The Place of the National Interest in the Foreign Policyfrom Qur’anic Perspective

The objective of the current study is to analyze theories in the field of “national interest” by the Qur’anic approach. In this regard and using descriptive analysis, the national interest from the perspective of realism, idealism, and Islam was explored. The results indicated that Islam does not reject worldly interests, but rather it logically acknowledges the efforts to achieve them. However, what is refused in the Qur’an is to limit the interests to be exclusively materialistic or permissible through any means. The Qur’an does not give credit to the current classification of nationality and ethnicity among people and refutes any superiority or priority in that term. Yet it not only recognizes nations and various ethnic groups as an undeniable reality but also deems this distinction among people in terms of nationality and ethnicity as necessary for their identification. Paying attention to the national interests in the foreign policy of a country and its political, economic, and cultural relations with other countries is not erroneous from the view of the Qur’an. However, the national interest of a country does not denote violation against others’ interests or refusing their rights.