The Principle of  Uniting the Hearts'; its Jurisprudential Foundations and its Role in the Soft Power of the Islamic Republic of Iran

In the last two decades, as the concept of power having been multiplied, the soft kind of power along with the hard kind of power have attracted the attention of Muslin scholars. Yet the issue of soft power as a historical fact has been the center of attention in Islam and has expressed itself in different ways. ‘Uniting the hearts’ has been one of the means used to arouse sympathy among Muslims and to expand the scope of Islam by giving zakÁt. Having carefully considered the Qur’anic principles and Prophetic hadiths, one can say that the issue of ‘uniting the hearts’ is not relevant only to the question of zakÁt. Rather, it has been used as a universal principle to strengthen security and spread Islam. However, due to the massive changes in the international order and interactions, the functions and applications of the principle of ‘uniting the hearts’ have undergone serious changes and expanded to cover various domains. This article deals with the analysis of the ways in which the principle of ‘uniting the hearts’ is used in cultural, economic, and political areas for the sake of promoting the soft power of the Islamic Republic of Iran.