Islamic Society and the Nature of Leadership in the Thought of Martyr Beheshti with Emphasis on the Theory of Imamate and Community (Ummah)

For a long time, the issue of Imamate and leadership has been discussed in the Shiite Islamic community; therefore, it has gained high importance and it has been called "the pivot of Shiism" (History), but in the political thought of Martyr Beheshti, its nature has not been investigated enough (Problem), an issue which has not been given serious attention by the research community of the country (Background); therefore, this question is raised: What is the nature of leadership of the Islamic community and its requirements like the role of people and the relationship between people and the leader in Martyr Beheshti's point of view? (Question) It seems that Martyr Beheshti seeks the answer to this question in the conceptual framework of the "Theory of Imamate and Leadership" (Hypothesis). In order to achieve Martyr Beheshti's point of view, the present article seeks to explain the relationship between people and the leader of the Islamic community (Objective) through using descriptive-analytical method and collecting appropriate library data (Methodology). The results show that Martyr Beheshti considers Imamate as a continuous line from the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the Infallible Imams (A.S) to religious scholars at the time of occultation which is now manifested in the Islamic Republic, and emerged in two categories of being republic as a sign of the sovereignty of the people and being Islamic as showing divine sovereignty, such a way that they are hierarchically related not as parallel ones (Finding).