نشریه حکومت اسلامی
سال بیست و چهارم شماره 4 (پیاپی 94، زمستان 1398)

The necessity to form an Islamic government as a means of preserving the interests of Islam and Muslims is certain in ShiÝi jurisprudence. No doubt, to form a government and to run its related affairs requires access to financial resources. To do so, in the political jurisprudence (fiqh) of Islam, numerous resources have been recognized and studied, but no or scant mention has been made of endowment. However, making use of the various resources in ShiÝi fiqh, one is able to identify or create religious endowments which, as a state financial resource, can be put at the religious authority’s disposal in order to be used for the necessities, as well as the interests of the Islamic community. Drawing upon an organized analytical method, this article first seeks to identify the jurisprudential capacities for the important jurisprudential tasks, and then to study the defined authorities a religious authority has over the religious endowments. This research work rests on the hypothesis that there are various jurisprudential capacities in the ShiÝi dynamic jurisprudence to be used as one of the financial sources of the Islamic state; as the religious power and authority of religious authority and his jurisdiction over the public endowment is certain. This research work aims to prove the hypothesis in question.

Hording [in economics] is believed to be a behavioral pattern which occurs especially when people think that a current economic system does not operate efficiently or is in a chaotic state sometimes resulting in social collapse. Taking into account the jurisprudential sources, it seems at first glance that the hoarder is forced by law to sell the stored items and if he does not sell them at fair prices, the religious authority (hakim-e sharÝ ) places a price on them. However, the available jurisprudential sources have rarely dealt with the idea of the punishment of a hoarder. After the Islamic Revolution of Iran won victory and the Islamic government was formed, there was a tendency that under certain conditions, a hoarder should be recognized as “corrupter on earth”, or mufsid fi’l arÃ, to use the term in Islamic jurisprudence. The present research, having relied on the article 286 of the Islamic penal law ratified in 1392 in the Islamic Republic of Iran, seeks to describe and analyse the concept of corruption on earth as applied to one who is a hoarder. The research has come to the conclusion that a hoarder not only is at first faced with the force to sell at the fair price the items he has stored and pay a heavy fine, but he may also be sentenced to capital punishment if he is proved to intend to throw the Muslim community into a state of economical chaos and imbalance.

The role of the states and governments in developing and promoting societies or in keeping them in backward state have so far been the subject of discussions, and in the last decades, this issue has gained tremendous importance in certain discussions raised as to ‘small government’, ‘entrepreneurial state’, ‘electronic state’, and ‘efficient state’ as a governing paradigm. The concept of ‘desired rule’ has been used increasingly in the literature on ‘development’. The idea of desired rule characterized and defined as having the property of accountability is taken to be a paradigm for the constant human development. Therefore, this article seeks to establish the fact that whether the issue of ‘accountability’ which, as one of the constituents of a desired rule, is raised at the international level, can be traced in religious texts and reports as explicitly directed to the ways a country is run. By studying the constituents mentioned above in an Alawid government, one can find out that Imam Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, not only believed in the desired rule in theory but also he thought himself to be always committed to it in practice.

The theory of election by [an overwhelming] majority or majority vote is considered to be one of the most famous and widely accepted theories in political philosophy and political thought of the West and as a factor of legitimacy in the thoughts of Muslim Sunni thinkers and intellectuals. This theory that emphasizes on the legitimacy of majority vote, with its principles having undergone some changes in the course of time, have attracted the attention of some ShiÝi jurists. The theory in question in ShiÝi jurisprudence is taken to be a rival for the theory of ‘divinely appointed ruler’ – a theory which considers the political legitimacy of a Muslim ruler as something divine and thinks that it can find its exemplar in the Period of Occultation in a competent Muslim jurist (faqih-e jÁmiÝ al-sharÁyiÔ). Unlike the theory of divine appointment, the theory of election [by an overwhelming majority] and its background has not been subject of discussions so much. Accordingly, the present research, focusing on the historical background of the theory at issue, seeks to show that this theory has not gained the favor of anybody before the Persian Constitutional Revolution. And even during the Constitutional Revolution, the same theory has been proposed by certain Muslim constitutionalist jurists as a theory which could merely put some restrictions on the functions of the corrupt rulers. However, when the Islamic Revolution of Iran gained victory and the Islamic Republic was formed, certain contemporary Muslim jurists accepted it as a condition for the legitimacy of the political ruler. Therefore, the theory of election is an emergent theory that has no significant historical background in the literature 0n ShiÝi jurisprudence.

