The conditions of the piety and justice of Government Officials in Imamiyyah Fiqh and in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran

According to the fiqh of Shi‘ah Imāmiyyah, one has no right to be ruler or gain authority over others unless this authority is determined and conferred on a person by the Islamic Law. The divine legislator considers justice and piety as necessary conditions for the execution and legitimacy of being a ruler. Therefore, justice is a necessary condition for the leadership of the Islamic nation. The question that arises here is: Should we consider the authority of those who preside the three powers to be similar to the authority which a ruler has, and so justice and piety are necessary for their being legitimate? Different views have been raised regarding the nature of these posts. Some consider these posts as some kind of agency (wikālah), some hold that they have the character of guardianship and others see that each of them should be treated separately. This paper rejects the idea of their being a kind of agency and takes them to have stages or ranks of legislative guardianship, whereby justice, which is one of the conditions of guardianship, has to be taken as prerequisite for holding these posts. After examining justice-based posts in the Constitution, the paper points out to the legal gaps in this respect and emphasizes on the firm, legal and Shar‘i status which the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts have as the authorities that recognize what justice is.