Islamic Government in Martyr Sadr's Political Thought A glance over the formal and essential constituents of Islamic government in the periods of Minor and Major Occultations

Government as the most important political institution in the human realm and the fundamental element of the state, is laid on two foundations, one of which constitutes the form and the other represents the truth and content of it. Each of these two foundations has its own several constituents. Knowledge of the formal and content constituents can lead us to the understanding of the nature of government as viewed by Muslim scholars, making clear the advantages and the disadvantages or shortcomings of any governmental theory, its relation to the political behavior and function in practical realm. The great scholar and the Forth Martyr, Seyyed Muhammad Bāqir al-Sadr, embarked on theorizing on Islamic government in the periods of Imam of the Time’s occultation within the philosophical and theological discourse, making efforts to offer a distinguished and important theory in this regard basing his arguments on the concept of the “Divine Vicegerent” in times of occultation. Accordingly, the present research seeks to provide the reader with much deeper recognition and more precise explanation of Martyr Sadr’s political thought about Islamic government.