Restrictive Foundations of Governance in the Religious Ruling (A Comparative Study of the Imam Khomeini (ra) and Saint Aquinas' Views)

The special task of governments, whether religious or non-religious, is exerting the sovereignty. The sovereignty in today's world is not a limitless entity, but limitable, with new definitions. This paper seeks to prove that, the sovereignty in the religious ruling also follows the same formula of limitableness under certain conditions. Using a descriptive-analytical method, and through a comparative approach, this paper studies the views of Imam Khomeini (ra) and Saint Aquinas, two of the most influential religious thinkers on religious ruling in the Catholic Christian and Shia Muslim world. The findings show that, the most important restrictive foundation of governance in the religious ruling from both perspectives is the Divine Law