Tyranny or Constitutionalism? Investigation of Ayatollah Mirza Sadeq Aqa Mojtahed Tabrizi’s Viewpoint

Ayatollah Mirza Sadeq Aqa Tabrizi is one of the scholars of the constitutional era that according to his remaining texts appears to have a different approach to the two popular intellectual currents of that time. In the political thought of Mirza Sadeq Aqa Tabrizi, the sovereignty and legislature are exclusive to God, and, by His permission, the infallible authorities (Imams) are responsible for these affairs; in the era of absence of Imam, and all governances except them are illegitimate and they are an example of oppression. He defines despotism, as opposed to the common term, individualism in ruling, and does not perceive it as evil in itself. The only criterion of the ugliness of government is its oppression. According to the above, Mirza Sadeq Aqa concludes that the oppressive tyrannical government was preferred to the constitution of that time; since oppression had been multiplied and become generalized in the constitution. In his view, the constitution is a Western gift that inevitably leads to the destruction of Islam; the scholars who have accepted it have been deceived by the West and become their instruments. Mirza Sadeq Aqa Tabrizi considers the West and modernity inseparable in nature and rejects them with all their accessories.