نشریه سیاست پژوهی ایرانی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 4، تابستان 1394)

The concept of the council, an Islamic instruction along with the other religious instructions, enjoys appropriate conceptual and theoretical potential which are along the discussion of the religious democracy. Although in the religious texts the concept of the council has been in the center of the attention and theories of the Muslim scholars for a long time, the Iranians thinkers revisited it in their reflections once again through the Iranians’ acquaintance with the modernity and such concepts as the parliament, election, voting and representation. This theoretical attempt formed for the first time in the period of constitutionalism. Also in the experience of the Islamic republic, the theoretical participation of the people extended from the level of decision making and law making to the level of developing systems and structures; practically as well, the necessary mechanisms were provided for the realization of a consultative life at the general and specialized levels. This experience, along the way of the religious democracy, has taken effective steps. The present article is the study of the Iranian experience of the council, especially in the Islamic republic regime.To this end, the position of the concept of the council in the religious texts, the first consultative life experience in the period of constitutionalism, and the Iranian experience of the council in the Islamic republic will be studied.

Unity of God is one of the most central belief issues in Islam. This issue in Islam is believed to contribute to the culmination of individuals and the society; so that all the Islamic regulations and the human relations in the social life, such as the cultural and educational relations, commercial and economic contributions, and political and military contracts, are designed based on the principle of the unity of God. Therefore, one of the important issues for the political thinkers has been the way the unity of God influences the politics. To this end, the present article tries to find out what obligations are brought about in the realm of the Islamic politics by the unity of the Divine Essence and the Unity of Divine Acts. The findings reveal that the pluralities within the society and the political system and the position of the power in politics rely upon the Unity of the Divine Essence, which results in a kind of solidarity in the whole system and joins all the components of the ruling system together, and besides a Unitarian view it justifies the pluralism in the political system along its oneness. Furthermore based on the Unity of the Divine Acts, the origin of governance is the authority of God; the prophets, the imams and their deputies are the ones who have the authority of ruling, respectively. Therefore, the legitimacy of the power relies on the Divine permission, and even if it is assumed that the human intellect can come up with a perfect political system, acting in accordance with the necessities of that system somehow requires a manipulation in the power of the Most High God.

The mechanism of Imam Khomeini’s dynamic ijtihad, besides developing a systematic relationship with the sources (the Qur’an, tradition, consensus and wisdom), enjoys a logical link with time and space and hence extracts the regulations for the political and social life out of them. Although the social structures of time and space limitthe juristswithin the context of the social environment and the realities of everyday political life (power relations), the only element for the jurist theoreticians to develop political thoughtsis "the legitimacy and supremacy of religious texts".
The distinctive characteristic in Imam Khomeini’s Jurisprudential approach is its being based on religious texts. The present research assumes that Imam Khomeini’s social, systematic and comprehensive view toward the religious texts has caused his jurisprudential‐political deductions to be social, systematic and comprehensive, as well. For instance, he considers the governance as a component of religion and among the primary rules. The consequence of such a view is that Islam will be deficient without “the ruling of the religious leader”. This article is based on a holistic approach with reaches beyond the additive philosophy and it tries to extract the religious‐text features in Imam Khomeini’s view and study their influence on the politicaljurisprudential thoughts.

Some people believe that freedom is a modern concept and there is no track to be found in the Islamic texts concerning this concept. According to these people, the freedom in the world today, has originated from the thinking of the modern Western society, and it has been absent in the Muslim community. Moreover, even if it is assumed that it is possible to discuss the concept of freedom in the Holy Quran, there is extreme scarcity in this regard in the Islamic literature and teachings.Therefore, we cannot provide literature concerning the issue of freedom and discussing freedom in such texts as the Qur’an remains impossible. Meanwhile, there are other viewpoints in this regard which state that it is conceivable to talk about freedom in the Qur’an, without looking for counterparts among the modern discussions. . On the one hand, the concept of human freedom has always been the most important concept for human being and therefore the most central text in Islam could not be silent about it; on the other hand, if the meaning and purpose of freedom is determined in the religious texts, we can reflect on the religious texts and investigate aboutthe presence of the elements and principles of freedom in the Qur'an. Freedom has been considered as a modern phenomenon and an achievement different from the former thoughts and world because the forms and manifestations of freedom has changed but the theme of freedom has always been important. The present article deals with the possibility and impossibility of freedom in the Qur’an and tries to discuss some of the main points in this regard.

Ontology provides the fundamental assumptions about the essence and nature of the reality; In other words, it presents the human’s view toward nature, society and existence and the way he regulates his relationship with his environment. The distinctions and differences between the Islamic and western epistemology result from the fundamental differences in the Islamic ontology and the ontology of the modern world.
The ontological questions are about the fundamental nature of this world, the realities and social aspects of these realities. These questions are the major concerns in this article. What is meant by being and by reality? What is the nature of the ontology of knowledge in the Islamic thought? What are the distinctions between the Islamic ontology and epistemology and the western ontology and epistemology? What are the authentic grounds and perspectives of the Islamic ontology and epistemology? The major purpose in the present article is to analyzethe issue of localism in scienceand to provide the intellectual grounds for the study of the features and requirements for this purpose.

The present article is a survey on the amount of the acquaintance of the seminary‐school students and university students of the third generation of the Islamic revolution in Qom with Imam Khomeini’s political jurisprudence in his political thoughts. The sample in this survey consisted of 600 participants chosen through a mixed method sampling (quota‐stratified),who answered a questionnaire. The findings of the research revealed that the amount of the acquaintance of the seminary‐school students and university students in Qomwith Imam Khomeini’s political jurisprudence in his political thoughts is 74.01 percent; furthermore, the findings showed that the participants’ gender, marital status, residential status (urban/rural) had no influence in this regard. Meanwhile, their place of education, age, and education level influenced the level of their acquaintance.