Ma`rifat Siyasi

Different views have been presented about the kind of interaction between the clerics and Islamic government. One of them is that the clerics are at the service of and subject to Islamic government and that it is incumbent on all people, including the clerics, to obey all its institutions as part of their religious duty towards the Islamic government. Another view is that Islamic government should be governed by the clerics and that in the Islamic government which is the conduct for implementing divine bounds it is the religious scholars and religious authorities who take this responsibility. According to this view, the Islamic government has to be headed by the clerics as religious leaders. Another view which principally rejects the idea of the relationship between religion and politics and distinguishes the presence and mission of the clerics form those of the government. Finally, there is a view that backs the idea of the relationship between religion and politics, but ignores the relationship between the clerics and government and stresses the idea of setting up an Islamic government but without the clerics. Each one of these views originates from the way its advocates perceive such things like the clerics and Islamic government, the relationship between religion and society, Islam and government, Islam and the clerics, the clerics and society, etc. Expounding the concepts and principles of the subject matter of this topic and investigating the different views about it, the present paper investigates and provides a model which is consistent with the political philosophy of Islam and identical to the political thought of Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic system