The Course of the Shiite Political Science from Imamate to Deputyship

The absence of the Imam of the time (may God hasten his glad advent) has created a critical situation which has provoked the Shiite scholars of narration, theologians, jurists and philosophers to reproduce the Shiite beliefs and their scientific and practical identity in the first two centuries of Imam's absence. The cause of this crisis was that the intellectual leadership and political order of society had not formed after Imam. Using intellectual traditions, custom norms and convicitonal and practical backgrounds, Shiite scholars have clarified the two fields of "existing realities" and "ideal goals"; and have reached a great achievement called "the political science of Shiite". The scholars have entered four field of knowledge in the process of this achievement. 'Scholars of narration' and 'theologian's have reproduced and reformed Shiite's intellectual and convictional fields; and 'philosopher's and 'jurists', considering the political situation and the critical circumstance, have presented some general and detailed ways to exit the situation of crisis. The result of the four groups of scholars was that the present political order is not legal and have posed "the jurist-centered political order" as the political order deputed by Imam of the time (may God hasten his glad advent). The four sciences which have created this political order in the form of the political system of Imamate, have common principles and bases and are the result of a unique cultural and historical background and motivation; and they have tried to design the political order according to Islam's political system.