The Origin of the Legitimacy of the Guardianship of the Muslim Jurist in view of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei, the Grand Leader: Viewpoints and Approaches

The present article is a research work on the origin of the legitimacy of the guardianship (and rule) of a Muslim Jurist from the viewpoint of Imam Khomeini (may God’s peace be upon him) and that of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Grand Leader of the Islamic revolution. Concerning the idea of the legitimacy of the guardianship and rule of a Muslim jurist in Islam, there have been three cl 1) popular legitimacy (the “election” thesis); 2) divine-popular legitimacy (the “composite” thesis); and 3) divine legitimacy (the “appointment” thesis). Despite the fact that in the statements made by Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei, the Grand Leader, there are some words and expressions which can be used in favor and support of each of the three mentioned theses, as some have done so, thus claiming that what they understood in this regard can be proved to be exactly the case with Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei. In other words, they think Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei hold the same belief in this regard as they have thought they do.However, a careful study of the issue in question shows that, since both Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei’s foundations of political thoughts have originated from this purely Islamic monotheistic thought that the guardianship of the Muslim jurist is actually the continuation of the guardianship and imamate of all the twelve immaculate (infallible) Imams from the first through the last one, who is strongly believed by all ShiÝa Muslims to be the Imam of the [present] age, being hidden behind the veil of occultation, have always held the view that the legitimacy of the guardianship of the Muslim jurist and the Islamic government has its origin in the Divine and hence the proponents of the two theses - popular legitimacy (the “election” thesis) and divine-popular legitimacy (the “composite” thesis) have been on the wrong track.In this research work, an attempt has been made to scrutinize and make a critique of the above-mentioned theses, citing ample evidencefrom the statements made by Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei to back up the idea that these two great religious scholars have only believed in the thesis of “divine legitimacy” or “appointment” thesis and have adopted no other theses in this regard.