The revival of Islamic civilization in terms of the requirements of time and place in this contemporary world is regarded as one of the most important aspirations of the Islamic Revolution of Iran and that of most thinkers in the world of Islam. One of the issues relevant to the discussions on civilization is the relation that is thought to exist between civilization and social investment. References to the views and opinions of the Muslim thinkers and scholars can provide good hints in this regard. The views proposed by Imam Khomeini, the grand leader of the Islamic Revolution, as to the modern Islamic civilization and its relation to the social investment are of significant importance. Thus, it seems necessary to take his views of the issue in question into serious account. The present article seeks to explain the role and position of the social investment in fulfilling the modern Islamic civilization as viewed by Imam Khomeini. To do this, the article has drawn upon an analytic- inferential method. Of the findings of this research work one can refer to the fact that in the political thought of Imam Khomeini there is a significant relation between the fulfilment of a modern Islamic civilization and social investment so that the existence of social investment and the level of its growth in society can have a significant role in creating and promoting cooperation and sympathy towards the fulfilment of the objectives of the Islamic system, particularly in forming a modern Islamic civilization.

Imam Khomeini’s mysticism not only is of individualistic aspect, but also takes on extroversive and social approach to the problems. According to Imam Khomeini, the wayfarer or sÁlik in the four mystic journeys (asfÁr-e arbaÝah), when he is allowed to take the fourth journey, attains the station of knowing the Real, the Truth, well and he himself becomes a full-length mirror of the Truth. At this station, he is bestowed with the knowledge of the essence of things, of individuals’ aptitudes and capacities and of how they can promote to higher stations, assuming the responsibility of paving the ground for their perfection. Taking into account the principles of the Islamic mysticism as well as the concepts of monotheism and monotheist, Imam Khomeini proceeds to formulate his own religious socialization that is crystalized in a monotheistic community. A monotheistic community can be referred to or characterized as having unity, power, and freedom. In the case of unity, regarding the fact that mysticism is the realm of both the exoteric and the esoteric, and has the Divine Law or shariÝah and proof (burhÁn) within itself, and its subject of study is the Divine, it can create a common language. In relation to the concept of power as applied to the Divine, given the fact that the Divine Essence is Infinite and absolutely Self-subsistent and that there is no other instances of existence by itself other than God Himself, the wayfarer, relying on this power, resists against all the so-called superpowers and takes them to be non-existent and annihilated. And in the case of freedom, this form of mysticism not only pushes the wayfarer to the state of serving the Divine, but also brings him freedom of some kind, and the more he becomes firm in his belief in monotheism and approaches the state of the tranquility of the heart, the more he will seek freedom and justice in his life.

In the Islamic government, taking up posts and positions, especially those which are concerned with large- scale policy-makings and decision-makings, must be done on the basis of the principle of meritocracy, and arrangements have to be made for the meritocratic people to hold posts and positions. From the Islamic perspective, meritocracy can be thought of as comprising two main elements: piety and specialty. Accordingly, applying the principle of meritocracy in the Islamic government requires that a system should be devised by which only those who are the most devout and who have the necessary specialty (the most deserving people) to take up various positions. Referring to the relevant documents and drawing upon the descriptive- analytic method, the article attempts to study the issue in question in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study which has been conducted both theoretically and practical, shows in brief that with the existing mechanism and system, there will be no guarantee that the principle of meritocracy which is favored by Islam can be applied both in theory and in practice.