نشریه حکومت اسلامی
سال پانزدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 58، زمستان 1389)

The principles of Islamic Government’s foreign policy turns around the free and mutual relations with other states, nations and groups, for the Islamic mission is a global one and Islam as a religion addresses the whole human beings regardless of their ethnicity, color or culture to which they belong. These relations are viewed qualitatively and classifiedin degrees or ranks, that is, the relations at various levels and quality are determined and organized in terms of the nature of the intellectual and practical beliefs of whom it addresses. In any case, in conveying its global message as its main goal, Islam puts emphasis on the principle of establishing and fostering equal and mutual relations on the condition that states and institutions of both parties avoid hostility, hypocriticaland illegal acts and do not hinder developments of legal and conventional relations following the principle of “good will.

“Social rights” is of high status in political, juridical, and legal thoughts as well as economic and social managements. In Islam, especially in what we see in its related religious texts and the life and conduct of Muslim leaders, social rights has been the focus of attention as far as preserving human dignity and establishing the healthy foundations of Islamic society are concerned. It is of such importance that a special legal and administrative system has been devised in this regard whereas in western systems there is no desirable foundation, system and model for social rights. Following the progressive Islamic thought, the system of social rights is seen to manifest itself in numerous chapters and articles of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran such as chapter 4: article 3 (the provision of special insurance for widows and aged women and women without support), article 28 (right to choose the employment one wishes), article 29 (right to the enjoyment of Social Security), article 30.

Performing the obligatory ritual of commanding the good and forbidding the bad rests upon the knowledge of the good and the bad. The basic question is “Who is competent enough to distinguish between the good and the bad? To answer this question, some certain sources such as intellect, practice of the rational people (the Wise), common sense, rules, man’s primordial disposition, and the Divine Law can be investigated andthe limits and boundaries of each in identifying the good and the bad can be determined. Individual intellect with all of its merits cannot be taken as a source of knowledge of the good and the bad because of its limitations. Common sense and practice of the rational people as such cannot be introduced as an authentic source unless they can be confirmedby the Law.

Nowadays governments’ interventions in economy to make fair improvement and progress is indispensable. Radical, liberalist-classic theories and communist theories on a state’s all-out intervention or nonintervention are no longer a matter of intellectual concern to mainstream of development economy. However, the main question is that to what extent a government can intervene in economy and what kind this intervention can be. To answer this question it is necessary to deal with the criteria for a state’s intervention in economy and to investigate the criteria for an Islamic government’s intervention in economy. Referring to religious sources one can come to this point that an Islamic government intervenes in economic affairs on the basis of interest, andinterest is taken to meant the fulfillment of the Divine Legislator’s purposes of providing people with worldly and other-worldly interests.

The “necessity of preserving the Islamic System” as a republic system of government is a decree agreed upon by the majority of existing Muslim jurists(faqihs). This general decree used in various jurisprudential issues is of such significance that it can be taken as one essential jurisprudential rule at the summit of the other rules. By ramifications in this context it is meant that some other detailed legal issues come from, correspond to orinfer from this decree in Islamic jurisprudence. The article, in fact, seeks to cast light on the ramifications of this decree and its impacts on fiqh, especially on political fiqh and Islamic law. By system in this article we mean the social system in its large scale under which all other political, economic, and cultural subsystems can lie.

Privacy has been the topic of discussion in recent years. There have been various definitions of privacy all of which are subject to serious objections.Nowadays the extremely arrogant states of the world invade peoples’ privacy under the pretext of national interest and consider any acts of aggression and of taking possession of people’s property permissible. What seems necessary now is to offer a precise definition of the term “privacy” and its importance in Islam and to cast light on the Western approach to it.Privacy is that part of life in which one is free from any legal penalty and reprimand and he or she can make any decision about it and others are not permitted to invade, observe, and interfere in it. It has been the focus of attention in Islam and the West. However, in the early twenty-first century when the Internet was made accessible topeople and when Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were attacked, these events paved the ground for the Western countries to invade citizen’s privacy under the pretext of ensuring security and fighting against terrorism.

The intermingling of religion and politics has long been a matter of continual controversy among the proponents and opponents of this theory. As a founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, who is an proponent of the theory of the intermingling of religion and politics, has resorted to the rational and transmitted arguments to explainthis theory. He maintains that Islam as a comprehensive religion, the nature of Islamic laws, Islamic government as a basis for the enforcement of Islamic injunctions, the administration of justice and the necessity of preserving the Islamic system all bring evidence for the intermingling of religion and politics, referring to the verses 58 and 59 of the Sura “Women” (an-Nisa‘), Mutheqa of Fadl ibn Shazan, Sahiha of Muhammadibn Muslim, Marazem’s tradition quoted from Imam Sadiq and Tawqi‘ of Sharif as transmitted arguments in favor of the intermingling of religion and politics. Furthermore, the life-style or conduct of the divine Prophets, and the political conduct of the holy Prophet Muhammad and that of the Infallible Imams (may peace be upon them all) are taken by Imam Khomeini as indications of the intermingling of religion and politics.