Ma`rifat Siyasi

One of the important principles in Islamic political ethics is the principle of "compassion" towards citizens. In the shade of this principle, solidarity and sympathy is created between people and rulers and social capital will increase. From the point of view of Islam, the in-charges of the Islamic system should be sensitive to the problems of the people in the society and consider the hardships of the people as their own suffering. Sympathy, cooperation out of love and empathy are values that arise from the existence of compassion in society. Using the descriptive-analytical method, this article tries to investigate the functions of compassion in the political ethics of Islam, relying on the view of the supreme leader of the revolution. The findings show that in terms of theoretical provisions, such as the dimensions of personal and political compassion, capacities of imagination, avoiding self-centeredness and sense of responsibility, it is possible to trace the functions of compassion in political sympathy and empathy, maximum absorption, forgiveness and elimination of grudges, increasing trust and social capital, tolerance and patience, and increasing political benevolence of citizensm which each of them has a clear presence in Ayatollah Khamenei's thought