Political trainin g in the Ideology of Twelver Shi’ism: Principles and Tenets

The purpose of the present study is to explain the principles and tenets of political training in the ideology of Twelver Shi’ism and Thomas Hobbes in order to sustain and secure the political system and establish permanent peace and security. In this regard and by descriptive analysis, the principles of cognition and belief including reason, revelation, piety, self-denial, and faith as well as the principles of ontology, anthropology, and political training including monotheism servitude to God, and guardianship (wilayat) were explored. The results indicated that in the process of political training from religious perspective, one first learns to know and explore his surrounding context and then starts to analyze it based on religious instructions and finally adopts a religious decision. Epistemology, ontology, and anthropology are 3 basic components in political training that provide the theoretical arguments for this process and also foster monotheism, servitude, guardianship, and responsibility among citizens to arrange their obligation to society relying on religion and religiousness. In western views especially the ideas of Thomas Hobbes, political training seeks to sustain the status quo in politics and controls social and political situation by creating a sense of fear and horror among new generation so it attempts to train adherent, devoted, and loyal people to the totalitarianism. However, political training in Shi’ite ideology aims to fulfill different purposes such as educating independent, critical, influential, and participative citizens in political and social affairs who have a sense of responsibility toward the destiny of political system, themselves, fellow citizens, and whole human being.