Part 2: The Idea of Velayat-e Faqih

Moving forward with the general concept of an Islamic Republic, a draft of the constitution had been circulating even before the return of Khomeini. It worked on the framework of the 1906 Iranian Constitution and simply substituted a President for the Shah as Head of State. The clergy would have veto power over the actions of the government, but would not directly run the state. Even with this limited power for the clergy, Khomeini seemed willing to move ahead with this version of the constitution. However, it was leftists who refused the draft and believed that the constitution should be submitted for review by a constitutional assembly elected by the people.

A 73 member Assembly of Experts was elected to alter the constitution and ultimately present it for a popular referendum. Given the enormous influence of the Islamists at this point, the Assembly of Experts was dominated by clerics mainly loyal to Khomeini. They set about changing the draft of the constitution and debating the most contentious issues including the role of the clergy in the new government.

Nearly a decade earlier, Khomeini gave a series of lectures while exiled arguing that the Islamic jurists with knowledge of Islamic law should lead the state. While Khomeini never mentioned these beliefs in months preceding the revolution, this idea of Velayat-e Faqih would become one of the central pillars of the new constitution. Khomeini’s theories for a prominent political role for the clergy represented a major shift in the traditional beliefs of Shii Islam. It would spark a fierce debate during the original drafting of the constitution and in the years to come.

Previously, Shii Muslims were largely devoid of any real political doctrine since the disappearance of the 12th Shii Imam. In the Shii belief system, the leadership of Islamic community was passed down to Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law Ali after the prophet’s death in 632. Although not a prophet himself, Ali along with his descendants were all imbued with a special knowledge that made them infallible. As a result, Ali and his descendants had the undisputed right to rule all Muslims and they became known as the Imams of Shii Islam.

Shii Muslims have always been a minority sect within Islam, but they make up the majority of the population in Iran. The dominant Sunni sect of Islam believes that Ali and his descendents do not have any special right to rule. None of the Shii Imams were able to exert much political power in their own time, but there was at least a political theory in Shii when the Imams were around.

That all changed in 868 with the disappearance of the 12th Imam of Shii Islam who went into a state of occultation. According to Shii belief, the 12th Imam entered a period of hiding and will one day return to bring peace and justice on the Earth. In the mean time, Shii Muslims were left for the first time with no political leader and no clear sense of who should lead the community. For the next thousand years, Shii Muslmis believed that all political authority was illegitimate since the 12th Imam was their only real leader. Even though Shiis were forced to live under temporal rulers, they never really viewed them as their legitimate rulers.

Khomeini argued that in the absence of the 12th Imam, those with the greatest knowledge of Islam had the right to rule because they had something resembling the special knowledge of the Imams. In other words, the Islamic jurists were the next best thing to the 12th Imam so they would rule the community in his absence. The concept of guardianship is crucial because these jurists would be guardians of the people until the 12th Imam one day returns. Thus the idea of Guardianship of the Jurist or Velayat-e Faqih was born ushering in a new era of political thought in Shii Islam.

Even though Khomeini had been tightlipped about the concept, Islamists loyal to him launched a campaign to include the idea of the Velayat-e Faqih into the new constitution. Powerful clerical groups argued that supervision of the state by the jurist was critical in creating a state that was truly Islamic and lobbied heavily for Velayat-e Faqih in the Islamic Republic. They were opposed by liberals who believed that Islam should be more of a unifying symbol for the country with the rest of the constitution largely modeled on Western democratic models.

The debate over democratic principles and the influence of the clergy became the main point of contention within the Assembly of Experts. Ultimately, a compromise was reached in which “the freedoms normally recognized by a democratic constitution are present, but, as Khomeini specified, in accordance with Islam and limited by it". Many fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and assembly were protected so long as they were not detrimental to Islam. In return for these liberal compromises, the clergy would be given a prominent role in the new constitution to ensure the state follow a truly Islamic path.