What is the philosophy behind establishing the Religious Government?

In this essay, we want to talk about the necessity and the philosophy behind establishing the “Religious Government” or

“الحکومه الاسلامیه”.

At the beginning, let’s describe the meaning of “الحکومه” or “government”. This word is translated as following:

Government is a coherent leadership that orders and forbids in a vast vicinity of a society.

Another component of our subject is the word of “دین” or “religion”.

“دین” has different meanings, like: nation, reward, God-fearing, etc.

But in terminology, this word is translated as following:

The belief in a creator for the universe and the practical orders which are suitable for such a belief, and we call it in English as “Religion”.

For this point, we call those that they don’t have such a belief, as unbelievers and we call those who have such a belief, (even though it might be mixed with superstitions) as believers.

So we realize that there are true religion and false religion.

The true religion is the one that its system of beliefs and practices is compatible to the reality. And the way for distinguishing the true religion, is mentioned in the theology that we do not talk about it here.

So let’s talk about these two words together i.e. religious government or Islamic government.

The relation between these two words can be understood from looking at the concept and content of religion, we see from the religious perspective that there is no any replacement for government in a lot of religious social and individual affairs, and government is a means and tool for a lot of religious goals.

We see that religion is not apart from the politics and government, because the religion is not just some personal and individual obligations or just some beliefs and advices, and religion has the political and social rulings as well.

Allah said in the Quran chapter Bagharah verse 213:

كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللّهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ وَأَنزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُواْ فِيهِ

“The people were one nation. Then Allah sent forth prophets to give them glad tidings and to warn them; and with them he sent down the book with the truth, that he might rule between the people in that which they differ”.

We realize from this verse that one of the missions of the prophets throughout the history was to solve the discords, by issuing decrees and Hokm, and these discords are something that in today’s time despite of the developments in technology and sciences, are here and need to be solved. And issuing the Hokm and decree (in vast vicinity) without the government is impossible. And it needs a government for implementing the criminal decrees of Islam, like the retaliations, financial punishments etc. because there is nothing other than government which can implement such criminal decrees.

So until now we understood that in a religion which claims to be a means for perfection in this world and in the hereafter, there are individual and social rulings that a lot of them cannot be fulfilled and implemented without a government, otherwise there is no any guarantee for these rulings to be implemented and if everyone wants to implement it by him/herself, the society will turn into anarchy that probably is worse than not implementing the rulings.

Islam needs the government for establishing the justice in the society and in the world. This is the reason that the enemies of Islam try to promote the thought that religion is apart from the politics and they praise Islam without politics, because they want to disarm Islam from having the power.

So how the relation between religion and government should be formed?

Firstly we say that we believe that the main right for governing is only for the creator of the world and just those who are chosen by Allah directly or indirectly, can have the right to govern, and under this government, the people can be benefited from the rules of Allah, by the government that its regulations and laws are based on Allah’s obligations and prohibitions.

But because believing in the very beginning belief in Islam is not compulsory, establishing the government is like that, and it depends on the readiness and will of the members of the society.

The religious government does not say:  people have no role and just the rules of Allah must be implemented, and it is not so that just the wishes of the people will be implemented and there is no any role for Allah (like what happens in the liberal democratic governments).

At the end we say that because in Islam we believe that the main and the ultimate aim of the creation of human and sending the prophets, is the perfection of mankind, so by establishing the Islamic government, the human can promote the spiritual virtues for being the vicegerent of Allah on the earth and paving the way for establishing the utopia.

Of course we do not claim that we can establish the utopia completely, but we prepare the ground for the reappearance of the 12th Imam because in our idea he is the one that will fill the whole world full of justice after it is full of injustice and cruelty. But we try our best to be prepared and make the situation prepared for that holistic government as much as we can.

 

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Source:

Rasanews.ir