A Study of Imam Khomeini’s Political Thought

Imam Khomeini
A Study of Imam Khomeini’s Political Thought

Introduction

 

The emergence of the Islamic Revolution in Iran has made Shi’ah political thought attract the attention of political and academic circles around the world. In 1979, for the first time in a big and Shi’ah-majority country, a government under the leadership of the Shi’ah clergy was established upon the ideology of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurisprudent (Wilayat al-Faqih). This achievement paved the way for many Shi’ah communities to come out of isolation and inactiveness. The influence of the Islamic Revolution, especially in the shite countries is more noticeable. Undoubtedly, the political thought of Imam Khomeini as the founder of the Islamic Republic is the most important element that should be discussed and used in dealing with the issues of Islamization of and managing the university.

 

Imam Khomeini; Observing Irregularities

 

In general, most theorists have written their work at a time when they saw the disorder and felt that their community is in crisis. In other words, the political thinkers of each era are very realistic and their political ideas are a response to the problems of their political environment. Accordingly, the political theories are not merely an academic recreation; they are deeply concerned with the practical and everyday issues of politics. Hence, to understand the perspectives of a political theorist one should first answer these questions: “What’s his problem? In his view, what is dangerous, corrupt and destructive? What motivated him to write his intellectual reflection as a coherent and fundamental political theory?”

 

According to Imam Khomeini, the most important problems facing Iranian society and the Muslim world were internal tyranny and foreign colonization. Likewise, such problems lie at the roots of the Islamic Revolution movement:

 

“The basis of this movement originated from two sources. One was the intense pressure, both external and internal, the plundering by foreign and local elements and the extraordinary repression of the last fifty-odd years during which Iran and the Iranian nation did not see a single happy day; then, the extraordinary massacres that took place recently in most of the Iranian provinces, leading the people into supporting this movement. The other reason was our desire to have an Islamic government of justice which would stand up to the taghut regimes and to implement Islamic precepts in Iran as it was at the advent of Islam.”

 

Thus, it seems that in Imam Khomeini’s view, the most serious problem of Iran at that time was the problem of internal tyranny. In such a situation, Imam Khomeini entered the political arena and criticized the Pahlavi government while “silence has prevailed over this discourse which has been diminished by the inertia of the constitutionalist argumentations and demands on the one hand and the undisputed authority of Mohammad-Reza Shah on the other hand.” In such a situation, “neither people were interested in pursuing the unfulfilled constitutional aspirations, nor they dared to criticize the Pahlavi regime.” The negation of tyranny was the rejection of monarchy:

“The monarchy and tyranny in Iran, the Byzantine Empire, Egypt and Yemen have been refuted by Islam in its early days... the monarchy is the vicious and illegal type of governance against which Imam al-Husayn stood up and finally was martyred.”

 

In fact, the reason for Imam Khomeini’s opposition to the monarchy is that even if its bases are not tyrannical, yet it is the ruling of a tyrant and hence it cannot be a just government.

 

“The basic principles of the monarchy are something which made no sense from the very start. They have never made sense since monarchy is synonymous with oppression, brutality and dictatorship.”

 

By approving the bill of State and Provincial Associations, killing people in the events of June 1963 (the 15 Khordad Uprising) and enacting the Capitulation law, the Pahlavi regime reassured Imam Khomeini that the royal system is not a system through which the Islamic ideals will be achieved. Imam Khomeini’s opposition to the monarchy goes so far as to declare that cooperation with the monarchy system is betraying Islam and the Holy Quran as well as Muslims and Iran. Even responding to the letter of Ayatollah Marashi, he explicitly wrote: “We are all obliged not to stop the fight until the fall of the illegitimate Pahlavi dynasty.”

 

Addressing the destructive role of colonialism in the Islamic world, Imam Khomeini states that “they have come to the Islamic countries about three hundred years ago and they realized that in order to achieve their colonialist aspirations and goals Islam needs to be destroyed.” Their goal, of course, was not to convert people to Christianity because, in the view of Imam Khomeini, basically they did not believe in any religion, so they “felt that Islam and the faith of people are the obstacles to their material interests and are jeopardizing their political power.”

 

The colonists propagated against Islam in various ways: “the missionaries they nurtured in the theological schools, the agents they had in the universities and institutions of public propaganda or in publishing houses, as well as the orientalists who were serving the colonial governments, all together tried to distort the true teachings of Islam.”

