The Status of Political Issue in Shia’s Political Jurisprudence History

The political issue has undergone fundamental evolution from the third century till now in Shia’s jurisprudential history. The article has focused on this using qualitative documentary method based on tracing the process inspired by the related literature. The results show that Shia’s jurisprudence has gone through four different periods, the first being private jurisprudence that, due to the start of Imam Mahdi’s Occultation period , it has given due attention to the nature of government. The second period is mingled with monarchy having as one of its indexes the distinction between “sharia-based issue” and “secular issue”. The third period includes the Constitutional Movement era that was concerned about establishing a semi- sharia-based type of government after the Occultation. The fourth refers to the Islamic Republic of Iran era in which the preliminary steps for establishing Islamic government under the auspices of a qualified mujtahid have been taken and the political jurisprudence steps onto the stage of organizing a system. In general, with the expansion of political issue, the Shia’s jurisprudential domain has undergone some evolution and its related concepts and assumptions have moved from individual fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to the practical and systematic one.