Mulla Sadra's Political Philosophy on the Role of People in Government (An explanation)

The role of people in managing a society, since long time ago, has set up the main factor of creating a society as one important issue of political philosophy. This issue has a particular importance in Islam and Islamic philosophy. Accordingly, this essay goes to answer the question "what is the role of people and the position of acceptability in a government as per Mulla Sadra's viewpoint?"There are two different views as to this question. The first view considers Mulla Sadra's political philosophy undemocratic and authoritative. There is no room for the principle of acceptability; however, legitimacy is the main principle of a regime. Nonetheless, according to the second view -the preferred view of the essay-, Mulla Sadra believes in a religious democracy in which people play a major role in preferring the kind of government, electing a ruler and supporting him (hypothesis). In order to prove this claim, the authors have studied related parts of Mulla Sadra's political philosophy, some related verses of the Qur'an, and comments on his political views by the followers of transcendent theosophy (method).In their efforts to show the role of people in a religious democratic government (aim), the authors have come to the conclusion that, according to Mulla Sadra's view, in a religious government, the intellect is under the light of shari'ah (divine law) and acceptability falls under legitimacy, thus the society would be a utopia and an ideal city-state (findings).