Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Science of the Research Institute and University
Abstract
Introduction
The topic of political participation is considered one of the most important and delicate political challenges and debates both in the field of opinion and in the field of action in Iranian society and in the contemporary period, especially in the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Therefore, in response to the question of the forms of political participation in the religious legitimate political system in the approach of the Qur'an, the hypothesis based on the theoretical framework of the forms and types of political participation in political science and the method of thematic interpretation of the Qur'an follows that: types of participation aimed at political action, supportive, questioning, critical and protesting, selective, decision-making, organizational and negative/controversial political participation under the legitimate political system is one of the positive and negative types of political participation under the legitimate political system. Each of these forms is also based on the reasons and evidences in the Qur'an, the negative type of which is rejected from the Qur'an's point of view. The necessity of supporting the legitimate political system based on verses such as Nafar, Jihad, Hijra, etc.; the necessity of acting on the decisive result obtained from the consultation by the Sharia ruler and especially the non-infallible one in non-revealed matters; the need for criticism, leadership, and creditability; and the desirability of competition in better and stronger administration of the society is one of the findings of the research. In the preparation of the research, the research tends to a theory that it calls the theory of maximum conditional political participation, which considers the people as the owners of political rights, but considers the jurists to be generally and potentially appointed, but leaving the power is the act of political power. They are based on the acceptance and choice of the people, and political participation is a basis of the legitimacy of the political system. This theory can be the best interpretation of religious democracy.
Investigating political participation in religious texts, especially in the Holy Quran, requires attention to several points. The first point is to pay attention to this subtle issue that it is not possible to take the concepts of today such as political participation which is discussed in the contemporary environment completely from the concepts and terms of yesterday and try to impose all its conditions and rulings on today to show or impose today's conditions and rulings on the concepts contained in the Qur'an. On the one hand, the research has analyzed the supportive, critical-reformative, competitive-selective models in the Quranic attitude and has shown the different dimensions of political participation under the legitimate political system in the Quran based on thematic interpretation sources. On the other hand, the research, based on the method of interpretation of the subject, which is a collection based on theory and comprehensive ijtihad in a specific subject and problem, has an opinion on a theory that it calls the theory of maximum conditional political participation or political participation and implementation. This theory considers the people to be the owners of political rights, but unlike the selection theory, it also considers jurists to be generally and potentially appointed, but their removal from power is based on the act of their political power based on acceptance, influence, and choice, and in a word, the political participation of the people. and since the people are the electors of the ruling jurist, they have the possibility of being present and playing a role in all kinds of political participation. From the perspective of research, this theory can be the best interpretation of religious democracy. But if we do not accept this opinion, their verses and texts and their conceptual network indicate that the path of maximum political participation under the leadership of the jurist is open. Based on this, the levels of political participation according to the political system can be divided into two sub-categories: legitimate political system and illegitimate political system, which have two types, positive and negative. Participation is aimed at supportive, questioning, critical, and protesting political action, participation is aimed at selective political action, participation is aimed at decision-making political action, and participation is aimed at organizational political action and negative/controversial political participation under the legitimate political system. It is one of the positive and negative types of political participation under the legitimate political system. Each of these is based on reasons and evidences in the Qur'an, the negative type of which is rejected from the Qur'an's point of view.
Keywords
- legitimate political system
- supportive/decision-making/selective political participation
- political-thematic interpretation of the Qur'an
- political speech
- religious democracy
Main Subjects