The Nature of the Islamic-Iranian Model for Progress and the Role of Religious Science Schools in its Development

The establishment of an independent center for the developing the Islamic-Iranian Model for Progress can be regarded as a turning point in the development programs of Iran. The important points about this decision can be highlighted as follows: paving the way for the implementation of the decisions made by the government, transferring the responsibility of developing the model from the executive or Expediency Council to the leadership, establishing a special council for supervisingthe implementation of the program, highlighting the criticisms about development in its western concept, replacing the word “development” with “progress”, highlighting the necessity of adopting a practical and realistic attitude towards progress, highlighting the role of religious science schools and paving the way for their presence as an institution in the macro policy-making of the country. Since the word “model” is the most appropriate, among terms such as ‘way map’, ‘pattern’,‘paragon’ and ‘political theory’, to be used in the title ‘Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress’, it should be noted that it necessities proper questions and responses as the bases of the model. These bases are of different kinds, one of which is connected with cognitive and religious origins, which can be divided into 7 groups: the bases connected with the definition and status of religion, those related to epistemological issues, those connected with ontological issues, those connected with anthropological issues, those connected with sociological issues, those connected with progress and finally those connected with civilization.With a realistic attitude towards capitals and the current situation of the religious science schools, besides their part in the discourse development and production of science, three other roles can be attributed to them: providing the cognitive basis, supervising the implementation of these bases in the model, and contributing to the development of other bases and components of the model. It seems that the establishment of an independent institution for the Islamic-Iranian model for progress is of paramount importance in fulfilling the potential of the religious science schools.