Amir al-Mu’minin’s Moral Approach to Politics and its Function in Engendering Soft Power

Soft power is resultant from the positive and fine face of power, in which policies are positively manifested such that people realize a government’s goals without compulsion. One significant source of engendering soft power is observance of morality in politics. In this paper, we deploy a document-based method with a descriptive-analytic approach to consider Amir al-Mu’minin’s approach to morality in politics and its function in engendering soft power. According to this research, Amir al-Mu’minin was strictly committed to moral values, and his approach to morality rests on four principles: “moralism and non-instrumental attitude toward morality,” “constancy and inflexibility of moral values even in the most challenging political circumstances,” “control of power with morality,” and “correlation and connection between morality and politics.” This approach leads to the establishment of moral values in the society and prevents the corruption of the centers of power and politics. Therefore, it is highly efficient in engendering soft power. A rediscovery of Imam ‘Ali’s approach to morality reveals the problems of soft power theory, such as instrumental and utilitarian view of morality, values being relative and matters of taste, and the separation between morality and politics.