or after transformation into a political system, passes through different stages. Scholars who are interested in this field of study have proposed different views on this issue. One of the important views is Crane Brinton's theory which is called the theory of themidor or cycle of revolution, because he has tried to give a similar idea about other revolutions through the conclusion he has reached after analyzing four great revolutions in the world. Using a descriptive-analytical method and analyzing Brinton's theory in the light of his works, the present paper tries to criticize and evaluate this theory and point out its defect in analyzing the events of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, especially with regard to the developments that took place after the victory of Islamic Revolution, by conforming it to the Islamic Republic of Iran.