WILĀYAT AL-MUṬLAQAH

THE STATE ABOVE SHARIA

Abstract

This article examines the concept of wilāyat al-muṭlaqah in the political thought of Imam Khomeini and Sayyid Ali Khamenei, as well as its implications for the relationship between the state and the sharī‘ah and the foundations of contemporary Islamic civilization. This article is based on the Friday sermon delivered by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, in Tehran in January 1988. The sermon was subsequently responded to by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, through a letter affirming that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a continuation of the Prophet’s wilāyat al-muṭlaqah, is one of the aḥkam awwalī that takes precedence over subsidiary fiqh rulings. This article examines how the doctrine of wilāyat al-muṭlaqah moved from the theoretical domain of fiqh and kalām into the institutional design of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study employs a qualitative method based on library research and conceptual analysis. It examines the normative arguments of the proponents of wilāyat al-faqīh al-muṭlaqah, which are then balanced with the critical arguments of reformist thinkers, such as Mohsen Kadivar, who question the origins of the concept of a “state based on wilāyat” and the potential for state domination over the sharī‘ah. The findings of this article show that, on the one hand, wilāyat al-muṭlaqah is understood as a mechanism for safeguarding maṣlaḥat-e neẓām through the instruments of aḥkām ḥukūmatī and institutional mechanisms such as the Majma‘-e Tashkhīṣ-e Maṣlaḥat. On the other hand, in practice, the designation of the government as ḥukm awwalī and the supremacy of the Rahbar create a structure that has the potential to place the state above the sharī‘ah at the level of implementation, although it continues to claim itself as the guardian of the objectives of the sharī‘ah.