According to the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought, Ayatollah Sheikh Muhammad Javād Fāzel Lankarāni at the national conference of Sheikh Martyr, which was organized by the RIICT (Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought) in Qom, said: the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution raised the issue of jihad, because the main and jurisprudential foundations of the Islamic Republic are located at the top of it. We have not come to explain religion to people.
Ayatollah Sheikh Muhammad Javād Fāzel Lankarāni at this national conference called as “Sheikh Martyr; Jurist of Tehran, the Watch of Iran “, stated: Ayatollah Sheikh Fazlullāh Nuri had a very high position in Knowledge and divine analytical thought (Ijtihad), and the historians of the constitutional period such as Kasravi and others have noted that the scholarly and jurisprudential level of Sheikh Fazlullāh was much higher than both Ayatollah Behbahāni and Ayatollah Seyyed Muhammad Tabātabāi. when a figure writes a work in Islamic jurisprudential rules, this discovery illustrates the high level of his Ijtihad.
He added: “Unfortunately, Sheikh Fazlullāh ‘s jurisprudential books are few or unavailable, but Hawza and Scholars should pay attention to the available amount and extract the major points from them, and in the future, Sheikh’s scientific status should be discussed.”
Ayatollah Fāzel then addressed the relationship between religion and government and noted that: The main foundation of important history and all sacrifices that took place from Constitutional Era to Islamic Revolution is the discussion of religion and government, and the discussion of a jurist’s view of religion. Whether he considers religion to be a personal and limited matter that has no involvement in social affairs and thus, government and all divine books and messengers were only for the educating individuals, or religion has a social aspect, and not only its social rules are higher and more than individual rules, but also according to Imam Khomeini’s notion, “religion means governing.” It means that every messenger of God and every religion revealed, was for governing society. The discussion needs hours of analysis to be well explained. Here It is just briefly mentioned that there are many verses in the Holy Quran stating that “religion means governing”.
Categorizing the verses of the Holy Quran about the relationship between religion and government, he added: a group of verses indicate the necessity of establishing religion. all laws from the beginning to the end are for establishing religion (establishment of religion means a higher stage than the expression and explanation of religion). And it is strange that in the surah “al-Shura”, God says: “What was unpleasant for the polytheists o Mecca was that people were invited to the divine government.” Man has no right to rule over the other. He cannot even appoint a ruler for himself. The authority of ruling belongs to God, and God gave it to the prophets until it reached the last messenger and then the Imams (pbuh) and after that during the absence of Imam, it is delegated to the supreme jurists.
He also said: The second group of verses indicate the obligation to obey every messenger, which has branches. The impermissibility of not obeying the prophets is mentioned in the verses of the Holy Quran. Among other things, in Surah “Muhammad”, obedience to God and the Prophet is mentioned as a condition for acceptance of other deeds. The verses against Tāghut (leaders of atheism) in the Holy Qur’an and the verses on the impermissibility of obedience to non-prophets are also noteworthy.
He then pointed to the verses of Jihad and said: Jihad is not a simple subject, and cannot be done without a leader and government. The verses of Jihad seem to be more than the verses of prayer, fasting, Hajj, Zakat, etc., but they have been given less attention. The caliphate (successorship) verse is one of those verses that states that religion i.e., ruling and successorship on earth, is a divine tradition.
Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani stated that we know ideal quality of religion in the last days of time and said: Therefore, it shows that the truth of religion has government in itself. But the global government is in the last days. If the verses of establishing religion, verses of obligation to obey, verses of caliphate, verses of ruling, and verses of jihad be placed together, the it will be a proof for the claim that “religion means governing”.
He also stated: Our view of religion must be correct. If we do not consider the political aspect and government for religion, and do not study religion exactly, we will not be able to analyze Sheikh Fazlullah , Ayatollah Kashani, Imam Khomeini’s movement and the Islamic Revolution correctly. Unfortunately, after 40 years since the Islamic Revolution, this issue has not been clarified yet.
He added: The Supreme Leader raised the issue of Explanation Jihad, and explaining the main bases and intellectual foundations of the Islamic Republic are at the top level of importance. We have not yet explained religion to people well.
Stating that the meaning of religion is the rule of God, he continued: Sheikh Fazlullah Nuri was seriously involved in the case of tobacco embargo and then the issue of the establishment of the court, and his constitutional efforts that continued to his martyrdom. Even his opponents acknowledge his high rank of Knowledge.
He said: Like Imam Khomeini, Sheikh Fazlullah Nuri believed in the “Absolute Rule of the Jurist”. If we compare contents of the Sheikh and the contents of the Ayatollah Naini in the book Tanbih-ul-Uma, we will see that Sheikh Fazlullah has the same principles as Ayatollah Naini. And really there is no major confrontation between sheikh Fazlullah and the prominent scholars of Najaf, concerning the fundamentals. Sheikh Fazlullah’s interpretations about the authority of the jurist are very strong.
He said: One of the principles of Sheikh Fazlullah Nuri is that public affairs are under the jurisdiction of Shariā. According to him, if someone take the position of the governing the saociety, he has committed an illegal act. Some people try to show that Sheikh Fazlullah is in favor of the monarchy, while in the comments of the Sheikh, he interprets it as “tyranny”.
Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani said at the end: We must analyze the foundations of Sheikh’s jurisprudence along with his political attitudes. In the bills that the sheikh had during sit-down strike in Abd ul-Azeem (a.s.), I counted about 22 items that the sheikh included in the bill. One was the suggestion of religious scholars of the Islamic Council, but the title of “Islamic” was deleted. In the parliament, you allowed Babism and atheists into the parliament. Kasravi has given this bill in detail in his history. All the contents that were among Sheikh’s objections in the Constitution are being repeated; insulting religious scholars, libertinism (rejecting divine laws), calling the Promised Imam delusional. The Sheikh struggled to keep the parliament and the country, Islamic. In a letter he wrote to his son at the end of his life, the Sheikh said: “I agreed with the Constitution when I found that it is useful for Islam. Then I saw deviations, so I became one of the opponents.” We should learn from such a noble deed to be on Islamic republic’s side and not to retreat.
