Leadership of Social Capital with Special Reference to Imam Khomeini's Leadership

Imam Khomeini maintains that the objective of the Islamic Revolution and Islamic Republic was to consolidate Islamic and Quranic commandments. Hence he considers the preservation of the Islamic Revolution as the greatest obligation. He also maintains that the continuation of the Islamic Revolution and protection of the Islamic Republic is more difficult than the previous phases of the movement. The main problem of the present paper is to study as to how to protect the Islamic Republic system. The hypothesis of this paper is that the social capital gained from the relationship between the Ummah and the Imam is the main element in protection of the system. Convergent social interactions, social participation and trust are the main elements of social capital, while social trust is at the heart of social capital. Through studying Imam Khomeini’s leadership and its features, the present paper has concluded that Imam’s leadership played a very important role in creation of the said elements. His leadership was the basis of unity, convergence, social participation and social trust and therefore it was a permanent source of convergence and dynamism.