Studying Transformation in Concept of Expediency in Contemporary Political Jurisprudence with an Emphasis on Imam Khomeini’s Views

Abstract

This paper intends to indicate how semantic transformation of a word can shift and redirect a society’s trend toward a certain path. The concept of Maslahat or “expediency” that was used theoretically and within the framework of secondary rules until before the Islamic Revolution, resorted to the mechanisms of Ijtihad and dynamic jurisprudence after the victory of Islamic Revolution and was institutionalized within the Expediency Council to find appropriate solutions to the newly emerging issues. Such metamorphosis in the concept of expediency was an innovative move by Imam Khomeini who regarded governance as one of the primary rules of Islam prioritized over the secondary rules. The paper’s principal question is this: How semantic transformation of a concept can result in creation of new capacities for that concept? In response to the question, it should be said that the semantic transformation has changed the concept of Maslahat from its primary concept in such a way that it has become the theoretical basis and modern way of institutionalization in the structure of the Islamic Revolution. This library-based paper, developed through analytical-descriptive methodology, shows that government rules issued based on the expediency of the time, are among the primary rulings and in certain cases superior to those rules and enforceable.

Keywords

• maslahat (expediency)
• primary rules
• secondary rules
• ijtihad
• jurisprudence
• political thought