The Conceptual Analysis of " Expediency" and Its Status in Family Rights

Islam as a comprehensive religion, while stating fixed rules, has expressed changing rules as well, taking into consideration the material and spiritual advantages and disadvantages of changing rules and seeking common good in line with religious aims and destinations. Thus, expediency has gained special status in ShiÝÐ jurisprudence in that it has had impacts on people’s personal behavior and has given shape to political, social and family systems. Having established a political system based on ShiÝÐ jurisprudence, Imam Khomeini has, for the first time, launched a discourse on expediency which, in turn, has led to certain misgivings about it among religious scholars. The main question here is that what the concept of expediency is and that what is the difference between expediency and necessity as the most distinctive subject of discussion regarding secondary rules. “What status does ‘expediency’ occupy in family rights?” “Are the concept and conditions of expediency with regard to governmental affairs delegated to a Muslim ruler similar to the concept and conditions which have to be considered in relation to family rights, particularly in relation to the expediency which has been thought of in case a father or an ancestor is awarded to have custody of children? The present research work seeks to find answers to the questions mentioned above.