The Religious Approach to the Rule of Law in the Persian Constitutional Revolution

In this article, we are going to examine the principle of the rule of law, which is one of the main components of the legal positivism movement and the democracy system, according to the contemporary religious scholars of Iranian constitutional movement. In this regard, considering the concept of the rule of law and the related viewpoints of religious scholars, two approaches toward this concept can be deduced. First, some scholars such as Allameh Nayini and Akhund Khorasani tried to reconcile the notion of the rule of law and religious doctrines and create harmony between the two. Of course, sometimes, this harmony inflicted with some problems or imbalances concerning some of the components of the rule of law, including freedom and equality. The second group of scholars including Sheikh Fazlollah Noori believed that the rule of law was in conflict with religious law and rules. They believed that Muslims' needs can be fulfilled only through religious laws and rules and thus there is no need to make constitutional law. This group of scholars’ views were incompatible with the components of the rule of law. The scholars holding these views did not believe in common principles such as freedom and equality. Issues such as the separation of powers, equality, freedom and constitutional law were among the issues towhich the mentioned scholars objected.