The Destiny of Government during the Occultation from the Perspective of Seyed Ja’far Kashfi

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to review the essence of government during occultation from the perspective of Seyed Ja’far Kashfi, one of the Shi’ite scholars in the Fath Ali Shah Qajar dynasty. In this regard descriptive analysis was used to survey the principles of political thinking, relationship between Seyed Ja’far Kashfi and Fath Ali Shah Qajar, necessity of government, various forms of government, and the characteristics of a ruler from his viewpoint. The results showed that Seyed Ja’far Kashfi, setting some strict conditions for the characteristics of a ruler jurist, did not acknowledge any of the jurists in his age as a qualified candidate for this position. This viewpoint is enough for him to defend the theory of simultaneous chairmanship of 2 learned scholars or twin rulers for the matter of norms and religious issues in society. In his view, a fair king would govern the worldly affairs as his validity and legitimacy exclusively comes from the Treaty of Malek Ashtar; and a jurist would govern religious affairs such as Hesbi issues (charity), judgement, mortmain property and so on. This theory that was also considered in later periods, is somehow a foundation for constitutionalism because it defends the authority of a king to govern the civil affairs not definitely mentioned in the Qur’anic verses (Gheyr-Mansusat) and the authority of a jurist to implement the definite rules in the Qur’an (Mansusat).

Keywords

• seyed ja’far kashfi
• qajar dynasty
• occultation
• islamic ruler
• religious scholars