نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله English
نویسنده English
Mirza Naeini’s treatise Tanbih al-Ummah offers a solid foundation for understanding Iran’s core issue of his time—namely despotism and the way out of it—from a jurisprudential perspective. Without merely reiterating the positions of earlier jurists, Naeini confronted the theological justifications of autocracy found in past Islamic legal thought and launched an extensive critique of tyranny in all its dimensions. He asserted that the only path toward progress and alignment with advanced nations (al-milal al-mutaqaddima) was through limiting power and returning authority to the people. To develop his theory, Naeini drew on Shiite jurisprudential tradition, using it both to construct his critique and to respond to the opposition within the constitutional movement. His major idea was the concept of a trust-based state (dawlat-e amāniyya)—a government that belongs to no individual but serves the collective interests of all citizens. Regardless of whether the ruler is infallible or fallible, they are bound to consult the people in political matters. This theory, which laid the first intellectual foundations of democracy in Iran, differs fundamentally from prevailing democratic ideas and thus gives a distinctive character to Shiite political thought regarding freedom and equality. Although many studies have explored Naeini’s ideas, few have considered them in the context of Iran’s broader historical problem of backwardness. The central question of this research, therefore, is: What answer does Naeini’s idea offer to Iran’s historical dilemma? His answer is the return of democracy to the structure of power in Iran—a resource that he argues already exists within Islamic political heritage.
کلیدواژهها English
