A Comparative Study of the Theory of State from the Viewpoint of Aquinas and Imam Khomeini

The political thought of Imam Khomeini, a philosopher, thinker and mystic, who promoted the theory of the state based on the principles of Islam, in comparison with thinkers and philosophers, especially the ancient philosophers, has proved the supremacy, comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the political thought of Islam and has added to the richness of the discussions. Using a desk-research and written and spoken works, this paper has studied the theory of the state from Imam's point of view with Thomas Aquinas' viewpoint with the general rights approach with a comparative approach and has extracted its similarities and differences. Supernatural and Divine purpose of the state, divine legitimacy, the needs of government to revelation, religious institution leadership, the condition of knowledge and justice for the ruler, the basis of the law on the Divine law and popular monitoring of the state are among the main similarities of these two viewpoints. These two ideas have the finest differences in terms of the type of government, the reason for the necessity of the state, the relationship between the government and the religious institution, the status of the people and the necessity of forming a government on the fittest individual.