The criterion fatwa in legislation within the legal system of Islamic Republic of Iran (Another look at Superior Knowledgeability in the Shia state fiqh system)

Undoubtedly, legislation in any governmental system is based on its intellectual – philosophical foundations and special ideology. Hence, in an Islamic society, religious rules must be criteria of legislation in order to make those laws authentic and valid for the people. In this research, we have reviewed the historical past of the argument shortly, and have studied various possibilities for criterion fatwa in legislation, i.e. jurists’ common fatwa, fatwa based on caution, fatwa of the supreme knowledgeable jurist, and any jurisprudential fatwa. Thus, we have come to the conclusion that with regard to jurisprudential foundations, the fatwa of the supreme knowledgeable jurist is closer to authority and authenticity. Then, with reference to the criteria of ‘Superior Knowledgeability’ in political jurisprudence, we have reached the conclusion that in an Islamic state, the superiorly knowledgeable jurist is the same ‘ruling jurist’ testified by the elites of the Islamic community for his knowledgeability in conducting the affairs of the society based on Islamic measures. In the final step and according to the above-mentioned, the procedures available in the Islamic Republic with regard to criterion fatwa in legislation have been explicated and explained. The verdict and fatwa of the ruling jurist becomes the criterion for legislation in the Islamic state, either directly or through a secondary analysis and based on a delegation enshrined in the constitution (the delegation to the assembly in taking any jurisprudential fatwa and the delegation awarded to the jurists of Guardian Council in the exercise of his jurisprudential opinion). Therefore, the legitimacy and authority of the laws of the Islamic Republic are ultimately attributable to the verdict of the ruling jurist.