Evaluating Mohammad Ismail Mahallati's Political thought based on Thomas A. Spragens theoretical framework

The main concern of this article is to explain political thought of Mohammad Ismail Mahallati within a conceptual and methodological approach and the application of the theory of constitutional government in the analysis of the interaction between religion and government. The main question of this article is how Mahallati finds the crisis of the political order in the Qajar period and what ideal prescription does he offer to get out of it? In this regard, the author by descriptive-analytical method, uses the theoretical framework of Thomas Spragens in the book “Understanding Political Theory “to explain the hypothesis of the article. The crisis of tyranny arising from the disregard for the necessities of the Shari'a forms the main hypothesis of the text, and in such historical circumstances the political thought of Mahallati has matured. Mahallati believes the ideal model is Imams government, so, due to a realistic view in the absence of Imams, the solution in anti-authoritarianism in building power is reforming the government based on reducing the authoritarian rule and establishing a constitutional government.