A Critique and Analysis of Reasons for Illegitimacy of the Religious Government during the Occultation Era

• Main Authors: Mohammad Mahdi Baba‐Pur Golafshani, Ali Jafar‐Zade
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Qom Islamic Azad University 2014-12-01
• Series: سپهر سیاست
• Subjects: legitimacy; religious government; occultation era
• Online Access: http://se.journal.qom-iau.ac.ir/article_540964_5ad2e3366e681a07779417e6b5e2e579.pdf

Some believe that a religious government during the Occultation Era <br />does not have the necessary legitimacy. The proponents of the idea <br />have presented reasons most of which refer to the absence of the <br />twelfth  Imam  per  se  and  the  existence  of  narrations  that  have <br />pictured  any  uprisings  or  restorative  movements  as  useless, <br />inefficient  and  even  illegitimate.  The  present  study  is  aimed  at <br />indicating that the absence of the twelfth Imam per se may not be a <br />reason for the illegitimacy of the religious government but a religious <br />government can set the stage for the messianic culture. It will also <br />show  that  despite  the  existence  of  narrations  that  reject  the <br />legitimacy  of  an  uprising  during  the  Occultation  Era,  there  are <br />genuine narrations in the narrative reference books that refer to the <br />legitimacy of the movement. By drawing a comparison between the <br />two categories of narrations, it may be concluded that some of those <br />uprisings, including Imam Khomeini’s uprising that led to an Islamic <br />government, were legitimate in case of having the conditions of an <br />uprising.