Legitimacy and Admissibility in Islam (12 August 2009)

In the Name of the Almighty

The Views of the Grand Source of Emulation His Excellency Ayatollah Hajj Seyyed Ali Mohammad Dastgheyb

On the Issue of Legitimacy and Admissibility in Islam

Based on what is understood from the books, traditions, reason, and the consensus of scholars, Sharia’ehrequires that the ignorant consult with the erudite. At the same time, the responsibility of the just jurisprudent is to keep the people away from filth, the most important form of which is ignorance, and this is in itself a great struggle; hence, the Immaculate (Imam Ali) says, “The pencil of the scholars is greater than the blood of the martyrs.” A just jurisprudent means someone possessing understanding and insight in relation to the Qur’an and the traditions, and who practices them, free from the chains of worldly love, and who also has control and dominance over the tempests of the self. Such an individual, both a jurisprudent and interpreter of Islam, has guardianship over the people who welcome him, no matter the location or era in which he lives — meaning that he has passed the divine test and earned the welcoming of the people. But if it is said that this individual has guardianship over all areas of the Earth, such a claim is baseless.

در زمان امام خمینی (ره) تمام فقهاء و مراجع خودجوش مرجعیّت و فقاهت ایشان را امضاء کردند و اکثریّت قریب به اتفاق مردم با میل و رغبت استقبال نمودند؛ در آن موقع علماء و مردم هر دو متّفقاً دست به دست هم دادند و ایشان را مرجع و ملجأ و رهبر خویش قرار دادند، لذا پیروزی به این صورت و در مدّت کوتاهی به دست آمد. چنان چه این معنی از زمان غیبت صغری تا به حال برقرار بوده و از مرجعیت و زعامت میرزای شیرازی (سیّد محمّد حسن(ره)) که با امضای چهارصد نفر مجتهد و استقبال عظیم مردم تحقّق یافت، چندان مدّتی نگذشته و ایشان با گریه این سمت را پذیرفتند.

In the era of Imam Khomeini, all jurisprudents and Sources of Emulation (Grand Ayatollahs) approved spontaneously the Imam’s status as a jurisprudent and Source of Emulation, and the vast majority of the people welcomed him with great desire and relish. At that time, the scholars and the people both unanimously put their hands together and declared the Imam to be their Source of Emulation, sanctuary, and Supreme Leader; hence, we achieved victory in a short time. We had been anticipating the return of the Guardian-Jurisprudent from the time of the Minor Occultation to the present, and though it had been only a short time since the authority and leadership of Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Mirza-Shirazi, the Imam accepted this post with tears in his eyes. He received the endorsement of 400 interpreters of Islam and the great welcoming of the people..

بنابر روایات، هر فقیهی فی الجمله ولایت دارد چنان چه امام خمینی(ره) نیز فرمودند؛ امّا ولایت مطلقه، اعلمیت و اعدلیت و پشتیبانی قاطع علما و مردم را می طلبد.

According to Shia tradition,every jurisprudent is guaranteed guardianship, as Imam Khomeini also expressed; but the jurisprudent must earn absolute guardianship,, اعلمیت و اعدلیت, , and the categorical support of the scholars and the people.

Imam Khomeini expressed it thus: “Support the Guardianship of the Jurisprudent so long as the Revolution is not hurt by it, meaning that if the people stop supporting the Guardianship of the Jurisprudent, this Guardianship can no longer be productive and in reality has no value.”

It is the duty of Experts to defend the letter of the Constitution and carry the people on their side. The raison d’être of the Experts is to preserve the Constitution. The people elected the Experts as their legal representatives so they could act as guardians of the Constitution. This Constitution is the product of the blood of thousands of martyrs and veterans, the result of surviving the prisons and the tortures of the Shah’s despotism and of the deportation of the scholars, clergy, and elites. On the order, via the Experts, of the Imam of the nation and savior of the Iranian people from despotism, colonialism, and colonialism, jurisprudents and intellectuals codified the Constitution at the first opportunity after the Revolution. And to secure the support of the Imam Khomeini, the principle of Guardianship of the Jurisprudent was included. The people confirmed the Constitution, voted for it, and they follow it today. The people’s protest following the recent events (the recent presidential elections) happened because the government did not follow the Constitution in implementing the election. Those protests continue today because they are still not following the Constitution. If government officials had implemented the law well, the people would not have protested, because they voted for the Islamic Republic’s laws themselves.

Whom other than the Experts are expected to be the preservers and guardians of the Constitution? The Assembly of Experts for the Constitution was an Assembly similar to today’s Assembly of Experts, and some of the members of today’s Assembly were part of that Assembly and played a role in codifying the Constitution. The people want government officials to address their demands according to the Constitution.

It is obvious to me that if the people believe that the Experts are attempting to secure the rights of the people, and the Experts have respect for the preservation of the Constriction and the people’s votes, the people will end their protestswill become silent. They are in agreement with actualizing the Constitution precisely because they invented its motto themselves — “Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic.” Today’s generation shouts the same slogan, but today, the Experts must re-assess of the mood and opinions of society.

In the election a few terms ago, more than twenty million of the people voted for the Honorable Seyyed Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, and he was President for two full terms. How did the Experts treat that honorable man? Khatami was a cleric from the same caste as me; his father was a jurisprudent and Khatami himself received the confirmation of the Imam of the Nation (Khomeini) and society’s approval. Do you think Khatamiwas invited even once to any of the fifteen meetings of the Assembly of Experts to answer questions? Or did the Experts distance ourselves from him, as some said he was a foreigner and made other such attacks?

But the Experts invited the President of the ninth government, who does not wear clerical garb, many times, and he has never answered their questions forthrightly. He has even specified some other questions for the Assembly in response, and some of the members of the Experts objected that his questions were irrelevant. Do you not think it is the people’s place to question why the Experts allow all this disrespect?.

I sincerely and with good intent ask you, to hold a public meeting, address these issues, and give an answer to the demand of the people — which is to implement this very same Constitution — and to address their complaints by means of their representatives, Mr. Mousavi and Mr. Karroubi, before it becomes too late. This willrestore the prestige of the Sources of Emulation. . You will see how beloved you will become, and this will save the government system, as it must remain. In politics, Personalities come and go, but the effects of their actions and behaviors remain with us. Let it be known that the Experts are interpreters of Islam (mojtaheds) and emulating interpreters of Islam is forbidden (haraam). Ultimately, determining what is truth and what is falsehood for any issue must be done by research and probing, according to the doctrines of Sharia’ and Iranian law.

With wishes of peace,

Seyyed Mohammad Ali Dastgheyb

21 Mordad 1388 (8/12/2009)

Speaker or Agency: Ayatollah Dastgheyb

Title: Legitimacy and admissibility in islam

Language: English and Persian

Western Date: 12 August 2009

Persian Date: 21 Mordad 1388

Physical/Electronic Location: http://www.dastgheib.ir/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=542&Itemid=55Citation or official document code:

Translator: Artin Afkhami

Date Translated: 19 July 2010

Tags: dastgheyb, ayatollah, supreme leader, karroubi, mousavi, constitution

Date Last Updated: 4 August 2010

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