معرفت

The Precursors on the Path to nearness to God

Ayatollah 'Allamah Mohammad Taqi Misbah

Abstract

The present paper is concerned with the way of achieving divine proximity. Although man can achieve a degree of perfection congruent with his efforts, religious teachings show that man can draw nigh to God, become perfect, and achieve salvation and prosperity by increasing his efforts.

From Imam Sajjad's viewpoint, to achieve proximity and perfection, man needs to have following characteristics: following the path of perfection steadily and quickly, worshipping by day and night and fearing God. Admission of weakness and disability before the Most High God's greatness and majesty leads to the feeling of fear of God.

Key words: God, fear of God, proximity, pioneering seekers after nearness to God, salvation and prosperity.

Legitimacy and Political Obligation in Islam

Hayatollah Yusufi

Abstract

The main question of the present paper is: what things are considered as the foundations of the legitimacy of Islamic government and political obligation of citizens from the perspective of Islamic political philosophy and religious resources in Islam? The discussion is based mainly on (philosophical-theological reasoning) and reference to Quranic verses. Legitimacy and political obligation are closely interconnected and legitimacy is considered as presupposition of political obligation. In Islam, divine guardianship is the origin and foundation of legitimacy of government. In order to express “gratitude to benefactor", it is necessary to accept the divine guardianship of God, divine prophets and infallible Imams. The guardianship of just jurists, its legitimacy and the necessity of obeying them can be understood in this context.

Key words: legitimacy, political obligation, government, guardianship, justice, infallibility, Islamic jurisprudence.

Expounding the Role of "Infallibility" and "Piety" in Achieving the Aims of Islamic Government

Mohammad Ali Ranjbar

Abstract

Common sense that it is necessary to form government in order to maintain social order and security. Every government has certain aims which are in accord with its particular intellectual and theoretical foundations and it grants its governors certain conditions and characteristics on the basis of these aims. Islamic government has certain conditions including infallibility and piety.

The present paper tries to answer this crucial question: what are the roles of infallibility and piety as part of the conditions of a governor in achieving the aims of Islamic government? Hence, it expounds the role of infallibility in the achievement of these aims during Imams' presence and of piety during the occultation period, relying on Quranic verses, Imams' traditions and using library–descriptive method. Since the most important aims of Islamic government during Imams' presence or occultation period are to enable man to attain exaltation and perfection and ensure worldly and other worldly happiness, infallibility and piety have a key role in the realization of these aims and consequently in the efficiency of Islamic system.

Key words: government, Islamic government, general aims of government, particular aims of government, infallibility, piety.

Party in Islamic Political Thought: a Theological, Legal, and Philosophical Approach

Mohammad Zulfaqari

Abstract

Party in its general sense may be an ancient phenomenon that is not exclusive to any civilization. The term "party" found a new meaning in political literature after the construction of western liberal democracy. After the formation of new parties in Islamic societies, there has always been considerable debate among political thinkers over the nature, reason, quality, and legitimacy of party in Islamic political thought.

Exploring the literal and idiomatic meaning of the term "party" in Islamic, western and ancient political literature, studying their foundations, and offering a new and general meaning for it, the present paper tries to expound the status of party in the view of Islamic theology, fiqh, and philosophy.

The existence of parties in Islamic society and the freedom of action they enjoy is taken to be a positive phenomenon because legal and rational demands in Islamic principles are recognized with the existence of parties. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the proposed hypothesis by relying on Islamic resources and using a descriptive-analytical method.

Key words: party, party of God, party of Satan, political competition, political power, Islamic political thought.

The Role of Shi’ah Religious Elements and Symbols in the Movement of Nationalization of Oil Industry

Mahdi Abutalibi

Abstract

With regard to the importance of the movement of nationalization of oil industry in Iran and the special attention given by the authors of the books of modern history to the role played by nationalists in this movement, the present paper tries to expound the role of the religious elements and groups in this great anti-colonial movement. Therefore, the role of Shi’ah religious elements and symbols has been studied by referring to works concerning this issue. The study of these works indicates that the factor of guardianship represented in the guardianship of jurist" and “dissociation from the enemies of and loyalty to the Prophet and his Household”, and such religious symbols as religious rites and ceremonies, jihad and martyrdom-seeking, religious places, reference to the Quranic verses and Imams' traditions cited in religious declarations, meetings and mottos had influential role in this movement.

