Islamic Iran and the Issue of Progress

Although, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has made good progress in some areas and has achieved some military deterrence, in many other areas it still has a long way to reach the desirable and the advanced ideal society. So the main question of this article is: What is the driving force behind Iran's progress? In other words, where is the starting point of Islamic Iran toward progress? Based on exploratory studies, the hypothesis of the article is that the driving force behind the progress of Iran is its culture and endogenous cultural development. In order to prove the hypothesis and solve the problem, after defining the concepts and proposing the theories through descriptive-analytical method, the drive of progress and developmental factor in Western countries, Japan and Southeast Asia have been studied and searched. The findings indicate that the main factor involved in the development or progress of these communities is the endogenous cultural development created in these countries in some period of their history. Therefore, the way to progress and achievement of creating modern Islamic civilization in Iran, which is emphasized by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, especially in the statement of the second phase of the Revolution, is based on the cultural development and progress of Islamic Iran. The study also depicts the existing capacities in the original Islamic culture for the progress of Iran and creating modern Islamic civilization as follows: Rich heritage of the Islamic reform movement, continuous Ijtihad and dynamic Shiism jurisprudence, emphasis on culture of working, lack of conflict between religious values and progress, the progressive principle of the guardianship of Islamic Jurist (Velayat e Faqih), the objective model of government established in the past by the holy Prophet and Imam Ali - peace be upon them - and the ideal model of the Mahdavi government in the future.