Legitimacy of Uprising against a Despotic Ruler in the Shi i Political Fiqh

The legitimacy of uprising against a tyrant or despotic ruler has enormous impact on socio-political changes in Muslim communities. For the adoption or rejection of this thesis can have different consequences for the process of changes in every society. In Shi‘i political fiqh, unlike Sunni political fiqh, it is considered essential to disobey and launch campaign against a despotic ruler, and this has been emphasized by numerous Shi‘i jurists (faqihs). This line of thought has contributed to the formation of revolutionary movements (Islamic revolution in Shi‘a communities) or uprisings against despotic rulers who rule over Muslim communities in the contemporary world. Nowadays, as the Islamic Awakening Movement has increasingly gained strength, it seems necessary to explain fiqhi foundations of revolting against despotic rulers as they appear in fiqhi literature. This move is a positive, though small, step in achieving the objectives in this regard. The present article seeks to explore the arguments for the legitimacy of launching campaign and uprising against a despotic ruler and to cast light on doubts raised on it by some scholars in Shi‘i political fiqh by reference to existing documents.