Ontological Foundations of a Religious Government (on the basis of Ṣadrian Theosophical System)

The main question of this essay is what role or effect the Ñadrian ontological principles has in making analysis of a religious government as one of the important issues in the Islamic political philosophy. To answer the question, an attempt has been made at the outset to make use of a descriptive method to deal with four important issues among the Ñadrian ontological principles and then, drawing upon a descriptive-analytic method, to study the role the aforementioned principles may have in explaining and elaborating on religious government from MullÁ Ñadra's point of view. The findings of the present research show that the principles like taking being (existence) as having degrees, purposefulness of existence, opposition and contradiction in the world of matter, as well as transubstantial motion and gradual change in the world of matter do have direct effect on discussions on the Ñadrian political philosophy, including the issue of religious government. On the basis of these principles, one can have a gradational and hierarchical image of a religious government ranging from the prophets' governments to the govrnments of scholars and religious jurists.