Key words: movement of the nationalization of oil industry, Ayatollah Kashani, Shiite jurists, Shiite school of thought, guardianship, religious symbols.

Ayatollah Na'iini and Parliament

Mahdi Torabpoor

Abstract

Mirza Na'iini’s defense of constitutionalism was intended to support the idea of forming a popular institution called "assembly" and thus limiting the king's jurisdiction. For him constitutionalism is not an ideal system at all, because it is an infallible Imam that has to be at the head of government. However, during occultation period this position has to be entrusted to the jurists who enjoy all the requirements, i.e. general deputies of the Imam. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a survey on the reasons behind Na'iini's defending the idea of having an assembly during the period of a tyrannical regime. obviously, when we write about his idea we should rely on a descriptive method and when we want to investigate them on a rational-narrative method in order to show that the main concern of Ayatollah Na'iini, an Usuli jurist, who held that proper conditions for building an ideal system were not available, was how Shiite theoretical principles could be generalized according to religious thought and demands of the time. The legitimacy of having a national consultative assembly can be established accordingly.

Key words: Parliament, assembly, constitutionalism, national council, jurist.

A critique of Johnson's Theory: Revolutionary Change

Ali Akbar Baqiri

Abstract

Chalmers Johnson's theory is one of the theories about revolution adopted by the functionalist school. Based on functionalist sociology, Chalmers explains the grounds for the break out of the revolution, but he uses psychological analysis to recognize the revolution. On the other hand, the Islamic Revolution of Iran, being one of the most glorious and widely known revolutions in the world, has attracted the attention of the scholars so that they proposed several analyses, explanations, and descriptions about it. Using Johnson's theory and applying it to the especial conditions governing Iran during Pahlavi period, some come to think that Johnson's model of analyzing "revolutionary change" is to the most part, similar to that of the Islamic Revolution, whereas Johnson's "revolutionary change" theory greatly suffers from epistemological, methodological, and theorizing weaknesses and ignores the role of leadership in revolution.

The present paper which sheds light on the Islamic Revolution as a phenomenon which stands higher than these analyses and analyzes Johnson's theory of "revolutionary change", criticizing the aforementioned viewpoint by using a descriptive-analytical and library method.

Key words: revolutionary change, Johnson, Islamic Republic, value, equilibrium, leadership.

The Relationship between Independence and Political Progress in the Islamic Progress Model

Mohammad Ismail 'Ammar

Abstract

Today, progress in political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions is the special concern of all political systems. An overall progress providing basic operands with certain indexes forms the infrastructure of leaders and state men’s thought in every society. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper addresses the significance of independence and considers that without independence a society cannot achieve political progress. The most important finding of this paper is that understanding the meaning of social progress and development in a country demands a careful study of its political system structure and observing how it is influenced by foreign forces. The complex and variant set of relations between foreign and domestic factors and structures gives an especial form to progress. These factors and independence as an important index in the process of political progress should be considered in progress model.

Key words: independence, political independence, progress, development, political progress, domination, colonialism.

The Discourse and Function of Political Economy in Rentier States

'Mohammad Ali Shirkhani, Hamed Khoshgoftar Lami

Abstract

States' behavior especially economic ones has been the special concern of scholars for a long time. States' economic behavior has a crucial role in national development of developing countries which in turn influences socio-political stability and security. States' economic behavior changes according to the kind of their discourse. Influenced by the discourse governing the states, the political economy function of states in the countries whose economy depends on rent incomes have increasing change in indexes. Synthetic research methods, based on description and analysis, are used to investigate this relationship. The present paper aims at introducing one of these synthetic methods to systematically expound the relationship between state's discourse and the function of political economy. Given their particular status, rentier states choose a kind of indexes for their discourses which influences their function in the field of economy. The more these states depend on rent sources, the more independent from society they will be and the more influential their discourse will be on economic realm.

Key words: discourse analysis, rent, rentier, rent-seeking, state, political economy.