In other words, the colonialists “have completely eliminated the judicial and political laws of Islam, instead, they have used European ones so that to undermine Islam and marginalize it within the Islamic community and help their agents gain power.”

 

Imam Khomeini and Recognizing the Causes of Irregularities

 

After identifying the problem, the theorist cannot remain silent, rather he should discover the cause roots of the problem and the disorder. “He has to study carefully the causes of the irregularities and dysfunctions of the political situation he has observed. Causes are usually very difficult to find.” In fact, the mere observation of irregularity does not provide any practical guidance”, because “that real anxiety, which had made the theorist think, has not been resolved.”

 

The question posed here is that: the situation is untidy, what are the reasons for it? A political theorist who has seen a problem in society is like a doctor who has discovered symptoms of the disease. None of them can stop at this point. “It is not enough to just identify the causes, but the root causes of the disease should be discovered. If one intends to theoretically understood the problem and find a solution for it, the causes of the problem must be clarified.”

 

At this point, it should be explained whether the problem is politically rooted or not. In the case that the root of the problem is political, is the cause public, individual, contractual or natural? since if it is public and contractual it can be solved. If the causes are merely the subjective and individual reflections and views of the theorist and were derived from the natural phenomena, there would be no solution for them.

According to Imam Khomeini, the main cause of problems of the Islamic society of Iran in particular and the Islamic world, in general, is the degeneration of the Muslims. The Western civilization has had two orientations, while the concept of modern civilization brought innovation in various sciences, its other orientation had subjected the Eastern nations to colonial domination and hence, those nations were in two minds about the way they should follow.

 

Imam Khomeini looks at the concept of returning to Islam as the only solution for Muslims facing the two orientations of Western civilization; because in his interpretation of Islam, while religious foundations are compatible with modern thinking and advanced human achievements in all eras and places seeking the development and promotion of human thought and practice in material as well as spiritual aspects, they oppose any human deviation and degeneration in society and hence, they confront all powers that seek to exploit human beings. However, in practice, due to the intellectual decline and degeneration of Muslims, the idea of seeking justice and ​​standing up against oppression is dead; “We are in an age where criminals are admired and endorsed rather than being condemned.”

 

The negligence and inactiveness of the seminaries are also rooted in this intellectual and religious deviation. Reproaching the scholars of the seminaries he states that:

“You have to introduce yourself, your greetings, examples of leadership and Islamic rule to the people of the world, especially to the academic group and the educated class, and the students are open. You can be sure that if you introduce this school and introduce the Islamic government to the universities as it is, the students will welcome it.”

 

Also, the negligence of the seminaries created a theoretical vacuum in the political discussions. In fact, after the beginning of Imam Khomeini’s movement in 1963, on the one hand, there was no proper political-governmental theory and on the other hand, the views of religious grand scholars negated the establishment of the government by the Jurisprudents.

 

Along with the intellectual deviation and degeneration of Muslims, Imam Khomeini did not neglect to address other causes as well. One of the causes of the problems of the Iranian society, according to Imam Khomeini, was underdevelopment and poor economic conditions.

 

According to Imam Khomeini, many factors clarify the economic condition, some of which are listed as follows:

 

1) Preventing industrialization.

2) Destruction of agriculture, livestock and destroying the economy.

3) Turning the country into a market for selling and buying Western goods.

4) Looting the resources of the country.

5) Keeping the nation and country in the backward state. 

 

The religious, moral, and cultural adverse effects caused by the Pahlavi regime have also been taken into account in Imam Khomeini’s views. The most important issues that have created and maintained the domestic tyranny and foreign colonialism are: propagating the separation of religion from politics; propagating against Islam; calling to the schools other than Islam and presenting deceiving doctrines; making people lose self-esteem and hope; spreading corruption through the media and misleading the younger generation; downgrading the faculty of thinking; not observing the Islamic code of dress; creating the cultural domination and the strengthening of the belief in the superiority of the West.

 

Studies show that Imam Khomeini does not overlook any factor in rooting out the causes of the irregularities. On the one hand, he addresses the degeneration of Muslims as the main cause of the problems, and on the other hand, he talks about issues such as underdevelopment and poor economic conditions during the Pahlavi regime, the religious, moral, and cultural adverse effects caused by that regime, and the military domination of colonialism over the country.

 

 

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