Ma`rifat Siyasi

In Islamic social thought, a central question arises: How is moral order formed, and which institution is capable of organizing and safeguarding it at the collective level? Previous studies have largely focused on the political-juridical analysis of the clergy or on rhetorical representations of ethics; consequently, the institutional and functional mechanisms of morality in Shahid Beheshti's intellectual framework-especially their relation to the engineering of society remain insufficiently clarified. This study aims to reconstruct these mechanisms through a qualitative-interpretive approach and directed thematic analysis. The theoretical framework is structured across three levels-philosophical-ontological, sociological, and functional-systemic-and employs Osgood's Semantic Differential model to assess the functional differentiation of ethical components within Beheshti's logic of guidance. The findings indicate that, in Beheshti's view, the clergy functions as a "living mechanism of moral production" that, through practical exemplification, normative regulation, and the reproduction of symbolic capital, provides the grounds for monotheistic social engineering and the endurance of the Islamic exemplary society.