Analyzing and explaining the philosophy and the nature of the 8-year sacred defense, from the view of Imam Khomeini

With Iraq’s military attack to Iran, the newly founded system of the Islamic Republic of Iran was faced with a great political-security threat. Imam Khomeini, as the leader of the Islamic revolution, had taken many measures and strategies into consideration which can be referred to as the defensive management of Imam Khomeini. This research seeks to assess and analyze the philosophy and the nature of the sacred defense from the point of view of Imam Khomeini and it is based on the book, Sahife-ye Imam. The text of the book is analyzed through the mixed research methodology and through the use of both induction and deduction. Results show that three concepts had the most occurrence; the war of belief and the war of Islam and Heresy, Reviving the Islamic and religious values, fighting against the arrogance of the powers of the west. Khomeini also mentions three concepts to legitimize the war and the sacred defense including; Explaining the philosophy of war and defense from a religious and belief centered perspective,Explaining the philosophy of war from a nationalistic and universalistic perspective, Explaining the philosophy of war from a people oriented and government oriented perspective. Seeing that the satisfaction of God must have been the bed rock of Imam’s intellectual and faith system, then the first concept, Explaining the philosophy of war and defense from a religious and belief centered perspective, is considered the most important approach and the numerous occurrence of the concept in the text is an evidence for this.