The Analysis of the Term Wilāyat Takwīnī (Creational Guardianship) in Contemporary Shiite Literature (From its First Use Until Now)

Creational guardianship (Wilāyat Takwīnī) is a newfound issue in the history of Shiite theology that has been formed under the influence of various factors and has undergone conceptual changes and evolutions. In order to get a clear picture of the formation and evolution of this idea throughout history, it is necessary to re-read the doctrine of creational guardianship and study the history of its formation and developments. By referring to and analyzing contemporary texts, we find that the first use of this term dates back to the 13th century, and since then we have seen the spread of this idea among contemporary Shiite thinkers. Based on the existing opinions and theories, we can find a kind of wide-ranging graded view of the idea of creational guardianship. In this view, on the one end of the spectrum there are people who have accepted the idea of ​​ creational guardianship in its "complete and comprehensive sense" (maximum approach to creational guardianship) and at the other end of the spectrum are those who "deny" creational guardianship (negative approach); but in between, there are many people who accept the creational guardianship with "certain limits and restrictions" (the moderate approach to the creational guardianship). The common factor in all definitions of creational guardianship proposed by both proponents and opponents is the creational power of (existential) intervention, apart from the scope of this power and also apart from the fact that whether the owner of the creational guardianship has an original will or he is a mediate for the Divine Will. Disagreements over this concept are also due to reasons such as the lack of an accurate semantics of the word, the vagueness of the definitions proposed for it and the uncertainty of whether the proof of its possibility can be taken as a reason for its existence or not.