نشریه حکومت اسلامی
سال بیست و چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 92، تابستان 1398)

The legal guardian in Islamic government is of certain authorities one of which in penal matters is the right or power to grant pardon to those who are subject to legal (prescribed) punishments. Researches into the books of Islamic jurisprudence reveal the point that the majority of Muslim jurists have had sporadic discussions on different penal issues and have recognized the Immaculate Imams as having the right to pardon the prescribed penalties under certain conditions. So far, the issue in question has not been taken into account as a jurisprudential rule in an organized and orderly manner and has not been spoken of its criteria as done in relation to other jurisprudential rules. Given the establishment of the Islamic government and the necessity of formulating governmental fiqh, it seems necessary to consider the issue in question as rule-governed and to explain its boundaries. The article, presupposing that there are permissions to administer punishments at times of Occultation, along with ascertaining the crime by means of sufficient evidence, tries to propose that the leader of the Islamic government is granted the right to pardon the prescribed punishments, thereby certain issues related to this , including documents and evidence for the rule, stipulation or lack of stipulation of repentance regarding the legitimacy of pardon or amnesty, the question whether the scope of the rule extended to cover such domains as the right of God or right of people and the right to be pardoned by the legal guardian of the one who profess to commit prescribed penalties are explored in this article.

JihÁd, a holy war for the cause of Allah, as being one of the jurisprudential ramifications, has been subject to debates among Muslim scholars. Muslim jurisprudents have divided this type of jihÁd in into two types: defensive jihÁd and initiative jihÁd (al jihÁd al 'ibtidÁi (a case when fighting is initiated by Muslims). From the perspective of strategy and foreign policy of the Islamic government, this article studies the Qur’Ánic foundations of initiative war in the light of transmitted life-story of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny) and the QurÞÁnic teachings. The findings show that according to the arguments based on the Holy Qur’an and the life-style of the Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic strategy in the field of international relations is grounded on peace not on war and accordingly the Holy Qur’an orders Muslim to immediately make peace if the enemy ceases its hostility.

This essay seeks to elucidate the jurisprudential status of the Islamic State’s information transparency in order to provide an answer to the question “what do the jurisprudential principles, rules and arguments require regarding free access to the data and information provided by the Islamic State?” Although in recent years some researchers have dealt with the issue of transparency in religious sources, various aspects of the issue have not yet been thoroughly clarified from the jurisprudential perspective. This makes clear the fact that it is essential to make a research into this subject from the jurisprudential point of view. The present research, being based on the thesis of limitation in access to the data provided by the government, has been conducted drawing upon the so-called established individual reasoning – as regards to the Qur’anic verses dealing with concealment, consultation, forbidding the evil, maintaining trust, the traditions regarding acknowledgement of knowledge, avoiding false accusations, the Commander of the Faithful’s way of governance and the practical life-style of the Immaculate Imams (peace be upon them) and jurisprudential rules – unlike the first presupposition -- result in the idea of necessity of transparency in its wider sense. Apart from making a reference to a number of exceptions of transparency, the article goes on to present the jurisprudential strategy for the measurement of preferences between contradicting jurisprudential issues as the solution for the conflict between the interests and whatever which violates the essential values of religion.

Expediency as an á priori approach in jurisprudence, is taken to be a criterion of designing policies on a large scale in the foreign policy of the Islamic system and, as á posteriri approach, in addition to its application in view of certain general principles such as maintaining the Islamic system in military and disciplinary realms, the country’s independence, denial of the foreigners’ dominion, convergence of countries at an international level and prevention of harms, management of affairs, setting priorities in policies and resolving the conflicts, the common interests of the Islamic community on the basis of the Islamic ends in some such wider realms as security, economy, and rights. Given the application of expediency in all political systems and schools of thought, Islamic political system, due to the criteria and norms of the Islamic Law (ShariÝah) and morality, has taken a form of expediency different from other schools of thought and can be distinguished from the expediencies of other systems at an international level. While explaining the large-scale policies of the Islamic system at an international level, this research work seeks to study the criteria and realms of expediency in the foreign policy of the Islamic system and show the advantage of this type of expediency over other systems drawing upon descriptive-analytic and deductive approach. Accordingly, based on the ShiÝi readings, sources and principles, the ShiÝi jurisprudence is able to make the best use of the expediency originating in the doctrines of ShiÝi jurisprudence found in the Book of JihÁd, in the foreign policy of the Islamic state, showing that Islamic fiqh is quite efficient in running the society in various security, legal and financial realms.

Discussions on the necessity or even permissibility of revolution and of forming an Islamic government has been a challenging issue in political fiqh of the contemporary world. Part of these disputes is concerned with the problem of ability of overthrowing the Pahlavi regime and running the society after the establishment of government and the duty of the legally competent to undertake religious obligations in this regard. It seems that in relation to this dispute, Imam Khomeini’s particular idea concerning the way in which the legal order is addressed to the legally competent persons, i.e. the theory of legal orders and its implication; that is, the idea of power as not being the condition for religious obligation (taklif) has had a direct effect on their functions in direction of the Islamic Revolution. This article, having studied the possible effect of Imam Khomeini’s theory of legal orders on the Islamic Revolution in two forms, i.e. “doubts on power” and “knowledge of the lack of power” comes to the conclusion that Imam Khomeini’s fundamentalist principle on which the legitimacy of revolution is based is essential to the theory of legal orders in connection with the idea of power as a condition in cases where knowledge of the possibility of gaining power is conceivable.

Retaliation” has always been the focus of attention in international relations and the countries’ foreign policies. This principle has its roots in the Holy QurÞan, being raised in jurisprudential discussions under the title of a jurisprudential rule of retaliation. This article seeks to explore the ways in which retaliation is applied in international relations from the Qur’anic perspective drawing upon descriptive-analytic method along with interpretation. From the Qur’anic point of view, retaliation in all affairs, whether of positive or negative kind, has certain applications particularly in connection with peace and war in the realm of foreign policy. This divine Book has provided the Islamic state with the approaches to retaliation and its application in accordance with the existing interests and priorities in interactions and relations with others. The findings of the research show that the Holy QurÞan advises the Islamic state to react in a more positive way against other states in their good and positive acts. However, in cases where countries show their hostility and take harsh measures against the Islamic state, retaliation can be an appropriate policy. However, suggestions have been made that one should avoid using every extreme kind of retaliation as well as non-humane measures, especially against the civilians.

A human society is in need of a government. In Qur’anic texts, emphasis has been made on the formation of an Islamic government. One can have access to the strategies of strengthening the Islamic government by studying the Holy Qur’an. This article aims to identify the Qur’anic elements influencing on the strengthening of the Islamic government. The research shows that culture and jihÁdi management are the QurÞanic elements contributing to the strengthening of Islamic government. These elements are of particular stance in the intellectual foundations of the Grand Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The basic question of this article is that “in the sphere of the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei’s thought, what are the Qur’anic strategies for strengthening the Islamic government?” The present research shows that through studying the verses of the Holy QurÞan and the Grand Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei’s views, one can find that in order to strengthen the Islamic government, attention has to be focused on the jihÁdi culture and management and their constituents. JihÁdi culture is crystalized in such constituent elements as theocentrism, the acceptance of authority, and moralism. On the other hand, JihÁdi management can be realized by means of enemy recognition, cooperation, service of others, indefatigability, and reflex (speed). In terms of methodology, the research is a descriptive-analytic.