Investigating the Relationship Between Religion and Government Based on the Analysis of the Source of Legitimacy from the Perspective of Nahj Al-Balagha

One of the most controversial issues among Muslim thinkers, especially in recent decades, has been the question of the legitimacy of government and its relationship to religion which in response, some believe that religion, despite interfering in politics, has nothing to do with government and the legitimacy of government is not an issue to which religion has responded. Contrary to other scholars who believe that religion also views the government and addresses the issue of government legitimacy, the present article, by analyzing the origin of government legitimacy as the main point of intersection of religion and government, seeks to prove the hypothesis that at this point the involvement of religion is not complete; religion and government have something in common at this point, so that the non-religious aspect prevails over the religious aspect. For this reason, by focusing on Nahj al-Balagha as the best source of narration for research in this field and with the method of hadith jurisprudence and the use of historical evidence and assuming the involvement of religion in politics, it has cited the most valid evidence inferred from Nahj al-Balagha and has found Amir al-Mu'minin Ali's definitive conduct indicative of the dual divine-democracy legitimacy of the government with the dominance of the democratic dimension.