The Quranic Foundations of the Necessity of Confronting Subverters in the Islamic Government

The legitimacy of protesting against Islamic government is one of the accepted principles in Islam and the Constitutional Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, if protest turns into subversion, the Islamic government has to confront it and implement divine judgment regarding the subverters. The research question revolves around the Qur’anic foundations of the necessity to confront subverters, with the hypothesis that from the perspective of the Holy Qur’ān, all those seeking to overthrow the Islamic government must be confronted. In this study, we have concluded that any type of practical and deliberate confrontation aimed at striking against the “Islamic government entity” and undermining public security is considered subversion, so, initially, the Islamic ruler, and subsequently, all people are duty-bound to confront the subverters. The aforementioned encounter in the initial stage must be conducted with utmost peace, but unfair peace based on complacency with subverters is not endorsed or divinely approved. Traditions attributing the occasion of the revelation of verses to Imam Ali’s struggle against the Nākithūn (those who broke their covenants), the Qāṣitūn (those who deviated from divine guidance), the Māriqūn (the apostate, those who became renegade by seceding from the caliph’s camp) and enemies of Imam Mahdi (May Allah hasten his noble reappearance) are all indicative of the application of a universal concept on a particular one,  and  also of the fact that the same principle applies to those who want to subvert the Islamic government with no exception. The type of punishment for the subverters is specified by law.