Ma`rifat Siyasi

The present article uses a descriptive-analytical method as well as library survey to investigate some of the most important duties of religious state before people's religion and beliefs. The main question is as follows: "What is the most important duty of the religious state before people's religion and beliefs?" There have been different – sometimes opposite – views in answering this question, all of which rooted in two major views: (a) the view regarding Islam as equal to religion and the state and the holy war as tools for expansion of both religion and state; and (b) the view regarding Islam as equal to both religion and the holy war (simultaneously) and the state as the tool for expansion of religion and the holy war. The common point of the two views is that the state is responsible before people's religious culture, and the distinction between them is that the former regards a divine origin for both the state and religion but the latter does not necessarily believe in a divine origin for the state due to the state being a historical and human phenomenon which must be a tool at the service of religion and culture.